Northern Transylvania: Difference between revisions
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After some ethnic Hungarian groups considered unreliable or insecure were sacked/expelled from Southern Transylvania, the Hungarian officials also regularly expelled some Romanian groups from Northern Transylvania. Also, many Hungarians and Romanians fled or chose to opt between the two countries. There was a mass exodus; over 100,000 people on both sides of the ethnic and political borders relocated. This continued until 1944.<ref>A történelem tanúi - Erdély - bevonulás 1940 p 56. - The witnesses of history - Transylvania - Entry 1940 p. 56. - {{ISBN|978-963-251-473-4}}</ref> |
After some ethnic Hungarian groups considered unreliable or insecure were sacked/expelled from Southern Transylvania, the Hungarian officials also regularly expelled some Romanian groups from Northern Transylvania. Also, many Hungarians and Romanians fled or chose to opt between the two countries. There was a mass exodus; over 100,000 people on both sides of the ethnic and political borders relocated. This continued until 1944.<ref>A történelem tanúi - Erdély - bevonulás 1940 p 56. - The witnesses of history - Transylvania - Entry 1940 p. 56. - {{ISBN|978-963-251-473-4}}</ref> |
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On March 19, 1944, following the occupation of Hungary by the [[Nazi Germany]] army through [[Operation Margarethe]], Northern Transylvania came under German military occupation. Like the [[Jews]] living in Hungary, most of the [[History of the Jews in Hungary#The Holocaust|Jews in Northern Transylvania]] (about 150,000) were sent to concentration camps during [[World War II]], a move that was facilitated by local military and civilians. Following several decrees of the Hungarian government and high-level consultations at a meeting on April 26 with [[László Endre]] in Szatmárnémeti ([[Satu Mare]]), it was decided to exterminate the Jews.<ref name="ghetouri">{{cite web| url=http://www.mmhtn.org/ghetouri.php|title=Ghetouri|trans-title=Ghettoes|publisher=[[Northern Transylvania Holocaust Memorial Museum]]|language=ro|access-date=6 March 2021}}</ref> On May 3, authorities in Dés ([[Dej]]) launched the action of [[ghetto]]ization of Jews in the Bungăr forest, where 3,700 Jews from Dej and 4,100 Jews from other localities in the county were imprisoned. During the operation of the [[Dej ghetto]], Jews were mistreated, tortured, and starved. The deportation of the Jews to the [[extermination camp|Nazi death camps]] was done with freight wagons, in three stages: the first transport on May 28 when 3,150 Jews were deported; the second on June 6, when 3,360 Jews were deported; the third on June 8, when the last 1,364 Jews were deported. Most of those deported were exterminated in the [[Auschwitz concentration camp|Auschwitz–Birkenau]] camp, with just over 800 deportees surviving.<ref name="dej">{{cite web| url=http://www.primariadej.ro/dej/48/istoric/|language=ro|title=Istoric – Preistoria și antichitatea la confluența Someșurilor| website=primariadej.ro| access-date=6 March 2021}}</ref> The [[Kolozsvár Ghetto]] (in what is now [[Cluj-Napoca]]) was initiated on May 3, and was put under the command of László Urbán, the local police chief. The ghetto, comprising about 18,000 Jews,<ref>{{cite web|url |
On March 19, 1944, following the occupation of Hungary by the [[Nazi Germany]] army through [[Operation Margarethe]], Northern Transylvania came under German military occupation. Like the [[Jews]] living in Hungary, most of the [[History of the Jews in Hungary#The Holocaust|Jews in Northern Transylvania]] (about 150,000) were sent to concentration camps during [[World War II]], a move that was facilitated by local military and civilians. Following several decrees of the Hungarian government and high-level consultations at a meeting on April 26 with [[László Endre]] in Szatmárnémeti ([[Satu Mare]]), it was decided to exterminate the Jews.<ref name="ghetouri">{{cite web| url=http://www.mmhtn.org/ghetouri.php|title=Ghetouri|trans-title=Ghettoes|publisher=[[Northern Transylvania Holocaust Memorial Museum]]|language=ro|access-date=6 March 2021}}</ref> On May 3, authorities in Dés ([[Dej]]) launched the action of [[ghetto]]ization of Jews in the Bungăr forest, where 3,700 Jews from Dej and 4,100 Jews from other localities in the county were imprisoned. During the operation of the [[Dej ghetto]], Jews were mistreated, tortured, and starved. The deportation of the Jews to the [[extermination camp|Nazi death camps]] was done with freight wagons, in three stages: the first transport on May 28 when 3,150 Jews were deported; the second on June 6, when 3,360 Jews were deported; the third on June 8, when the last 1,364 Jews were deported. Most of those deported were exterminated in the [[Auschwitz concentration camp|Auschwitz–Birkenau]] camp, with just over 800 deportees surviving.