Torsello, Davide - Pappová, Melinda: Social Networks in Movement. Time, interaction and interethnic spaces in Central Eastern Europe - Nostra Tempora 8. (Somorja-Dunaszerdahely, 2003)
Time and social networks
Identities in change 53 were still in their houses. So it meant that two family nuclei, the old inhabitants and the resettled, had to cope with the situation of living under the same roof for a few months. This lasted until the Germans were finally deported to Germany or moved within Hird, into houses of relatives. One would expect serious conflicts between these families, induced from obvious emotional reasons, but in fact such conflicts did not happen. They tried to cooperate within harsh circumstances, and did not turn their anger against each other. The similarities in their situation (being both under resettlement), made them accept and help each other. Today there are still friendships and personal contacts in the village dating back to this period. The New village (“Újtelep”) Constructions of the new part of the village started in the mid-1950s. In the beginning, all the builders were displaced Germans, who needed new homes. They were the first in the village who had the necessary financial means for starting new constructions. The Hungarians from Czechoslovakia appeared in this new part of the village only during the 1960s, coming from surrounding villages to move closer to their relatives in Hird, or moving in Hird for economic reasons (its vicinity to workplaces in Pécs). They bought houses from local “settlers” (telepesek, a pejorative term for Hungarians who came from other counties of Hungary) who had come in the course of internal settlement campaigns after 1945. They were landless, poor families, without much experience of independent, self-sufficient farming- thus both the Czechoslovak Hungarian and German families considered them as “inferior”. Because of this low prestige and the unsuccessful agricultural collectivisation of the earlier years, most of them left the village. The Hungarians arriving from Czechoslovakia received the land of the German families in the village, and started farming almost immediately. According to their accounts, the first two years (1947-48) were relatively successful and some
