Horváth M. Ferenc (szerk.): Vác The heart of the Danube Bend. A historical guide for residents and globetrotters (Vác, 2009)
Tartalom
168 VÁC IN THE 20TH CENTURY THE CONSEQUENCES OFTHE FIRST WORLD WAR ANDTHE PEACE TREATY OF TRIANON The assassination of Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austrian throne, in Sarajevo put an end to the palmy days of peace. The outbreak of the First World War was received with fervour by the citizens of Vác. However, hopes for a quick victory soon vanished, and the first war hero was buried as early as September 1914. The impact of the war could be felt on the home front even if the town was not a theatre of war. In the Kobrák Shoe Factory, which had gone bankrupt, a wartime military hospital was set up.Two years later the town clerk asked the ardent patriots to admit Szekler refugees from Transylvania. Factories of strategic impor• IN MEMORIAM • VÁCI F.VE70S0K HŐSI HALOTTAI AKIK A HA7AERT ÁLDOZTÁK ELETUKET 1 VILÁGHÁBORÚ HŐSEI II vn ÁGHÁRORIT!HŐSEI IÁK DOS ERNŐ ÍÁRDPAlVl GÁROR RÉRESSY Bt t A r. A! AMRÖS1 PA.1 CZt* MANN JÓZSEf HORVÁTH ISTVÁN HORNUNG CYULV DR HORVATH JÁNOS HUfNÁCEL SÁNDOR JANOSSY EERENC . ROCH IMP.í. NAGY LÁSZLÓ LEXA KÁROLY PÁRTOS JÓZSEf MILLMANN ALADÁR DR PINTÍR ZOLTÁN RÁCZ LIPÓT DR RÍMES SÁNDOR SZEPESSY LÁSZLÓ VÁRY GYÖRGY EMLÉRÜRÍT TISZTELETTEL MEGŐRZIK A VÁCI EVEZŐSÖK • «C V^O. „U«, M • Plaque on the Danube bank in commemoration of the rowers ofVác who died in World Wars I and II tance - the Zinc Rolling Mill Ltd and the Hungarian Knitting and Weaving Factory Ltd - became war factories managed by military commanders. Prices were going up and the amount of goods in stock was decreasing. Rations became smaller and smaller and by the winter of 1917-1918 coal reserves had become exhausted as well. Soon afterwards new ordeals lay ahead of town and country. The bourgeois Hungarian Republic proclaimed in the autumn of 1918 survived only for a few months, while the Hungarian Soviet Republic taking over in February 1919 existed for only 90 days. After the latter's fall the Romanian army under the auspices of the Entente Cordiale occupied the country. The consequences of the peace treaty signed in the Chateau Trianon in Versailles in 1920 put a heavy burden on the town too. The death toll and the great number of war invalids caused great troubles, which were increased A hussar ofVác going to war, 1914 by the crowds of Hungarian refugees from Upper Hungary, and the devastating Spanish flu. The economic situation reflected the state of affairs in the country. Firms manufacturing for the Austro-Hungarian market went bankrupt, and the rate of unemployment was increasing. The most important task was the consolidation of the economy. Although the expansion of factories continued, the role of small-scale industry was signifi-Tombstone of János Oly, resident ofVác, emigrant to America
