The Eighth Tribe, 1980 (7. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

1980-04-01 / 4. szám

miasma of hatred. For the second time, my hope lay anchored in the new constitution of our socialist republic, which clearly stated:

In Art. 17: “The citizens of the Socialist Republic of Romania, irrespective of their nationality, race, sex or religion, shall have equal rights in all fields of economic, political, social and cultural life. The State shall guarantee the equal rights of the citizens. No restriction of these rights, and no difference in their exercise on the grounds of nationality, race, sex or religion shall be permitted.”

In Art. 22: “In the Socialist Republic of Romania, the coinhabiting nationalities shall be assured the free use of their mother-tongue as well as books, newspapers, periodicals, theatres and education at all levels in their own languages. In territorial administrative units, also inhabited by population of non-Rumanian nationalities, all bodies and institutions shall use, in speech and in writing, the language of the nationality concerned, and shall appoint officials from its ranks.”

However, I found with dismay that these were only words used to camouflage the very opposite of everything I believed in, and believed the constitution to stand for.

One day a man by the name of Nicolae Ceausescu, unknown to us Transylvanians, entered our bilingual university in Cluj-Kolozsvár with his leather-jacketed storm troopers called the SECURITATE, and took the first brutal step toward the termination of the Hungarian section of that university. As a result, one of my Hungarian friends, the wellknown poet and professor László Szabédi, committed suicide for fear of further physical and mental tortures. From that day on until today (1978) Ceausescu and his “enforcers” have caused the death of many fine and dedicated Hungarian educators and students, who bravely fought for their rights as set forth in the constitution.

Between 1959 and 1962, more than 2,000 Hungarian schools in Transylvania were merged with their Rumanian counterparts. The use of the Hungarian language in certain lower classes was retained only if a sufficient number of students were available who did not understand Rumanian. Such a requirement does not occur in a country where children grow up in a bilingual environment.

Then, in 1965, the Ninth Communist Party Congress adopted a new constitution, which declared: “Romania is a uniform national state, its territory now occupied by one nation which was formed by

concrete historical events, and whch resulted in the Romanian Socialist Nation.”

With this, the practice of government policy shifted legally over from socialism to NATIONALSOCIALISM, with a new Hitler at the head of his storm-troopers — Dictator Ceausescu.

Methods and practices became the same as used in the Third Reich: Romanians, descendants of the glorious Roman Empire and the brave Dacians, inhabiting the land for more than 2000 years (What a shameful and ridiculous falsification of history!) are the only accepted and legitimate nation, the HERRENRASSE, the only culture-bearers in this part of Europe, while descendants of all intrudeds into this GREAT ROMANIAN LEBENSRAUM — Hungarians, Germans, Bulgarians, Jews, Russians, Serbians, Gypsies, etc. — numbering more than 5 million, must assimilate or be eliminated by force!

In order to eradicate every trace of Transylvania’s cultural past, it was decreed that each document, book, even private letters older than 25 years, are “national property.” This decree was used in former Hungarian cultural centers to confiscate archives, museums, libraries and move the material to a “central location”, where most of the ancient historic documents were systematically destroyed. At the same time all historic markers, statues, coats of arms, even old Hungarian names engraved on tombstones, were removed or simply replaced by markers or names which could impress upon the foreign visitor an artificially created, non-existent, purely Romanian past.

I am writing these facts with deep embarassment as a Romanian, and a believer of the socialist doctrine. I do not associate myself with these evil and barbaric deeds.

I feel sympathy and brotherly allegiance to my Transylvanian Hungarian compatriots, like Mr. Jenő Szikszai and Mr. Lajos Kuthy, two splendid Hungarian educators, who refused to sign a declaration praising the nationality policies of dictator Ceausescu, and denying any further need for Hungarian schools. Because of ther brave refusal they were tortured and killed — creating the illusion of suicide.

I feel great respect for Mr. Károly Király, a leading Hungarian socialist, who had the courage to protest openly against these inhumane anti-socialistic breaches of governmental power, knowing that he would be severely punished for his deed.

As my good compatriot, Paul Coma, dissident Romanian writer now living here in France, testified in 1978 in Frankfurt, Germany at the international

VI

THE TRANSYLVANIAN QUARTERLY