Porumbăcean, Claudiu (szerk.): Satu Mare. Studii şi comunicări. Seria istorie-etnografie-artă 35/2. Volum aniversar 1969-2019 (2019)

Istorie

ORAŞUL SATU MARE ÎN TIMPUL PRIMULUI RĂZBOI MONDIAL- ASPECTE DEMOGRAFICE SI DE VIATĂ COTIDIANĂ

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Gabriella Franceszka BATFALSZKI

Abstract: There is no comprehensive data concerning the number of soldiers mobilized in Satu Mare County (then part of Austria-Hungary), nor about the deceased, the injured or the prisoners. There is even less data on the effects of the war on the civilian population.

We have been collecting demographic data since 1910, when the last census was conducted on the Hungarian side of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, in order to make comparisons between the years of peace and those of war. In order to obtain the demographic data we used three documentary sources: the Civil Status Registers from the National Archives, the Satu Mare County Office, the Hungarian Statistical Yearbooks (Magyar statisztikai évkönyv) and the information from the Szamos newspaper.

Once the war started, an obvious effect was the reduction in the number of marriages. In 1915 it dropped by almost 48% compared to the reference year 1910, and in 1916 by 45% in comparison to the same year.

As expected, the number of births also dropped significantly. For example, in 1916 there were 400 fewer children born than in 1914 (39.37%), and in 1917 there were 370fewer births (36.41 %).

In 1916 there were 510 more deaths than in 1914 (42.64%), in 1917 there were 432 deaths in addition to 1914 (38.64%), and in 1918 the data indicated 460 additional deaths in comparison to the same reference year (40.13%).

These figures indicate a significant increase in the rate of mortality among the city’s population. We wish to point out that the number of soldiers who died on the battlefield is also included here. It is rather difficult to establish the number of soldiers who died due to violent deaths or diseases because the cause of death was not always recorded accurately in the civil status registers. For example, in 1916, the cause of death is not mentioned in the case of 112 deaths. According to the Szamos newspaper on January 3, 1918, out of 1,188 deaths in 1917, 512 were believed to be soldiers killed on the battlefield, which represents 45.79% of the total number of deaths.

Among civilians too there were various causes that led to premature mortality. First of all, diseases such as cholera, typhus and pneumonia need to be taken into consideration. Since the autumn of 1918, alarming news about the Spanish flu started to spread. In September 1918, it was estimated that there were about 2,000 Spanish influenza patients in Satu Mare. That is why it was decided that the schools be closed between September 23 and October 7.

Satu Mare - Studii şi Comunicări, nr. XXXV/II, 2019, p. 97-110