Genocide in Transylvania

TESTIMONIES

All testimonies listed on the following pages were given under oath, in front of proper authorities, and certified by these authorities as true and correct. The original documents are held in deposit by the Transylvanian World Federation, and can be examined there by authorized persons.
In some cases the names are omitted in this publication in order to protect relatives still living in Rumania.

Testimony No.1

On March 19, 1975, Mr. Ferenc Balla gave the following testimony: "I was born and raised in the village of Feketelak, Transylvania, population about one thousand, of which threefourths were Hungarian and onefourth Rumanians. We bad two schools in the village. One for the Rumanians, and one for us, Hungarians. From 1919 to 1944 our school was maintained by the Hungarian Reformed (Calvinist) Church, while the Rumanian school was maintained by the State.
Early on the morning of October 16, 1944, Rumanian soldiers surrounded our village. Those who tried to escape into the woods were shot. Then Rumanian soldiers went from house to house, led by the Rumanian civilians from our village. They entered only the houses of the Hungarians. First they beat up every male member of the family, from the age of ten to ninety. Then they raped all the women, from the age of ten to ninety. They herded all the men together, and kept on beating and torturing them until many of them died. They took the young girls with them. Some of these girls were never seen again.
I was fifteen, and they beat me too, with gunbutts and leather whips. My father was killed, and so was my mother. They raped my two sisters and took them away. I was locked, together with other boys and men into the church, while they feasted all night in the village. Next morning they drove us away, on foot. Some of the men were so badly beaten, that they were unable to walk. These were kicked to death or shot on the road side.
Near the town of Sarmas we joined a huge herd of men, driven together from all the nearby towns and villages. They were all Hungarians. There must have been thousands of us. Many barefoot. Then they drove us for six weeks, across the mountains, into oldRumania. It was getting very cold, and we were fed only once a day some soup and dry bread. Many died along the road.
Then the Russians came and looked us over. They took only the young and the healthy. They took me, too. They put us on a train, and took us into Russia, where we worked building roads and bridges. I don't know what happened to the others who were left behind in the hands of the Rumanians. I have never met any one of them again.
When the Russians let me go in 1951,1 went home, to Feketelak. The Rumanians called it Lacu. I found only one of my sisters there. From the Hungarians who lived there before only about onethird was left. Many of them died in the labor camps, I was told, and many of them stayed in oldRumania, mostly in Bucharest, for they did not dare to return home.
Rumanians were ruling the village. They were brought mostly from Besarabia, and put into the houses of the Hungarians. They gave me a job on the state farm, but we were not allowed to speak Hungarian on the job. There was no more Hungarian school. I had an uncle who stayed in Bucharest as a carpenter, and I went to see him. Life was much better there for Hungarians, and so I decided to stay with him.
In October 1956, we heard the news of the uprising in Hungary. Rumors were circulating that something may happen soon in Transylvania, too. I wanted to be there, so I went back to Feketelak, on the bus. The very day I arrived at my sister's house, I was arrested, together with more than a dozen other Hungarians. We were interrogated all night at the police station. They wanted us to confess that we were paid by the Americans to start a revolution against the Rumanian people. When they started working on our fingernails, we all confessed, and signed anything they wanted us to sign. We were taken to Kolozsvar, which is called Cluj by the Rumanians, and put into prison. In February we were sentenced by a court. I got fifteen years of hard labor, and was taken with many other Hungarians to the swamps of the Danube delta. We worked there like animals, waistdeep in the mud, digging canals. Many got sick and died.
In 1971 they let me go. They even gave me a job in Bucharest, collecting garbage. I was told that I could work there in peace as long as I lived, but if I dared to go back home they would put me in jail again, for they don't like Hungarians, they told me, who insist on staying in Transylvania.
In 1973, I was able to escape into Yugoslavia, and from there to Italy."

