Although inter-ethnic tensions between Romanians and Hungarians date back centuries, what happened in that sad year for Romania was unbelievable.

The mass killings that took place can only be understood in the political context of the time. How this happened and why Romania was unable to protect its citizens are questions that find an answer in the state of weakness of the Romanian state at that time.

The position of Romania in 1940

In the summer of 1940, Romania was forced to cede the Northern Enclave to Hungary. We are talking about the territory of more than 43 thousand km2, almost half of the surface of Transylvania.

It should be remembered that Hungary had a desire for revenge ever since it was in the camp of the defeated in the First World War, and after the Trianon Treaty in 1920 it was forced to cede Transylvania to Romania. The dream of the Hungarian dictator Miklós Horty was to restore a great Hungary, which was actually a utopian wish because the claimed territories were mostly inhabited by other ethnic groups.

Due to the extremely tense international situation, as well as the geographical distance from possible Western allies who could offer territorial guarantees, Romania was forced to submit to the conditions of the Viennese dictator of August 30, 1940.

Also, France, a country that would have been interested in a strong ally in southeastern Europe, capitulated a week ago. At the same time, England became increasingly isolated and unable to offer any help. However, Germany was interested in maintaining peace in the region, since the exports of these countries (Hungary and Romania) were needed for the needs of the war.

Even under these dire conditions for Romania, Hungary was unhappy with the territory it had received, the Hungarian government declaring itself “crushed” because it had not received all of the requested territory, in terms of area and desired shape. The population that Romania was losing was more than 2.6 million inhabitants. In this troubled context, the mass killings committed by the Hungarian army against the Romanian civilian population were reprehensible.

Ip and Treznya (Treznya), the places of the biggest crimes…

The quiet settlement of Ip belongs to Salai County. Romanians and Hungarians coexisted peacefully there for generations. This state of affairs ended with the occupation of Transylvania by Hungarian troops. The reason for the terrible repression was false.

On September 7, an accidental explosion of ammunition in an ammunition depot occurred, killing two Hungarian soldiers. The cause of the explosion was improper packaging, not sabotage. This was proven later when, after an investigation, the four detained Romanians were released without charge.

Horthy with Hitler (photo: – / ČTK / Profimedia)

In response, Hungarian lieutenant Vasvari Zoltan, having ordered his unit to leave the canton of Nusfalau, heads for Ipu, where he will arrive on the evening of September 13. In complicity with some Hungarian residents of the commune, Horthy’s soldiers acted methodically, forming several teams to patrol the commune.

Each team received ethnic Hungarians as guides to ensure “increased efficiency”. Six such teams were formed, but one of the Hungarian guides stated that he did not know these places, although he was a local resident, thus probably saving many innocent lives.

In addition, there is the later testimony of one of the survivors, Gavril Butkovan, who testifies to other cases of Hungarian citizens who did not agree to the idea of ​​the massacre:

“I must confess the truth to you to the end. Not all my compatriots made deals with the Horthy criminals. There were also Hungarians who rushed to the defense of Romanian families, risking their lives. In this way, at least 3 Romanian families were saved from the murderous hand of Hortists. Of course, if the criminal action had taken place during the day, there would have been many more people who would have rushed to help us Romanians, and of course the number of people killed would have been much lower…”

In addition to completely unjustified executions, the Hungarian military also resorted to atrocities, torturing many victims with particular cruelty. Neither children nor women were spared… In total, 157 local Romanians were killed that night.

Similar events took place in other communes of Salai, as well as in other counties. Mass murder took place in the Traznia commune, where 87 Romanians and 6 Jews were executed.

Here, too, Hungarian troops tortured victims before killing them. It should be noted that 9 Romanian soldiers who returned to the battlefield after being demobilized were also killed here. Including the Orthodox priest and his family were killed.

Among the victims of the massacre in Trezna is the family of Romanian musicologist Octavian Lazar Cosma, president of the Union of Composers and Musicologists of Romania (his parents, teachers Lazar and Aurelia Cosma, were killed).

Although the most sonorous names, Ip and Tražnja were, unfortunately, not the only places where Hungarian troops committed atrocities. Executions also took place in Mihai Bravo, Belina, Zebali, Cosniciu de Sous, Kamari, Halmasdi, as well as in the town of Zaleu.

