The Eighth Hungarian Tribe, 1983 (10. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1983-02-01 / 2. szám
February, 1983 THE EIGHTH HUNGARIAN TRIBE Page 3 THE EDITOR’S CORNER . .. The thousand year old Hungarian Kingdom, from the northern Carpathian Mountains to the Adriatic Sea and Serbia; from the Austrian border to the Eastern Carpathian Mountains was the home of many nationalities besides the Magyars/Hungarians, living peacefully and enjoying the liberties of one country. People were free to travel without any restriction; men traveled all around learning different kinds of trades, sometimes returning home with a wife, or even a family; sometimes settling down at a place they liked and establishing a family. It was a land that was able to provide all the needs of her people. They have defended and shed their blood for each other and their country.— Germans, Slovaks, Ruthenians; Magyars; Croations, Rumanians living together and relying on each other. Then suddenly in 1918 by the direction of the Trianon Treaty the roof caved in upon them — the land was carved up into pieces and given to a foreign rule. The peaceful life of thé villages was no more, tyranny took over. Since then, misery; hatred, starvation and unrest rules. Edward Benes and Jon Masaryk and the Rumanians sold a batch of lies to President Woodrow Wilson and Prime Minister Lloyd George of England, which created new states based on hatred and fabrication. The Carpathian Basin was a self providing land for her people — the Northern and the Eastern part with its richness of minerals and industry; the central part: the Alföld, the Great Plains providing the needed food for the people. Together it was a body functioning perfectly — severed into different parts it could not function and placed the inhabitants into a miserable situation. Reports in American newspapers clearly indicate this. Uncier the protection of the ‘Arany Bulla’ — which is only a few years younger than England’s Magna Carta and on which the frame of the Hungarian Constitution was based — gauranteed the right to civil and religious liberties; the right for each nationality to preserve their national heritage, their language and customs. The state provided schools taught children in their mother tongues, besides learning the Hungarian language, which gave them the opportunity to understand other nationalities. Many Slovaks, Germans, Hungarians became bilingual, understanding all three languages without going to higher educated schools. People from the North and East came to the Alföld selling their products. In return, they took back the needed food for their families. A perfect body: arms, legs and body functioning together. Can anybody explain, that the Germans, Slovaks, Ruthenians, Rumanians were able to keep thetr national heritage though the centuries, if what Dr. Benes and Company told the Allies were true. The above leads to a question which has confronted this editor many times — when a person asks — “My ancestors came from the Hungarian Kingdom, but presently that land has a new name — Am I Hungarian or a new nationality,” Most of us in America can trace our family background to all three parts of Hungary. Many of us now have relatives in three different countries..Who knows we might even have some German or Slovak blood in us. We, the Hungarian Americans — second, third or fourth generation — must look at Hungary as it was before 1918. Our parents, grandparents came from there and called themselves Hungarians. The action at Trianon did not alter that. One subscribermentber wrote me that he is one of three brothers and they claim to be 3 different nationalities: he is Hungarian, one of his brother says he is German, the other claims to be Slovak; Can anybody explain how a father and mother have children of different nationalities? This is just an example of how we are torn apart. We at the Hungarian Eighth Tribe Foundation consider all those whose ancestors came to America from Hungary as they knew it to be a member of the Hungarian Eighth Tribe Family. The mail brings sad and good news; many times it brings news of a passing friend, a member of the Eighth Tribe Family. So it was a few days ago when this editor was informed of the passing of a life-long-friend: Joseph Réthy of New York. He died on December 8, 1982 at the age of 68. Knowing that some of the readers might remember him, we pass along this news with sadness. Every death reminds us — how short the time left to us to accomplish that which we hoped to achieve. We would like to acknowledge the donation from the Geauge County (Ohio) Hungarian Cultural Club and the Membership of the Hungarian Civic Association of Trenton, New Jersey. We hope that their example will be followed by many of our Hungarian Social and Church Clubs. We have been informed by Mr. György Stirling, secretary of the Federation of Free Hungarian Journalists, that new English-Hungarian lessons will be available for learning Hungarian. These lessons were offered to this mjagazine for bringing to our readers. We are happy to do so, since we know many of you will be interested. We are in touch with the authors and hope to begin the lessons in the near future. The Membership roster can be found on page 19th, as you see more and more people are joining the Foundation, besides just subscribing to the magazine. Please don’t forget to renew your membership for 1983. On the last page we have an old “memorabilia” from 1931. Maybe some one will recognize and remember the persons on the pictures. If you have any old pictures, etc., and you would like to share them with the readers, please send them to us, and we’ll be happy to put them in the magazine.
