ORGANIZATIONAL EFFORTS OF THE VOLKSBUND IN TRANSCARPATHIA (1938–1944)
The study
summarizes the activities and organizational efforts of the Volksbund (People’s
Association of Germans in Hungary) in Transcarpathia in the period between 1938
and 1944. The Volksbund was founded in November 1938 as an organization
representing the interests of the German minority in Hungary. In 1939, the
Hungarian government allowed the People’s Union of Germans to operate only as a cultural
organization, but according to the so-called Vienna Agreement on the Rights of
National Minorities (August 30, 1940) between the Kingdom of Hungary
and Germany, it became the only legitimate organization of the German minority
in Hungary recognized by the state, and the association was granted full
freedom of activity, including in spreading national socialist ideology.
The purpose of the
study is to analyze the activities and organizational efforts of the Volksbund
in Transcarpathia in 1938–1944.
Documents kept in the Berehove District
of the State Archives of the Transcarpathian Region of Ukraine were reviewed
and processed. Among other things, the materials of the county government
commissioners of Ung and Ugocsa, the documents of the Maramures Public
Administration District and the
records of the mayor of Uzhhorod county town were used. These funds included
the part of the documents of the Volksbund groups operating in Uzhhorod and in
the Maramures Public Administration District.
The works of Norbert Spannenberger, Loránt Tilkovszky, Angela Gröber, Zsolt
Vitári and Román Oficinszkij provided an excellent theoretical and
methodological framework for studying this topic.
Transcarpathia
was part of the Kingdom of Hungary between 1938 and 1944, during which time
around 13,000 Germans resided in the region. The Volksbund began organizing in
Transcarpathia in 1939, and by 1941, its primary organizations were established
in approximately thirty-eight settlements. However, little is known about the
operation of the Volksbund in Transcarpathia. In historical works concerning
the region, the history of the Transcarpathian German minority was long only
briefly addressed in a few paragraphs.