Testimony No.2

The following testimony was given by Mr. Peter Puskas, on December 12, 1976.
"I was born in Marosvasarhely (Tirgu Mures} in 1940. My father was a locksmith and member of the Communist Party. When in 1946 they first sent me to school, I was beaten by the teacher, named Onosifanu, for talking Hungarian with other children. There were hardly any Rumanian children in the school. The population of our city was more than 90% Hungarian. But the teacher, who was brought over from oldRumania, did not speak our language, and we were beaten every time one of us spoke Hungarian, even during recess, on the playground. The teacher also changed my name from Puskas to Puscas, because, as he said, we were in Rumania, and that was the Rumanian way to spell my name. My father protested, and almost lost his job because of the protest. If he hadn't been in the Party, he told us at home, they would have deported him for protesting.
In 1955 I became the junior swimming champion of our district, and later that year I was selected member of the Rumanian Junior Swim Team. Without asking me or my parents, they changed my name on the rolls from Puscas to Puscasiu, because they did not want a Hungarian sounding name on the team. In 1957 our team took part in an international tournament in Dubrovnik, Yugoslavia, where I defected. Hiding on an Italian freighter I was able to reach Italy, and two years later Canada.
As soon as I was able to earn good wages I began to send home packages to my widowed mother. Sometimes CARE packages, sometimes IKA packages, and sometimes just used winter clothing and such. But each time a package arrived, my mother was summoned to the custom's office, and ordered to pay large sums of money which she did not have. Not being able to pay, the packages were confiscated. When CARE or IKA packages arrived, she was taken to the police station, and kept there sometimes an entire day for "questioning" concerning her connections with Capitalist and Imperialist Countries. I quit sending packages for a while. Then in 1974 I heard that packages were going through, and I started sending again. But most of those packages were confiscated, too."

Testimony No.3

On March 22, 1975, Miss Sarolta...gave the following testimony:
"I resided in Nagyvarad (Oradea) until 1974. I was sent by my parents into Rumanian grade school, because otherwise I would not have been able to learn any trade or enter high school, since no entrance examinations can be taken anywhere in the Hungarian language.
In the Rumanian language school where I was sent there were 28 in my class. Twentyfive of us were Hungarians. It was forbidden to talk in Hungarian, even among ourselves, on the school grounds. As a first grader, twice I forgot the rule and spoke in Hungarian to my cousin while playing outside during recess, and both times I was severely beaten.
After eight years of schooling I entered tradeschool, where again the compulsory language was Rumanian, though more than 70% of the students were Hungarians.
After finishing tradeschool, I was hired as a common laborer into a factory where 85% of the laborers were Hungarians. Our wages were lower than those of the Rumanian laborers. In the offices of our factory 90% of the personnel was Rumanian, while higher positions in the management were filled exclusively with Rumanians.
The use of the Hungarian language was strictly forbidden in the offices.
I became a member of the UTC (Communist Youth Organization). The leadership of this organization was also completely in the hands of Rumanians, and again the use of the Hungarian language was forbidden.
Those Rumanian workers who achieved good production records were rewarded by the Party, but Hungarians, no matter how hard we worked, never received an award.
Any Hungarian who dared to utter a word of protest, either concerning the discrimination or the use of our language, was ordered to report to the police station, and was severely reprimanded, sometimes even beaten. Rumanians could move from one factory to another if they so desired, but we Hungarians were not allowed to change places of employment."

Testimony No.4

Given on March 7, 1975, by Mr. Mihaly...who lived until 1974 in the city of Kolozsvar (ClujNapoca):
"In Transylvania, Hungarians have no possibilities to better paid jobs. Hungarians are excluded from government jobs, public offices or any employment with the military or the police force. In order to apply for any such positions one has to produce documented proof of his ethnic origin. Those who have just one Hungarian grandparent are not even allowed to take the qualifying examinations.
In the factories the common laborers are 90% Hungarians, but in spite of this the use of the Hungarian language is forbidden.
Though everybody can join the Communist Youth Organization, only those can apply later for membership in the Communist Party who are recommended by the leaders of this Youth Organization. Since these leaders are Rumanians, Hungarians are recommended only if they reject their Hungarian origin thus becoming "good Rumanians" and are willing and eager to spy on their fellow Hungarians.
Hungarian recruits serve their time with the army mostly in oldRumania, and they are constantly harassed by the Rumanian superiors. No Hungarian can be an officer in the armed forces, and I have never seen a corporal with a Hungarian name.
The new apartment buildings which are built to house the working men, are available only to Rumanians.
I was born and raised Greek Catholic. When our church was abolished by government order, I tried to join the Roman Catholics, but duirug the middle of the night I was dragged out of my bed by the police, taken to the station, beaten up, and told that if I tried again to join the church they would take care of me for good."

