Fraternity-Testvériség, 1950 (28. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1950-03-01 / 3. szám
8 TESTVÉRISÉG "I APPEAL TO THE CONSCIENCE OF THE WORLD" By Kristine Ordody, Director of the Hungarian Relief Action, München, Germany As the founder and leader of the H. R. A. (Hungarian Relief Action, Emigrated Hungarian Red Cross), as the highly expected social worker and perfectly knowing the social situation and life conditions of the Hungarian people living today in Germany, due to my five years work with the subject, I am hereby emitting with full responsibility the following presentation of the facts before the conscience of the civilized world and am giving urgent SOS signals. At the end of the war in 1945 there were about 250,000 Hungarian refugees (the PW-s not included) in Germany. This number has decreased due especially to the repatriation and partly to emigration of approximately 24,300 who are living in Germany today. Detailed: 11,400 men, 7,100 women and 5,800 children under 18 years of age. It has to be mentioned that 95% of the emigrated Hungarians have repatriated only because of the extremely poor life conditions they had and the hostile treatment of the indigenous population, for they had no international organization to care for them and protect them like other nationals. They just had no other choice but to repatriate. The majority of the Hungarian refugees live scattered in towns and villages separated from each other all over Germany. Only 9,100 men, 1,500 women and 1200 children are in camps under the jurisdiction of the German authorities. In most of the camps that are wooden barracks surrounded by incredibly deep mud, they receive billets, very poor food, and 5-8 German marks monthly, which is not even enough for hygenical needs, postage expenses and transportation. The situation of the free-living refugees is even worse, for they are forced to live on “Fürsorge” support and to cover all their expenses for themselves and also their families. We were standing for years helpless as poor devils before filled warehouses of UNRRA and IRO, and because our Government happened to be allied with Germany, and we were considered as enemies. Even now Hungarians are not fully acknowledged DPs and are registered by IRO only for emigration without care and maintenance. Only in special hardship cases are Hungarians admitted to IRO camps and hospitals. Possibilities for employment have decreased to the minimum. It is an exemption if somebody can work in his profession and on account of the liquidation of IRO many workers will lose their jobs, even those who were employed since 3 or 4 years back. All these people will be compelled to live on “Fürsorge” aid, which means additional burden for the German State and ruin for the refugee. During the period of the past 5 years all their assets brought along from Hungary have been used up, their clothing included. This concerns also their physical and mental forces. Twenty per cent of the refugees are ill, and many are old and alone, living without the least support. According to the report of the camps in Plattling dated Dec. 31, four of the total population of 691 were turned over to a lunatic asylum; the fifth case is due in the near future. This percentage is far above normal and is not over the average of other camps. When informed of a new case, the physician sent by the HRA to the asylum always finds 7 or 8 other Hungarian refugees, of whom nobody knows how and in what circumstances they got there. Nobody would ever care for these unfortunate people, if our services were not available. Mental specialists are of the opinion that these cases are all due to the misery suffered above all imagination and uncertainty of the future. This is a formidable picture and the prospects thereof are even worse. Besides mental diseases, we have a great number of TB, heart and nerve disorders, and other cases due to privation. The mutual camp life (men, women and children together) makes a horrid destruction in morals, especially among the children. These circumstances, the complete solitude of some and the ever failing struggle to reach the most primitive life standard, the bare necessities, destroy the nerve system and