<ref name="dej">{{cite web| url=http://www.primariadej.ro/dej/48/istoric/|language=ro|title=Istoric – Preistoria și antichitatea la confluența Someșurilor| website=primariadej.ro| access-date=6 March 2021}}</ref> The [[Kolozsvár Ghetto]] (in what is now [[Cluj-Napoca]]) was initiated on May 3, and was put under the command of László Urbán, the local police chief. The ghetto, comprising about 18,000 Jews,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ziua.ro/display.php?data=2005-10-22&id=187059|title=135 de mii de evrei uciși in Transilvania de Nord|trans-title=135 Thousand Jews Killed in Northern Transylvania|newspaper=[[Ziua]]|language=ro|date=22 October 2005|access-date=6 March 2021}}</ref> was liquidated in six transports to Auschwitz, with the first deportation occurring on May 25, and the last one on June 9. |
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After [[King Michael's Coup]] of August 23, 1944, Romania left the [[Axis powers|Axis]] and joined the [[Allies of World War II|Allies]]. Thus, the [[Romanian Land Forces|Romanian Army]] fought Nazi Germany and its allies in Romania – regaining Northern Transylvania – and further on, in [[Operation Panzerfaust|German occupied Hungary]] and in [[Slovak Republic (1939–45)|Slovakia]] and [[Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia]], for instance, in the [[Budapest Offensive]], the [[Siege of Budapest]], and the [[Prague Offensive]]. |
After [[King Michael's Coup]] of August 23, 1944, Romania left the [[Axis powers|Axis]] and joined the [[Allies of World War II|Allies]]. Thus, the [[Romanian Land Forces|Romanian Army]] fought Nazi Germany and its allies in Romania – regaining Northern Transylvania – and further on, in [[Operation Panzerfaust|German occupied Hungary]] and in [[Slovak Republic (1939–45)|Slovakia]] and [[Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia]], for instance, in the [[Budapest Offensive]], the [[Siege of Budapest]], and the [[Prague Offensive]]. |
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Revision as of 02:29, 7 March 2021
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (January 2016) |
| Northern Transylvania | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Territory of the Kingdom of Hungary (1940–1945) Territory under the Allied Control Commission administration (1944–1945) | |||||||||
 | |||||||||
| Area | |||||||||
• 1940[1] | 43,104 km2 (16,643 sq mi) | ||||||||
| Population | |||||||||
• 1940[2] | 2,577,260 | ||||||||
| • Type | Military, later civil administration (1940–1944) Military (1944–1945) | ||||||||
| Historical era | World War II | ||||||||
| 30 August 1940 | |||||||||
| 5–13 September | |||||||||
• Military administration | 11 September 1940[3] | ||||||||
• Incorporation | 8 October 1940[4] | ||||||||
• Civil administration | 26 November 1940[3] | ||||||||
• Battle for Transylvania | 26 August – 25 October 1944 | ||||||||
| 12 September 1944 | |||||||||
• Romanian administration restored | 9 March 1945[5] | ||||||||
| 10 February 1947 | |||||||||
| Political subdivisions | Counties[6] | ||||||||
| |||||||||
| Today part of |  Romania | ||||||||
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Northern Transylvania (Template:Lang-ro, Template:Lang-hu) was the region of the Kingdom of Romania that during World War II, as a consequence of the August 1940 territorial agreement known as the Second Vienna Award, became part of the Kingdom of Hungary. With an area of 43,104 km2 (16,643 sq mi),[1] the population was largely composed of both ethnic Romanians and Hungarians.
In October 1944, Soviet and Romanian forces gained control of the territory, and by March 1945 Northern Transylvania returned to Romanian administration. After the war, this was confirmed by the Paris Peace Treaties of 1947.
Background
The region has a varied history. It was once the nucleus of the Kingdom of Dacia (82 BC–106 AD). In 106 AD the Roman Empire conquered the territory, systematically exploiting its resources. After the Roman legions withdrew in 271 AD, it was overrun by a succession of various tribes, bringing it under the control of the Carpi, Visigoths, Huns, Gepids, Avars, and Slavs. From the 9th to the 11th century, Bulgarians ruled Transylvania.