Testimony No.5

Given by Mr. Ernest Hodos, on October 9, 1976 in Tel Aviv, Israel:
"Until 1946 my name was Hirsch. I was a Hungarian speaking Jew, born and raised in Kolozsvar (Cluj). My father and grandfather were Hungarian Jews, too, in the same city. In 1945 the minister of the Hungarian Lutheran Church in Kolozsvar, Reverend Andor Jaros, hid me and my father from the Germans. In October of the same year, when Kolozsvar was "liberated" by the Russians and Rumanian troops, our benefactor, Reverend Jaros, was dragged out of his church by Rumanian soldiers, and beaten to death on the street. When my father and I tried to help him, we were beaten up, too. My aged father died from the beatings. Within two weeks, more than twothousand Hungarian inhabitants of our city were killed in the same manner, and about 40,000 deported in terrifying circumstances.
This gave me the impulse to change my name from Hirsch to Hodos, in order to emphasize my strong feelings of belonging to the suffering Hungarians. In 1946 my petition was granted. As I later found out, the new judge who was a Rumaian from across the mountains believed that I was changing my Jewish name to a Rumanian name. However, when I insisted on spelling the first "0" in my new name the Hungarian way, with an accent, because I am Hungarian, I was arrested under false pretenses and given the "treatment" for two months. I had my fingers broken, several ribs, and ended up with bleeding kidneys. What I saw and heard during those two months in the illfamed prison of Kolozsvar, can not be put into words. Screams of tortured Hungarian women and men, that will haunt me through the rest of my life. Bloody wrecks of human beings staggering along the dark hallway under the blows of gunbutts as they were led from the interrogation rooms back to their cells by sadistic guards. Men, some of whom I knew before in person, who were judges, lawyers, city officials, bankers, teachers, clergymen or members of the high nobility.
That was when I decided to leave my native country forever, that beautiful land which fell into the hands of savages..."

Testimony No.6

On February 8, 1977, Mr. Jonel Margineanu gave the following testimony:
"During the summer months of 1966 I was assigned as supervisor to a censusunit in the Mures district. Our written orders were as follows:
1.) To register every household as Rumaman, unless otherwise demanded by the subject.
2.) In case subject should desire to be listed as nonRumanian, we were to try to convince him of the impracticality of such a desire. Should he further insist, we were to determine his true nationality by the use of scientifically approved government regulations. Germansounding names to be registered as Germans, Polish sounding names as Polish, etc. Names ending in an,as, u, ~a, oa, us, in or ~n had to be registered as Rumanian, no matter what the subject's preference or language was.

To contact managers and administrators of factories and other public employers ahead of our arrival into the area in order to give them time in which to prepare their employees, and explain to them the advantages of being listed as Rumanians.

4.) To hand over the list of those who insisted on being registered as Hungarians to administrators and chiefs of police."

