Csikszeredai Zsidosag (1)_en-Final

8/20/2019 Csikszeredai Zsidosag (1)_en-Final

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The relati onship of the Jews and Chr istians at Csíkszereda as reflected in the local

press

Izabella Péter

Csíkszereda, or Miercurea Ciuc at its Romanian name, is a town of 42 thousand, the

administrative centre of Hargita County, where, unfortunately, not a single Jewish resident can

be found today. Although there have never been a great number of Jewish people at the town

because it has been known of its intolerance towards ‘individuals of not Sekler origin’1, the Jews

did settle in Csíkszereda beginning from the last decades of the 19th century.

There was a long road from the settlement of the first Jew, Móric Hetman untildeportations in the course of which not only the settled Jewry but the population of the town

changed a lot: the interactions of Christians and the Jews covered a wide range from bravado

anti-Jewishness until recognising some Jews as full-right citizens; to the denunciation of Jews at

the time of the deportations and acquisitioning the apartments left unused by them or to

safeguarding their belongings in the case they would ever return.

The objective of this study is to investigate the above interactions relying on the

documents of the Hargita County Archives, the contemporary Csíkszereda press, the documentsin the private archives of the Csíkszereda Community and in-depth interviews made by Katalin

Szabó.

To start with, let us review briefly the history of the Jewry at Csíkszereda.

Some statistical figures on the settlement of the Jewry in Csík County and at

Csíkszereda

1 The private archives of the Csíkszereda Jewish Community – 70/1974 – letter by Dr Miklós Adler to Zoltán

Vántsa, Minister of the Reformed Church.


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The Jews settled on the territory of Csík County and at Csíkszereda relatively late and in

no great numbers. This was partly due to the isolation of the region – it was only connected to

other parts of Transylvania quite late, at the end of the 19th century – as well as the traditional

Catholic conscience, which had been an important part of the identity of Seklers living in Csík

County.

In accordance with the figures of the 1869 census, the County had 305 residents of the

Israelite confession2, which gradually increased and reached 2357 by 1910. After the big losses

of World War 1, the 1920 census only showed 1861 Jewish nationals, but the number of the

Jewry started to increase slowly reaching the level of 1910 by 1930, when 2345 people reported

to be Jewish. It is, however, important to note that the change can only be regarded an increase in

absolute figures, because the total number of the population increased much faster in the same

period, so the percentage ratio of Jews actually declined compared to the Hungarian population.3

There followed a slow migration out of the place; according to some data, 2067 Jews

lived on the territory of the County when Hungary took over power. 4 The 1941 census registered

70 converted Jews on the territory of the County who were deemed Jewish by the anti-Jewish

laws.5

The figures were similar at Csíkszereda: including the villages of Zsögöd, Taploca and

Somlyó 5 Jews lived at the city in 1869 and 19 in 1880. In 1910, however, 241 Israelites lived at

2 Regarding census data, I relied on the work ‘Ethnic and denominational statistics of Transylvania’ by Árpád Varga

E. (Hargita megye településeinek etnikai (anyanyelvi/nemzetiségi) adatai 1850-2002 valamint Hargita megye

településeinek felekezeti adatai http://www.kia.hu/konyvtar/erdely/erd2002.htm

3 This can probably be explained by the effort of Romanian census officers encouraging the Jews to report

themselves to be Israelites and Jewish. It was part of the official propaganda of the Romanian Government aimed at

reducing the number of Hungarian population by separating the Hungarian Jews from them. Probably, that politics

and the spread of Zionism resulted in a part of Hungarian Jews not reporting themselves to belong to the Hungarian

national minority at that time and at the next census. Cf.: Zoltán Tibori Szabó: Csík vármegye zsidósága a

betelepüléstől a megsemmisítésig. [The Jewry of Csík County from their settlement until their annihilation.] I-III.

http://www.adatbank.ro/inchtm.php?kod=230 4 Ferencz S. Alpár: A csíkszeredai zsidókról . [About the Csíkszereda Jewry.] In: Székelyföld [Csíkszereda], IV. évf.,