The Magyars conquered much of Central Europe at the end of the 9th century and for almost six hundred years, Transylvania was a voivodeship in the Kingdom of Hungary. After the Battle of Mohács in 1526 and the Hungarian defeat by the Ottomans, Transylvania became a semi-independent principality (the Principality of Transylvania) under local Hungarian nobility rule, but owing suzerainty to the Ottoman Empire. It then became a province (Principality/Grand Principality of Transylvania) of the Habsburg Monarchy/Austrian Empire as a Land of the Hungarian Crown, and after 1848, and again from 1867 to 1918 it was incorporated into the Kingdom of Hungary within the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The dual monarchy dissolved after World War I.
The ethnic Romanians, who formed the majority population of Transylvania, elected representatives who proclaimed the Union with Romania on 1 December 1918. The Proclamation of Union at Alba Iulia was adopted by the Deputies of the Romanians from Transylvania, supported one month later by the vote of the Deputies of the Transylvanian Saxons. By Spring 1919, during the Hungarian–Romanian War, Transylvania came under administrative control of Romania. Eventually in June 1920 the Treaty of Trianon assigned Transylvania to the Kingdom of Romania.
Second Vienna Award
In June 1940, after Romania was forced (as a consequence of Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact) to submit to a Soviet ultimatum and accept the annexation by the Soviet Union of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina, Hungary attempted to regain Transylvania, which it had lost in the immediate aftermath of World War I. Germany and Italy pressured both Hungary and Romania to resolve the situation in a bilateral agreement. The two delegations met in Turnu Severin, but the negotiations failed due to a demand for a 60,000 square kilometres (23,000 sq mi) territory from the Hungarian side and only an offer of population exchange from the Romanian side. To impede a Hungarian-Romanian war in their "hinterland", the Axis powers pressured both governments to accept their arbitration: the Second Vienna Award.
Historian Keith Hitchins summarizes the situation created by the award:[7]
- Far from settling matters, the Vienna Award had exacerbated relations between Romania and Hungary. It did not solve the nationality problem by separating all Magyars from all Romanians. Some 1,150,000 to 1,300,000 Romanians, or 48 percent to over 50 percent of the population of the ceded territory, depending upon whose statistics are used, remained north of the new frontier, while about 500,000 Magyars (other Hungarian estimates go as high as 800,000, Romanian as low as 363,000) continued to reside in the south.
The Hungarian population was in the unusual situation of being an overwhelming majority in an area of southeastern Transylvania, deep within Romania and far from the Hungarian border (the area, known as Székely Land, is today mainly in Harghita, Covasna, and Mureș counties), and not simply only in certain areas next to the Hungarian border as in the case of Czechoslovakia and Bačka or Baranya. The solution decided upon was to gouge a claw-shaped corridor through northwestern Romania, including a large Romanian-populated area, in order to incorporate this Hungarian-majority area within Hungary.
Population of Northern Transylvania, as per 1930 Romanian census:[8]
| County | Population | Romanians | Hungarians | Germans | Jews | Others |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bihor (only the ceded part) | 305,548 | 136,351 | 130,127 | 2,101 | 20,420 | 16,549 |
| Ciuc | 145,806 | 20,976 | 120,627 | 439 | 2,383 | 1,381 |
| Cluj (only the ceded part) | 256,651 | 141,607 | 85,284 | 2,669 | 16,057 | 11,034 |
| Maramureș | 161,575 | 93,207 | 11,174 | 3,239 | 33,828 | 20,127 |
| Mureș (only the ceded part) | 269,738 | 115,773 | 121,282 | 11,271 | 9,848 | 11,564 |
| Năsăud | 145,574 | 103,897 | 7,488 | 21,211 | 6,450 | 6,528 |
| Odorhei (only the ceded part) | 121,984 | 5,430 | 112,375 | 454 | 1,250 | 2,475 |
| Sălaj | 343,347 | 192,821 | 107,662 | 16,010 | 13,380 | 13,474 |
| Satu Mare | 294,875 | 178,523 | 74,191 | 9,530 | 23,967 | 8,664 |
| Someș | 219,355 | 169,942 | 33,870 | 351 | 10,546 | 4,646 |
| Trei Scaune (only the ceded part) | 127,769 | 17,505 | 105,834 | 760 | 707 | 2,963 |
| Târnava Mică and Târnava Mare (only the ceded parts) | 2,931 | 401 | 1,642 | 659 | 49 | 180 |
| Total Northern Transylvania | 2,395,153 | 1,176,433 | 911,556 | 68,694 | 138,885 | 99,585 |
| Percent | 100 % | 49.11 % | 38.05 % | 2.86 % | 5.79 % | 4.15 % |
Before the arbitration, in 1940, according to the Romanian estimates, in Northern Transylvania there were 1,304,903 Romanians (50.2%) and 978,074 (37.1%) Hungarians.[8] One year later, after the arbitration, according to the Hungarian census, the population of Northern Transylvania had dissimilar ratios, it counted 53.5% Hungarians and 39.1% Romanians.[9]
Massacres
Hungarian rule
Hungary held Northern Transylvania from September 1940 to October 1944. In 1940 ethnic disturbances between Hungarians and Romanians continued after some incidents following the entrance of the Hungarian Army, culminating in massacres at Treznea and Ip.