Testimony No.7

On May 15, 1975, Mr. ...gave the following testimony:
"In September 1974, my wife and I visited Transylvania, which is now part of the Socialist Republic of Rumania. We visited Hungarian cities of great historical significance: Nagyvarad, Kolozsvar, Nagyenyed, Deva and Gyulafehervar. Our difficulty was, as it turned out, our lack of knowledge of the Rumanian language. It is to be noted that we both speak four languages well. Nevertheless, in hotels and stores we had to ask for translators, because no one who worked there was willing to speak with us in Hungarian, in front of witnesses.
The Hungarian population of those cities is going through the process of forced and accelerated "Rumanization". The Government transfers Rumanian workers into territories with a Hungarian majority, while Hungarians are being transferred into oldRumania. In zones where the population is exclusively Hungarian, the presence of two or three Rumanian families with children is sufficient reason to change the previously Hungarianlanguage school into a Rumanianlanguage school.
In the book stores, all stateoperated of course, only Rumanian literature can be found in these Hungarian cities. The distribution of some existing Hungarianlanguage periodicals is made, very much on purpose, only in territories with Rumanian population. The result is that there are no sales, which is exactly what the Government wants, because this way the official salesstatistics make further publications in the Hungarian language 'unwarranted' Therefore, no matter how high the demand might be in the Hungarian regions for these publications, their numbers are constantly decreasing.
As visitors, we were not allowed to stay overnight at the homes of any one of our friends or relatives. We were forced to lodge in Stateowned hotels where the personnel was most unfriendly toward us, and refused to speak either Hungarian, English, Spanish or French. We were told by a whispering cleaning woman, who turned out to be a Hungarian, that most of the personnel speaks the Hungarian language but they are forbidden to use it while at work..."

Testimony No.8

On February 11, 1977 Reverend...gave the following testimony:
"As a retired minister I have visited my native Transylvania this year. Since my passport stated that I was a clergyman, the Rumanian officials were extremely courteous toward me. The Rumanian government seems to be trying very hard these days to make the West, especially the United States, believe that the minority churches in Rumania enjoy complete freedom.
Bishops of these churches are being sent out officially to tour America, under guard of course, to spread this hoax. Though most of these touring clergymen speak a good English, they are accompanied by "interpreters", who are in reality agents of the Rumanian political police. Any wrong statement uttered by these visiting clergymen would bring upon the head of their families at home the most brutal wrath of the Rumanian government.
During my visit in Transylvania, I had the opportunity to see with my own eyes that the oppression of the Hungarian churches there is still very severe, though it is somewhat more disguised than before. Church archives, libraries have been confiscated and removed to unknown locations. Church records are under strict scrutiny. Churchgoers are discriminated against economically, by being transferred into lesser paying jobs or new locations where they have no possibility of attending Hungarian churches. Young people are constantly discouraged by leaders of their Youth Organizations from attending church or any churchrelated activities.
Any preacher who tries to do a good and faithful work especially with the young people is quietly told to 'slow down' or something unpleasant might happen to him or members of his family. It is indeed a miracle that in spite of all this hostility the churches I visited Sundays were still filled with people, however mostly with the old..."

Testimony No.9

On December 8, 1976, Mr. Jeno Orosz gave the following testimony:
"In 1944 I was living in Kendilona, Transylvania, where I was born and raised as the son of a Hungarian peasant. In October of that year, I do not remember the exact date but it was in the second part of October, Rumanian soldiers came into our village, led by some Rumanian civilians. First they herded us, the Hungarians, together in front of our church (Calvinist, called by Rumanians "the Hungarian church"), then they dragged our preacher out of the church, his wife and their two small children. They were naked and bleeding. first they tied our preacher to a tree in front of the church. Then they raped his wife right in front of him and the children. We had to stand there and watch, about fifty of us. Some of the Hungarians in the crowd started cursing, while others prayed aloud. The Rumanian soldiers fired into us, and yelled to be quiet and watch, because the same thing will happen to every damned Hungarian in the country. Every time one of us uttered a sound, one of the soldiers fired a shot into the crowd. Many of us were hit. Five died right there. I got a bullet in my leg, and had to sit down on the ground. But I could see everything.
While some of them were still torturing the preacher's wife, who kept on screaming so terribly that I could feel it in my bones, some Rumanian civilians drew knives, and kept throwing them into the naked body of the preacher who was tied to the tree, until they cut him to pieces.
Things like that happened everywhere, not just in our village..."