1. sz., 2000. január, 72. old.5 Tibori, op.id.

http://www.kia.hu/konyvtar/erdely/erd2002.htmhttp://www.kia.hu/konyvtar/erdely/erd2002.htmhttp://www.kia.hu/konyvtar/erdely/erd2002.htmhttp://www.kia.hu/konyvtar/erdely/erd2002.htm


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the town and in the villages being an organic part of the town. The population of the Csíkszereda

Jewry was reduced as a result of the Great War. The town had 205 Jewish citizens in 1920 and

only reached the level of 1910 with 302 Israelite residents by 1930. The figure only slightly

changed in the next decade; the 1941 Hungarian census found 299 Jews at Csíkszereda. Three of

them returned from the deportations. Their numbers were 126 in 1947 including those exempted

from labour service, the surviving victims of forced labour service and Jews settling there from

Csernovic.

Compared to the number of the Hungarian population, the above figures are low in

percentage as it is illustrated in the following table:

Year Total population Israelites Ratio

1850 961 - 01857 1016 - 0

1869 1247 5 0.4

1880 1597 19 1.19

1890 1789 13 0.73

1900 2858 160 5.60

1910 3701 241 6.51

1920n 2675 188 7.031930** 4807 268 5.58

1941 6926 299 4.32

1947* 126

1948a 6143 69 1.12

1956a 11 996 7 0.06

1956n 11 996 61 0.51

1977n 30 069 15 0.05

1992 45 769 5 0.01

1999 47 000 4 0.008


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Nevertheless, that slight increase of the population triggered intolerance by the locals.

Mózes Vitos6 spoke about the settlement of the Jewry with annoyance in his work Csík County

Booklets. Data to the description and history of Csík County published between 1894 and 1902:

‘We must take it as a sign of the pure Catholicism of Csík County that there had never been national minority issues here in the past. Thus, the idea of religious and national unity of

Csík County may not be and must not be imagined separately from each other. (...) Therefore, I

look at the distant future of our Sekler blood with a sense of foreboding due to the current

invasion of the alien Semitic race.’7

The hosts

The immigration of people of another religion triggered significant objections in a

community, for which the Csíksomlyó Pilgrimage was part of its national identity, which had

created a myth for itself from keeping its religion. Therefore, the Jews were at a disadvantage

compared to immigrant Armenians, who were similarly merchants but they were Catholic, which

had become the basis of acceptance in the county with a Catholic majority.

Mózes Vitos was lamenting that the ratio of the Jewry in Csík County used to be 0.61%,

but it increased a hundred times within a short period of time. He listed all accusations of

classical anti-Semitism against the Jews: they live on renting village inns, they are money

lenders and cheating a Christian is a virtue for them.8 ‘We can see they have conquered both

heavy and small industry, wholesale and retail trade, the whole press in a country of land owners

(Hungary - Transylvania), they have falsified Hungarian public opinion and conquered the

Hungarian political public life, in other words, they have become the controllers of the situation,

i.e., Hungary has become an Eldorado of the Jewry.’ 9

6 Mózes Vitos, (1847- 1902) local historian, editor and Roman Catholic priest. Its main work is the Csík County

Booklet. Data to the description and history of Csík County, which was published between 1894 and 1902. The

monography is of 1022 pages; it was published in 34 booklets as a series to make it easily accessible for the people.

Since Mózes Vitos was a correspondent of Csíki Papers, its impact on the public opinion of Csík was significant.7 Vitos, I. p. 9.

8 Ibidem, p. 37.

9 Ibidem, p. 36.


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So, the Jews immigrated into that closed community, which was intolerant to foreigners

and backward economically.