After some ethnic Hungarian groups considered unreliable or insecure were sacked/expelled from Southern Transylvania, the Hungarian officials also regularly expelled some Romanian groups from Northern Transylvania. Also, many Hungarians and Romanians fled or chose to opt between the two countries. There was a mass exodus; over 100,000 people on both sides of the ethnic and political borders relocated. This continued until 1944.[10]
On March 19, 1944, following the occupation of Hungary by the Nazi Germany army through Operation Margarethe, Northern Transylvania came under German military occupation. Like the Jews living in Hungary, most of the Jews in Northern Transylvania (about 150,000) were sent to concentration camps during World War II, a move that was facilitated by local military and civilians. Following several decrees of the Hungarian government and high-level consultations at a meeting on April 26 with László Endre in Szatmárnémeti (Satu Mare), it was decided to exterminate the Jews.[11] On May 3, authorities in Dés (Dej) launched the action of ghettoization of Jews in the Bungăr forest, where 3,700 Jews from Dej and 4,100 Jews from other localities in the county were imprisoned. During the operation of the Dej ghetto, Jews were mistreated, tortured, and starved. The deportation of the Jews to the Nazi death camps was done with freight wagons, in three stages: the first transport on May 28 when 3,150 Jews were deported; the second on June 6, when 3,360 Jews were deported; the third on June 8, when the last 1,364 Jews were deported. Most of those deported were exterminated in the Auschwitz–Birkenau camp, with just over 800 deportees surviving.[12] The Kolozsvár Ghetto (in what is now Cluj-Napoca) was initiated on May 3, and was put under the command of László Urbán, the local police chief. The ghetto, comprising about 18,000 Jews,[13] was liquidated in six transports to Auschwitz, with the first deportation occurring on May 25, and the last one on June 9.
After King Michael's Coup of August 23, 1944, Romania left the Axis and joined the Allies. Thus, the Romanian Army fought Nazi Germany and its allies in Romania – regaining Northern Transylvania – and further on, in German occupied Hungary and in Slovakia and Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, for instance, in the Budapest Offensive, the Siege of Budapest, and the Prague Offensive.
The Second Vienna Award was voided by the Allied Commission through The Armistice Agreement with Romania (September 12, 1944) whose Article 19 stipulated the following: "The Allied Governments regard the decision of the Vienna award regarding Transylvania as null and void and are agreed that Transylvania (or the greater part thereof) should be returned to Romania, subject to confirmation at the peace settlement, and the Soviet Government agrees that Soviet forces shall take part for this purpose in joint military operations with Romania against Germany and Hungary."[14]
The territory was occupied by the Allied forces by late October 1944.[15] On October 25, at the Battle of Carei, units of the Romanian 4th Army under the command of General Gheorghe Avramescu took control of the last piece of the territory ceded in 1940 to Hungary. However, due to the activities of Romanian paramilitary forces, the Soviets expelled the Romanian administration from Northern Transylvania in November 1944 and did not allow them to return until March 1945.[15]
On 20 January 1945, Hungary accepted the obligation to evacuate all Hungarian troops and officials from the territory, to retreat to its pre-war borders, and to repeal all legislative and administrative regulations in connection with the annexation of the territory.[16]
The 1947 Paris Peace Treaty reaffirmed the borders between Romania and Hungary, as originally defined in the Treaty of Trianon, 27 years earlier, thus confirming the return of Northern Transylvania to Romania.