Mass murders in collective memory

Atrocities committed by the Hungarian army and administration in occupied Transylvania were the subject of anti-Hungarian propaganda carried out by the Ceausescu regime in the 1980s. On the other hand, using this, Hungarian propaganda exacerbated it, trying to minimize the scale of the facts.

It cannot be denied that criminal acts of revenge took place in the fall of 1944, when Romanian troops liberated Transylvania together with Soviet troops (they will be discussed in another article).

Although the perpetrators of these ancient, minor acts felt justified at the time, one act of cruelty cannot justify another act of cruelty.

There were voices that established a correlation between what happened in the fall of 1940 and the events of Tirgu Mures in 1990. However, the comparison is very exaggerated, there is a period of 60 years between the two events, but also a completely different social and political context.

At the same time, no matter how much they are politicized by the propaganda of one side, nothing can erase the fact that those mass murders took place, and the memory of them should not be erased.

Sources:

-Petre Turlya, Ip and Treznya, Hungarian atrocities and diplomatic actions

– Ioan Scurtu, Teodora Stanescu-Stanciu, Georgiana Margaretha Scurtu History of Romanians between 1918–1940.

– Mykhailo Manoilescu, Viennese Dictatorship. Memories of July-August 1940

– Cornel Grad, Second Vienna Arbitration (August 30, 1940). The position of the Romanian army

Read other articles on this topic written by Andrii Stan:

• The battle of the Romanian army for Odesa in 1941 was a victory for Antonescu’s pride
• Horvath Ante Pavelic or how the crimes of the Ustasha horrified even the Nazis
• Operation Downfall or why the atomic bombs were dropped

• Operation Barbarossa or Why the Greatest Invasion in History Failed

• Dien Bien Phu – the French military disaster in Indochina and the end of colonialism in Asia
• The film life of Yoshiko Kawashima: the Chinese princess Qing and the chief Japanese spy

• Black Tulip is the ace with the most downed planes in history

• The Malvinas War: From the Historical and Political Context to the “Hand of God”

• The most successful tank driver of the Second World War. The legend of Kurt Knispel

• The story of one disaster: Romanian tanks on the Eastern Front / Marshal is a Romanian project stolen by the Soviets

• The Battle of Siganka is one of the loudest victories of the Romanian army and an ignored lesson that could have prevented disaster at Don’s elbow

• VIDEO Who was Ion Toba-Hatmanu, a hunter of Bolshevik partisans”,

• Will Bakhmut survive the siege? History of the “pockets” of Demyansk and Cherkasy – Korsun

• Witold Pilecki, a Polish hero whose memory the Russians want to erase

• The real story of the hit TV series “Valley of Sorrows” / A war in which Israel could be wiped off the world map

• Why are Russians afraid of Leopard-2 tanks? / The T-90 tank or where Russia went wrong

• “Uranus”, a very successful operation of the Russians near Stalingrad / Try the Kremlinthe same strategy for Kyiv?

• Why the Battle of Bakhmut is remarkably similar to the Battle of Verdun

• Operation “Maritsa” or the real reason why the Germans did not occupy Moscow

• “White shirt attack”, one of the most glorious and crazy Romanian military actions

• The military campaign of the Russians, which was a resounding success. The history of the counteroffensive, which was the basis of the German blitzkrieg

• The battle in which the Russian general sent 11 thousand Romanian soldiers to their deaths

• “Not a step back”: the famous Stalin’s order 227 and blockade special forces

• Battle of Wizna or “Polish Thermopylae”

• The story of Andriy Vlasov, Stalin’s successful general who defected to the Germans: Traitor or anti-communist?

• Who was Stepan Bandera: a hero for Ukraine, a terrorist for Russia/ Putin mentioned in his speech on Victory Day

• Lend-Lease or how the USA helped Russia not to disappear

• The Ukrainian genocide that Russia would like to forget

• Russia’s behavior then and now: from Katyn to Buchi, or how Russian propaganda tries to change history

• The Battle of Turtukaia is one of the most shameful defeats in the history of the Romanian army
• Will the Ukrainian army be able to resist the Russian invasion, like the Finns in 1939? / Similarities and differences

• The history of two Chechen wars: Russia “wanted” and then “quick and clean” intervention

• Why the blitzkrieg of the Russians in Ukraine failed