Testimony No.10

On May 15,1975, Mr. ...gave the following testimony:
"I was in Transylvania in 1974 and visited the following cities: Arad, Nagyvarad, NagybAnya, Temesvar, Kolozsvar, Brasso and Marosvasarhely.
It is public opinion among Hungarians in Transylvania that the fate of all Hungarians in that region is sealed. Those who do not give up their ethnic background will never be able to get a good education and a good job
The official policy of the (Rumanian) Government in relation to the minorities proclaims on paper the equality of rights and possibilities for all ethnic groups. However, in the practice Hungarians are treated as second class citizens.
Young Hungarians can receive higher education only if they give up their language, their cultural heritage, and declare themselves Rumanians. Public employments are given only to those who spy on their fellowHungarians, and reject their Hungarian origin.
The housing policy is discriminatory, also. Better housing is exclusively for Rumanians only.
The Government makes visits of Hungarians from Transylvania to Hungary impossible. Hungarians who visit relatives in Transylvania are forbidden to stay in the house of their relatives.
The use of the Hungarian language in public brings ugly repercussions and reprisals..."

Testimony No.11

On February 17, 1977 Dr. Bela Gyulai gave the following testimony:
"Not only documents and books found in church archives are confiscated in Rumania, but those in private hands, also. When I traveled through Transylvania last year, Rumanian officials confiscated my old Hymnal I inherited from my father, and I was able to get it back only after I proved to them that I was an American citizen, and threatened to contact the United States Embassy in Bucharest.
The Transylvanian Hungarian churches are forbidden to accept donations from foreigners or foreign institutions, though they are in great need of donations for the Hungarian congregations can not support their churches from the meager earnings of their members. Hungarians can have only the lowest paid jobs today in Transylvania. I myself tried to give some financial aid to four of the Hungarian churches there, but they had to refuse it. They were so intimidated by the Rumanian authorities that they even refused to accept the money I put into the collection box.
The persecution of Hungarians is not restricted to only those who live there. Hungarians who come from other countries to visit relatives are also exposed to harassment. Customs examinations which last for three to five hours are not unusual if the traveler is a United States citizen of Hungarian origin.
I myself was the victim of such harassment last year at the Rumanian border. After looking at my American passport, the customs official asked:
"Are you Hungarian?" I answered in the affirmative. He gave me an ugly look and sald,"So you are one of those, ha?"
The examination took four hours. They practically took my car apart. They took off the hood, took out the seats, let the air out of the spare tire, they even opened up the upholstery inside my car as well as the insulation of the ceiling. Every letter I had in my pocket or in my briefcase was opened and photographed. So was my address book and every page of my notebook.
At the end he asked me, "You don't like this?" I said, "No." "Then don't ever come into my country again," he said, "stay out!"
While in Transylvania I was not allowed to be a guest at any one of my friends or relatives homes. I was forced to stay in primitive, dirty and expensive hotels, where the room was bugged, and my luggage searched during my absence."

Laszlo Kecskemethy, S.T.M.
1012 Allison Ave.
St. Helena, Cal.

DEPOSITION

I, the undersigned Laszlo Kecskemethy declare under oath that on the first working day of the Fall Semester of 1941, at the Yale Divinity School, Prospect Street, New Haven, Conneticut
after the lecture on Contemporary Theology, Professor D. MacIntosh asked me: from what country did I come? I told him: from Hungary. Then he asked "how are the conditions in Hungary?" I told him: quite pitiful. Then he said that he was a member of a special committee appointed by President Wilson to supervise the fulfillment of the conditions laid down in the Versailles Agreements concerning the Middle and Eastern European borders. He said wordforword the following: "I felt that there was something wrong with the population statistics and the border dispute represented by the Rumanian delegation but we could not do anything about it."

It is obvious, therefore that through the report of the special committee, President Wilson and, through him, the people of the United States of America were misled and thereby "coerced" to give consent to the establishment of a borderline between Hungary and Rumania, annexing a historically Hungarian and~or Independent Transylvania to Rumania.