Geography
Northern Transylvania is a diverse region, both in terms of landscape and population. It contains both largely rural areas (such as Bistrița-Năsăud County[17]) as well as major cities, such as Cluj-Napoca, Oradea, Târgu Mureș, Baia Mare, and Satu Mare. Centers of Hungarian culture, such as Miercurea Ciuc and Sfântu Gheorghe, are also part of the region. An important tourist destination is Maramureș County, an area known for its beautiful rural scenery, local small woodwork, including wooden churches, its craftwork industry, and its original rural architecture.
See also
- Romanian People's Tribunals
- Northern Transylvania Holocaust Memorial Museum
- Magyar Autonomous Region
References
- ^ a b Thirring, Lajos (1940). "A visszacsatolt keleti terület. Terület és népesség" [The re-annexed eastern territory. Territory and population.]. Magyar Statisztikai Szemle (in Hungarian). 18 (8–9). Budapest: Magyar Királyi Központi Statisztikai Hivatal: 663.
- ^ Fogarasi, Zoltán (1944). "A népesség anyanyelvi, nemzetiségi és vallási megoszlása törvényhatóságonkint 1941-ben" [Distribution of the population by mother tongue, ethnicity and religion in the municipalities of Hungary in 1941.]. Magyar Statisztikai Szemle (in Hungarian). 22 (1–3). Budapest: Magyar Királyi Központi Statisztikai Hivatal: 4.
- ^ a b Csilléry, Edit (2012). "Észak–Erdély polgári közigazgatása (1940–1944)" [The civil administration of Northern Transylvania (1940–1944)]. Limes: Tudományos Szemle (in Hungarian). 25 (2). Tatabánya: Komárom-Esztergom Megyei Önkormányzat Levéltára: 87.
- ^ "1940. évi XXVI. törvénycikk a román uralom alól felszabadult keleti és erdélyi országrésznek a Magyar Szent Koronához visszacsatolásáról és az országgal egyesítéséről" [Law XXVI of 1940 on the reunification of the eastern and Transylvanian parts liberated from Romanian rule with the country under the Hungarian Holy Crown]. Ezer év törvényei (in Hungarian). Archived from the original on 2017-08-22. Retrieved 2016-09-10.
- ^ "Restoration of the Romanian administration in Northeastern Transylvania". Agerpres. 9 March 2020.
- ^ "A visszacsatolt keleti terület. Közigazgatás" [The re-annexed eastern territory. Administration.]. Magyar Statisztikai Szemle (in Hungarian). 18 (8–9). Budapest: Magyar Királyi Központi Statisztikai Hivatal: 660. 1940.
- ^ Hitchins, Keith (1994), Romania: 1866–1947, Oxford History of Modern Europe, Oxford: Clarendon Press, ISBN 978-0-19-158615-6, OCLC 44961723
- ^ a b Charles Upson Clark (1941). Racial Aspects of Romania's Case. New York: Caxton Press. OCLC 16006920.
- ^ Károly Kocsis, Eszter Kocsisné Hodosi, Ethnic Geography of the Hungarian Minorities in the Carpathian Basin, Simon Publications LLC, 1998, p. 116
- ^ A történelem tanúi - Erdély - bevonulás 1940 p 56. - The witnesses of history - Transylvania - Entry 1940 p. 56. - ISBN 978-963-251-473-4
- ^ "Ghetouri" [Ghettoes] (in Romanian). Northern Transylvania Holocaust Memorial Museum. Retrieved 6 March 2021.
- ^ "Istoric – Preistoria și antichitatea la confluența Someșurilor". primariadej.ro (in Romanian). Retrieved 6 March 2021.
- ^ "135 de mii de evrei uciși in Transilvania de Nord" [135 Thousand Jews Killed in Northern Transylvania]. Ziua (in Romanian). 22 October 2005. Retrieved 6 March 2021.
- ^ "The Armistice Agreement with Rumania; September 12, 1944" (PDF). Retrieved May 2, 2018.
- ^ a b Rogers Brubaker, Nationalist Politics and Everyday Ethnicity in a Transylvanian Town, Princeton University Press, 2006, p. 80
- ^ "Armistice Agreement with Hungary; January 20, 1945". The Avalon Project at Yale Law School.
- ^ http://www.ecoduri.com/recensamantul-populatiei/Bistrita-Nasaud.php
External links
| Authority control databases: National |
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