Magyar News, 2001. szeptember-2002. augusztus (12. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

2002-05-01 / 9. szám

Above: Transylvanian table coverings that are used in every day life were hanged out to dry after being washed. In the center: At the United Methodist Church in Newtown a Hungarian embroidered tablecloth covered the altar. Also there were Transylvanian patterns and photos exhibited. To the right: After the meeting the ladies of the church were interested knowing more about the Hungarian communities in Romania. (Erika at the right.)

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Hungarians. These villages had carved gates, beautiful masterpieces for which this area is well known . I would say this destruction was a crime against humanity!

Historic markers are altered to remove any mention of Hungarian achievements; history books are rewritten. A friend of mine was there and asked 50 people where the Hungarian museum of King Matthias was. Nobody knew! Well, one or two people may not know. But 50? This was last year.

There is a Bilingualism Law on the books in Romania which says that if a minority makes up 20% of the population is , the children of that minority who want it should be taught in that language. This law is not observed. What’s more, a group of Hungarians in Klézsa, Romania, outside of Transylvania, got together to teach their children Hungarian at home, after school, without charging any fee. Last November, the police stormed in, confiscated books and threatened the parents with extremely heavy fines if they continued their so-called "illegal" activities! The

Interior of a home in Transylvania

parents are now being dragged to court.

This is happening in a country which, before World War I, used a textbook of Hungarian history published in 1908. In this one, one side is in Hungarian, the other in German. On the back are listed five other minority languages in which this Hungarian history book was published and used. The third line here is Hungarian- Romanian !

Road signs: The city of Marosvásárhely is mostly Hungarian. Road-signs at the entrances of the city have the Romanian name and the Hungarian name of the city. But the Hungarian name is sort of obliterated. Many other signs - there are about eight here for the same city - the Hungarian name is totally covered with paint.

Further on in the Prayer Service, it says, "Let us pray that God pull out all enmity from among us, all hatred and evil." We pray that too! There's a lady living here in Connecticut, the menfolk of her extended family were summoned to town hall in 1944. When they got there, they were met by machinegun fire, and in one minute, 41 male members of this extended family, from young boys to old men, were massacred, were dead. One man of the family was out of town that day. When he came back, he tried to console and help the widows. Two decades later he died. The family put up a marker on his grave. That marker was vandalized, destroyed. They put up another one. It too was vandalized and destroyed. Now, 40 years later, that man does not have a grave marker. And my friend says, "I don't want revenge. I just want them to leave us alone!" She too prays "that God pull out all enmity from among us, all hatred and evil."

Because unlike the Basques of Spain or the Irish of Northern Ireland, the Hungarians of Transylvania are not aggressive. They want to work within the system.

They believe, as we do here in America, "E pluribus unum" - "From many, one."

Two weeks ago in New York, I spoke to a Hungarian woman from Transylvania,

Hungarian history book that was published in five minority languages, including Romanian (third line.)

and in closing, I would like to quote her: "Ours is a small country, and we have to live here together. This is our home, where we have to raise our children in such a way that they will get along, living side by side. The children of both nationalities are equally precious. When I, as a Hungarian woman, hear the voice of a Romania fellow-mother, may I be able to trust her, and may she be able to trust me. After all, we are first and foremost Christian women and mothers. This is the spirit we must instill into out children.’

Until they are backed up by action - an admission of the wrongs done, and honest attempts to correct abuses - we cannot help but regard such centrally orchestrated "Prayer Services" as clever propaganda ploys.

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