You can also read about the economic situation of the County in the work of Mózes

Vitos, who assessed the situation of the County relatively objectively, except for the nationalminority issues: its commerce and industry are ‘hardly more than rudimentary’10, only the exports

of wood and mineral waters had a major part to play in the economy. The railways, which were

built quite late, did not mean a real step forward, because the sale of the produce could not be

organised: ‘if by any chance, people would work more than is absolutely necessary for the

internal consumption of «Csík Land», they would not know what to do with it.’11

Balázs Orbán did not speak of Csíkszereda flatteringly either: ‘(Csík)Szereda is a weak

little place; many are there in Csík larger and more city-like in appearance. The whole is madeup of two streets meeting at a right angle giving the whole a T shape. There is a castle at the

southern end of the street running from north to south surrounded by prettier officers’ cottages of

the former border guard company. The only church (not very decorative) of the town is at the

western end of the other street running from east to west, and in between there are small one-

storey houses covered with planks, a few mean shops, a few tradesmen and bakers and a number

of inns and pubs marked with a sign of planed board to indicate that we are in a town. – As the

present of this country is coarse, we do not know much about its past either.’12

The town was still regarded as the most backward ‘of all Sekler towns with respect to

architectural investments’ in 1900 as well.13 Only 24 out of 541 houses had an upper storey and

only 5 had a bathroom!

10 Ibidem, p. 6.

11 Vitos, I. p. 261.

12 Balázs Orbán: A székelyföld leírása történelmi, régészeti, természetrajzi s népismei szempontból, [A description

of Sekler Land from historical, archaeological, natural history and anthropological perspective] Pest, 1868,

http://mek.oszk.hu/04800/04804/html/ 13

Miklós Frank: Csíkszereda város fejlődése – építőipari szempontból in: Az 50 éves ipartestület 1884-1934, kiadó:

Csíkszereda és vidéke ipartestülete, [Evolution of the town of Csíkszereda from the perspective of the construction

industry. ] 1934, 80.


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That religious, closed community had already been anti-Semitic before there were any

Jews among them, although many thought it was because the Christian population did not known

them and therefore treated them as something strange, something weird.14 But when several Jews

got settled in Csík, that attitude slowly changed; the Jews were accepted. It was mainly due to

the economic impact triggered by the immigration of the Jews: new jobs were created, there was

a high standard of health care, a sanatorium, and a diversification of the range of consumer goods

offered.

Despite the above, we can conclude from different memoirs and newspaper articles that

acceptance had never been complete; however much the Jews tried to integrate, the Catholic

community always regarded them as strangers and made them feel outsiders all the time.

The short history of the Jewry at Csíkszereda

The Jews immigrated to Sekler Land from Moldova, Bukovina and Galicia, although

some scattered groups had arrived from other areas of Transylvania as well. Some of them were

migrant peddlers, who got settled there in the end. However, Jews were mostly attracted by

logging, the timber industry and in the trade of cereals. Although there had been efforts for

settlement earlier, migrant peddlers usually left before 1890 because ‘they could not get adjusted

to the population accepting with difficulty anybody of a non-Sekler origin’.15

Their immigration was accelerated because Csíkszereda became a county seat in 1875

and the so-termed Sekler Line was built16 attracting Jews to Csík mainly from Háromszék. Since

wealthy Jews, the owners mainly of timber plants, created jobs and promoted the life standard of

the population in that way, and because highly qualified Jewish physicians gained respect, the

animosity towards them was slowly mitigated and they were admitted into the society of Csík.

However, their admission did not really mean inclusion. Their status was rather that of the

tolerated one.

14 Tivai: ‘The public at large had no idea about Jews with us.’ Op. id. p. 55.

15 Ibidem.

16 The railway Brassó – Sepsiszentgyörgy – Csíkszereda – Gyergyószentmiklós – Déda – Marosvásárhely inaugurated in

1897 but only completed by 1909.


