Somogy megye a II. világháborúban (Kaposvár, 1993)

Füzes Miklós: Háborús utóhatások Somogyban

THE AFTERMATH OF WAR IN SOMOGY MIKLÓS FÜZES Résumé In this study the author presents the most tragical events of the post-war years of Somogy county stricken by the long-lasting standing front and the subsequent Soviet occupation. Of the decisions brought at the Conference of Teheran, he deals with the difficulty of civil administration, and, with relation to defencelessness, he shows the product and produce requisitions, contrary to the laws of war, which can be regarded as pillage in reality and the execution of the delivery in accordance with the armistice agreement signed on 20 January 1945. The execution of the compensational item of the agreement meant Somogy delivering mostly agricultural produce. Collecting this also contributed to the economic plunder of the county. The immobile frontline led to the evacuation of the population for months and looting the properties they had left behind. After the fighting ceased, one of the most important tasks was to clear the fields of mine, which was only done, besides the Bulgarian Army, by the Hungarian civil and newly-formed military authorities. The occupants did not even provide the necessary technical equipment. Instead, they urged that Soviet „monuments of heroes" be erected all the more. The labor power of the population was exploited too - ten thousands of people were mobilized to do war work along the front. They even used slave work through hauling away discharged soldiers, members of the civil guard, and civil people of German origin and certain age group to the Soviet Union. They had them working for years in work camps. Only a small part of them returned to their homeland. The newly-formed Hungarian authorities used the legal institution of internment as political retaliation. They carried the members of right-wing parties and the leaders of the volksbund organizations of the German population to camps where they were forced to work. There was another problem too. It vas difficult to take in the refugees coming from outside the reset Trianon borders. Amongst them there could be found Hungarians, Southern Slavs and Germans. They had to solve the problems of the deported Jews who returned relating to their property and personal circumstances. The tribulations inflicted on the population were further enhanced by the confiscation of the German populations property through the land reform and their deportation afterwards, and some of them were deported to Germany. There was no ointment to soothe the wounds even after these events because the return of the prisoners of war from the Soviet Union was delayed all the time. The issue of the prisoners of war was abused by the Communist Party for its political aims. It was a means to gaining a bigger and bigger mass base and then to grabbing the power. The loss of Somogy after the war was much more considerable than the damage it suffered during the war. This statement which is characteristic of Hungary, was especially true here, and as a result, the county could join the reconstruction only belatedly and inertly.