The Eighth Hungarian Tribe, 1983 (10. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

1983-01-01 / 1. szám

ated teachers, doctors, engineers and other educated individuals, can quickly feel the effects and the so called “beneficial influence” of blind ultranationalism. They become targets of derision. They are affronted for their own national self esteem. There have been occasions when High School students who spoke Hungarian among themselves were stoned and beaten in the mandatory summer-school camps. Hungarian students who are forced to attend Rumanian Language classes (because of “lack of available space”) are not allowed to speak their language even among themselves. They cannot even chat in Hungarian among themselves during recess. And there always mhnages to be a blindly “patriotic” Rumanian (for example, the woman teacher Turnaveanu in the Papiu Harion liceum in Marosvásárhely) who brings to their attention that they live in “Big Rumania” now and are therefore obligated under any and all circumstances to speak the language of the State. These are not unusual occurances. There are events that re-occure from day to day in every institution.

In Medgyes, the Secretary of the Central Committee of the City Council, while visiting a factory, overhears two workers speak Hungarian to each other. He does not delay calling to their attention: one more time and they will be without a job. At a factory in Nagyvárad, the newly appointed manager, uho replaced a Hungarian in this post, chastizes the cadre, the neucleous of the workforce, for its bad labor politics, for no matter what the composition of the population might be, under no circumstances can the factory have more Hungarian workers than Rumanians If there are not enough workers available locally, they must be brought at once from Moldavia, Oltania or Vrance privinces. In the past twenty-five years, more than 25,000 Rumanians have been relocated to the city of Nagyvárad. The same took place in Marosvásárhely. Iosif BANK received the “order of knight of the Rumaniaziation of Transylvanian cities” for this. He really applied himself.

Csíkszereda: An old woman stands at the counter asking for service. But in vain. She is not served. Finally the saleswoman who ignored her says in Rumanian, “Verbesti Rumunesti”, speak Rumanian, “I don’t know how, my dear, there is not a single Rumanian in our village.” In the town of Kerelőszentpál, an old woman waiting at the bus station addresses two women in the Hungarian language. The answer in Rumanian is not delayed: “daca nu verbesti Rumunest dute la Budapest.”

In such old Hungarian cities as Kolozsvár, Nagyvárad, Arad, or lately Csíkszereda, so much destrucTHE TRANSYLVANIAN QUARTERLY

tion could not have been wrought by bombing as the devestation done by official government politics. They are demolishing houses on entire city streets and old sqares, naturally in the old Hungarian sections. They condemn spacious, healthful single family dwellings in order to raise block houses in their places in order to move in thousands of Rumanians from other regions. It is also imperative to do away with all Hungarian appearances as quickly as possible, just like with the documents, memorials, and relics which were made to disappear from archives, museums, and old Hungarian schools. What is this if not blind, fanatic, vandalism? It is similar to the burning of books in the Dark Ages. Except that this destruction is being conducted out of ultranationalistic considerations with like barbaric methods.

Commentary

“I am Hungarian, Transylvanian Hungarian, and I would like to preserve my Hungarian being from now on too, here in Transylvania.” Don’t ever forget this. And don’t ever forget that over the centuries Transylvania caught the brunt of every invasion from the East. The Transylvanian Hungarians and Szekelys defended Hungary with their own bodies. Perhaps, you, dear reader, can be thankful for the existance of your own family, to the fact that the ranks of the Hungarians of Transylvania were thinned out in this sacrifice, and this is why the thinned out ranks of the Hungarians of Transylvania have it much more difficult today. In finishing the reading of the Transylvanian quotation, let us repeat this to ourselves: Transylvania sounded the alarm for Hungary through a thousand years. Let ns return this lifefavor, and let us Hungarians in the West sound die alarm for the besieged Hungarians in Transylvania.

Magyar Egyház—Magyar Church Nyolcadik Törzs—Eighth Hungarian Tribe Nemzetőr—The Guardian

Translated by: Ilona Boissenin Washington Representative Transylvanian World Federation

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