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However, that was a step forward compared to the situation of the first Jews setting at

Csíkszereda. Móric Hetman might have moved into Csíkszereda with his family sometime in the

second half the 1860s. According to the records available, although the people of the town

allowed the vinegar seller to live among them, but they bored holes in his casks ‘out of sport’,

they damaged his porch with their wagons or they broke his windows because ‘he was a Jew,

which was the greatest fault!’17 Although they had never seen a Jew before Hetman, ‘all th e

people of Csík had been anti-Semitic to a man.’18 He had no chance for legal remedy, the town

management did not help. In his book Memories of the old Csík Imre Tivai Nagy explained that

by saying ‘it was a great shame for the residents of the town that a living Jew dared to lurk’

behind its walls and everybody blamed him and made his life difficult, what is more, ‘bravado’

with the Jew was deemed a kind of obligation!19 The town management played its part in it,

because it ordered the door and windows of his ramshackle wooden hut to be removed in thecoldest winter. Móric Hetman only lost his patience once and in his misery wrote a letter to

Vienna: ‘Euer Majistät, hier ist ribillion...’ but he received no answer.

Immigration however continued although not at a large scale and slowly by slowly the

people of Csík learned to coexist with the Jews. The advertisements of the Jews could find their

place in the papers, such as Csíki News and Csíki Papers, and articles on Jewish topics could

also be published. In the meantime, the community continued to develop, a Chevra Kadisha was

established, then a prayer house was built and a shochet were contracted. A Jewish school was

established in the first decade of the 20th century, land was purchased for the cemetery and a

Jewish temple was built.

Several Jewish families lived in the small street where the temple was – that is why it was

called Zsidó (Jewish) street: the Nágler family, Dr Miklós Adler, Béla Mandel shoe merchant,

the Berkovics and the Popper families. In addition, other Jewish families lived scattered in other

parts of town: Jakab Friedman, owner of a café, the Adler family, Samu Berkovics, tinsmith,

17 Imre Tivai Nagy: Emlékezés régi csíkiakról. [Memories of the old Csík.] Csíkszereda, 2009, p. 55.

18 Ibidem.

19 Tivai, 56.


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Hermann Hauzer, watchmaker and jeweller, Hugó Hirsch, physician, Ignác Ackermann, retail

trader, Sámuel Klein, owner of a sawmill and Emil Friedlander, timber merchant. 20

A step made by Dr Gábor Pál, the director of the Csíksomlyó Grammar School made

integration complete because ‘he admitted Miklós Adler, the son of József Adler , a Háromszéktradesman to the students of the Catholic Grammar School as the first student of the Israelite

confession opening in that way the road to the sons of the Jews to study.’ 21

In 1913, a rabbi was elected in the person of Jakab Glasner. The small community

belonging earlier to the Tölgyes Israelite Community became independent: the Csíkszereda

Orthodox Israelite Community was established.

The selection of the rabbi divided not only the Israelite but also the Christian residents of

the town, and it was also followed with interest both at Csíkszereda and in other cities of

Transylvania. The two dailies of the town, the Csíki Papers and the Csíki News reported on the

campaign contradictorily subject to their party stance, but their reports did not lack some anti-

Semitism either. Since Gusztáv Kálmán, an Under-Secretary of State for commerce also took

part in the election of the rabbi, the election had become a nationwide scandal. Csíki Papers

assessed the events as follows in the first issue of its Volume XXV 25, in 1913:

‘In that honest Sekler town (...) the Israelite citizens were preparing for the election of

their chief rabbi. Needless to say political aspects were also involved in the election by those

hoping to benefit from it, who tried to reach their goals by using the traditional means of

elections: violence, terrorism or promising licences to open tobacco shops or pubs. As a true

follower, Guszti Kálmán also had a finger in the pie and that is why he - taking the side of a

certain rabbi called Jakab Glasner - tried to ‘convince’ all voters using the assistance of the

relevant authorities to find their redemption in Glasner.

