Molnár Imre (szerk.): "Gyűlölködés helyett összefogás"Adalékok a két világháború közti csehszlovákiai magyar értelmiségi és diákmozgalmak történetéhez - Elbeszélt történelem 5. (Somorja, 2016)
Tóth László: Utószó
The generation presented in this book has been one of those who, from among Hungarians in Slovakia, suffered the heaviest losses. It was the generation educated in the newly established Czechoslovakia after Trianon and socialized in the world of Masaryk's “nationalism with a human face”, therefore these young people, thanks to their élan, commitment, and determination, considered that it was their vocation to create the “new intellectual horizon” of (Czecho)Slovakia's Hungarians. But after 1945, they had to face stunned that their work had been completely destroyed and that the Czechoslovak state had taken measures which might have led to the total extinction of the society of the Hungarians in Slovakia. In this situation, already having started a new life in Budapest, most of them became strongly engaged in providing help for Hungarians displaced from Slovakia or having fled atrocities. Nevertheless, this did not alter the sad fact that their life after 1945 rather belonged to the category of a “peripheral existence”, as Lajos Jócsik has expressed it, because they, with a few exceptions, had to start in the mother country from the scratch. We believe that the period between the two world wars, and within that the history of the youth movements this book is devoted to, has yet many valuable, untapped deposits and sources that definitely deserve the attention and exploratory work of historians. It has been a historical period of Hungarians in (Czecho)Slovakia which has mostly been forgotten, despite the fact that it can provide many excellent examples and lessons to learn also for our contemporaries who want to take serious the responsibility arising from their own identity. The life stories of the presented figures having become de facto historical, are identical in one important thing: all of them, despite their different life courses, have dedicated their life to the service of Hungarians in (Czecho)Slovakia, the nation part cut off from Hungary. And they had mostly persisted in their youthful volition until the end of their lives. They have left the posterity an excellent example of humanity, patriotism, and love for the nation.
