The Eighth Hungarian Tribe, 1982 (9. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1982-01-01 / 1. szám
WILL THE UNITED STATES ENDORSE CULTURAL GENOCIDE IN RUMANIA? Excerpts from an article published in the New York Times, May 7, 1976. “Two hundred years ago the United States of America was founded on strong moral principles. The fashionable view today holds that those principles have largely eroded since 1776. We Hungarian-Americans do not adhere to this view. The United States of America is still the champion of human rights and fundamental freedoms around the globe. It leads the fight for these high ideals in the United Nations. It is the hope of oppressed minorities all over the world. There is now an opportunity to take a further step in the spirit of this noble tradition. Rumania’s dictator, Nicolae Ceausescu, is pursuing an increasingly brazen program amounting to CULTURAL GENOCIDE against that country’s Hungarian, German and other minorities. The six major elements of this program are: 1. Elimination of minority educational institutions. Taking full advangage of the state monopoly of education, the Rumanian government eliminates, merges and reorganizes schools at will. As a result, from 1956 to 1974 the number of Hungarian elementary schools dropped from 1515 to 776. (Today, as of September 1981, there are only 182 Hungarian elementary schools left in Transylvania, while all Hungarian Middle Schools, High Schools and Colleges were liquidated. Editor.) 2. Suppression of minority languages. In addition to manipulating the educational system, the Rumanian government employs other methods to suppress the use of minority languages. Rumanian is the exclusive language used at every level of government bureaucracy. This policy encourages chauvinism even in strictly private social situations. Members of minorities often have to put up with derision and threats for using their mother tongue. (Since the publication of this article in the New York Times we have proof of 37cases when Hungarians were beaten to death by the Rumanian police for the use of the Hungarian language. Those standing in line for hours in front of a bakery or other supply house are sent home empty handed if they dare to utter one single whispered word in Hungarian. Editor.) 3. Falsification of historical data and population statistics. The Rumanian Communist Party produces and dissiminates its own version of history. Their semi-fictional version of Rumanian history dismisses the significance of the indigenous Hungarian culture which predates the emergence of the first Rumanian state by three centuries. Through the notorious Communist method of manipulating statistics, the population of minority groups is constantly falsified in government records. (Mr. Jonel Margineanu, former supervisor to a census-unit in Transylvania prior to 1977 testified that his written orders were to register every household as Rumanian, unless otherwise demanded by the subject and to hand over a list of those who insisted on being registered as Hungarians to the chiefs of police. See: Documented Facts and Figures on Transylvania, Danubian Press 1977, page 57. Editor.) 4. Confiscation of cultural archives. This despicable act of the Rumanian government constitutes in itself the crime of cultural genocide. The State appropriated all historic documents, relics, manuscripts, maps, photos, diaries, posters, engravings, imprints and other material in the possession of church archives, private organizations or individuals. Uncompensated confiscation of this kind was reported by the Swiss daily Neue Züricher Zeitung on February 1 and 2,1975, page 6: “The material was loaded onto trucks and carted away. The Rumanian government has openly embarked on an escalated campaign against the Reformed (Calvinist) Church and the Hungarian nationality.” (Since then we have proof that most of the confiscated material was burned, including the historical archives of the Transylvanian Museum at Kolozsvár (Cluj-Napoca). We also have proof of nine instances when books in Hungarian language published before 1946 were found in Hungarian homes and the owners of those books were beaten, tortured and sent to prison. Editor.) 5. Obstructing contacts with relatives abroad. Decree-Law 225/1975 prohibits the accomodation of non-Rumanian citizens in private homes in Rumania. Visiting relatives from Hungary or America must be lodged in state-appointed hotels, where they are under police control (and their belongings are examined and their conversations taped. Editor.) 6. Dissolution of ethnic communities. As in all Communist States, the Rumanian government has complete control over the labor THE TRANSYLVANIAN QUARTERLY III