As an American citizen, I hereby express my regrets, resentments and objection to a deplorable diplomacy that forced our great leaders: President Wilson and Dr. MacIntosh, a Professor of Christian Theology whose integrity, honesty and good will cannot be questioned to give consent to an absolutely false and dishonest decision.

Therefore: to protect and clear the good name of all those Americans who were involved in this shameful border dispute between the Rumanians and the Hungarians, I respectfully request that all facts pertaining to this false diplomacy be exposed by an independent international tribunal and apologies to be made to the American citizens and restitution be made to all the people of Transylvania and Hungary.

Sworn before me on the 28^th day of February, 1977.

in St. Helena
County of Napa
State of California

Notary Public:
Kay L. Rutherford

Laszlo Keckemethy
Minister,
United Church of Christ
Past President of
Hungarian Federation
Los Angeles Chapter
Past President of
Captive Nations
Organization,
Los Angeles, California

AFFIDAVIT

The name of the individual who signed this affidavit under oath on September 24, 1982 in Menlo Park, California must be kept confidential in order to protect relatives still waittng in Rumania for permission to emmigrate into Israel.

I, the undersigned P.S., a Hungarian Jew from Transylvania, declare that after WW II the Rumanian Government, according to previously established antisemitic plan, urged Transylvanians and in general all Jews to emigrate from Rumania. The Rumanian Government prepared a socalled "Emigration List" of those who wished to emigrat. To obtain exit permits, however, these people had to donate all of their possessions to the Rumanian State and declare their voluntary willingness to do so.
After I surrendered my house, personal affects and tangible belongings, my wife's wedding ring and granddaughter's necklace were confiscated.
I assert that after I declared my intention to emigrate in 1950, I was ordered to work as a maintenance controller in the socalled Danube Canal Project, which was composed of several forced labor camps housing more than 200,000 Hungarians, Jews, Germans, Bulgarians and Rumanians, many of them families with small children. These prisoners, in majority simple peasants, were accused of being "Kulaks", classaliens, priests, intellectuals, and in the case of Jews, merchants.
Approximately 70% of these forced laborers were Hungarian, only 5% were Rumanian, among whom only a few were classified as classaliens, the majority being criminals and even murderers. The camp commanders selected from these elements the socalled auxiliary police force. These individuals perpetrated the most despicable crimes against both male and female prisoners without the threat of punishment.
Those who were ill or made weak because of inhumane treatment and insufficient nutrition were forced to make adobe (sundried bricks); children had to perform cleaning and other household chores. Those who could not accomplish the inhumanely demanding tasks received less food or no food at all thus increasing the number of deaths due to starvation. Deaths due to influenza were also very high, as prisoners were clad in rags and wore only woodsoled boots even in the rain and snow. Since no medicines were available for the sick, illness usually meant certain death.
The camps were surrounded by barbedwire fences and guard towers housing armed soldiers. The general purpose of these labor camps was not the completion of the canal but the annihilation of the prisoners, particularly those who were Hungarian. At the initiation of the internment process it was a general slogan that the Hungarians be sent to Portea Alba and Cinci Culmea (both labor camps) to learn the Rumanian languaga I know of cases when 30 or 40 Hungarians were forced to dig their own graves in the night, and then machinegunned into them by the secret police.
In November 1956, the Rumanian authorities arrested me under the false pretense of spying for the Americans. With approximately 200 other prisoners, I was sent to Cinci Culmea to work day and night on the repair of the previously abandoned labor camp, whose prisoners were the students, soldiers, men and women of the 1956 Hungarian Uprising. Thousands of Hungarians were guarded by Rumanian soldiers and officers. They slept on strawcovered floors as the icy November rain dripped through the roof We later learned that all of the Hungarian prisoners were executed by the Rumanians.
With this declaration I wish to serve the cause of humanism, justice and legality, and the memory of my parents perished in Dachau and Auswitz.

September 24, 1982
Illegible Signature

Genocide in Transylvania