(…) We have heard about pressure by the High Sheriff in the neighbourhood but allnoises were calmed soon (…) In fact, our Israelite compatriots say and all the other papers

20 Ferencz S. 20.

21 Dr Adler 70/1974.


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confirmed the election ended peacefully with an overwhelming majority for Jakab Glasner

without pressure or promises of tobacco shops.’22

After the election, the inauguration of the rabbi was peaceful on 19 January, 1913: ‘all

the decorated carriages of the town made a presence to receive the rabbi and the honourable procession marched into the town carrying bunches of flowers and banners in front.’23 Indicating

the importance of the event, the correspondents of Csíki News said: ‘Csíkszereda was in a real

fervour due to the event’24

After the inauguration, there was a banquet where funds were raised for the orphans’ and

poorhouse of Csík County, to which the Jewry contributed significantly.25

Imre Tivai Nagy put pen to paper to express his views on the Csíki Jewry on the occasion

of the inauguration. Giving a brief account of the obstinate endurance of the Jews, which meant

that in less than forty years beginning from the first Jew settled, the town had its own

community, temple and cemetery, he predicted a great future for the Jewish community: ‘The

generation living fifty years from now should not wonder if the Jewish temple should be built in

the best part of the city at Csíkszereda and the rabbi should be the most important governing man

in city life. The Jewish temple will not be hidden in a corner of the former pigs’ market for long,

it will be moved to the best part of the market, because serious religious belief and solidarity

prevail over the hardest obstacles, while faithless internationalism will cower and turn up to kiss

22 Csíki Papers, 1 January, 1913, issue 1, p. 2.

23 Tivai, op.id. 53.

24 Csíki News, Vol 3, 25 January, 1913, issue 4, p. 3.

25‘On the occasion of the inauguration of rabbi-registrar Jakab Glasner (...) the following provided donations to the

orphans’ and poorgouse of Csík County: Adolf Zimmermann, Dr Leó Harmat, chief doctor at the public hospital 20-

20 Crowns, Boskovitz of Klaus, Mór Habzelman of Klaus 3-3 Crowns, Lázás Lazs railway supervisor of Klaus,

Ödön Aczél 2-2 Crowns, Adolf Niszel Adolf, jun. Lázár Berkovits, Géza Gottlieb 1-1 Crown, Hermann Magyar 5

Crowns, Ignác Mátrai 4 Crowns. We express our grateful thanks to the noble donors. The managing assembly of the

orphans’ and poorhouse of Csík County. Csíkszereda 31 March, 1913. József Birtha, Chairman.’ Csíki Papers, Vol

25, 9 April, 1913, issue 15, p. 3.


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the Golden Calf hoarded with tenacious perseverance.’26 That tone, which is scorning even if it is

praising, accompanied even the most positive expressions about the Jews in the life of the town.

The Jews of Csíkszereda had become more and more integrated into the community by

the end of World War 1; a number of Jewish names appeared among the servicemen of theSekler infantry No. 82. The War, however, did not spare the town; a part of the houses were

destroyed in a fire, the population was reduced and the remnants of the destruction could also be

seen in 1922. The Jewish community also suffered major losses both in materials and human life.

The heroic dead of the War included Herman Magyar, Frigyes Fischer, Hoffman D. Josheph,

Dezső Grünwald, Fülöp Breier, but dr Miklós Adler, Herman Magyar, Frigyes Fischer, Dezső

Grünwald and Ignác Ackermann returned from the front. In the meantime, the ritual bath and

some houses had been plundered and the temple had been damaged. Fortunately, the Romanian

Jewish servicemen of the Regat Army passing through took the Torah scrolls of the Temple and

they found refuge in a community in Romania. They put a note on the door of the Torah cabinet,

to say where it could be found after the War, and it was actually returned later on. 27

Losing the war and the Trianon Treaty forced all citizens of Csíkszereda into a basically

new situation. The change of power was not such a shock for the Jews, who had been a minority

earlier, as it was for the Hungarians; actually it brought about a slight improvement from the

perspective of national minority issues. The Romanian authorities tried to strengthen Jewish

nationalism against the Hungarians and Jews were encouraged to talk Yiddish and to confess to

be Jewish and not Hungarian at the time of the census.28

As a result, a high degree of assimilation was replaced by ‘post-assimilation’ or ‘post-

emancipation’ trends, and local Jews were oriented to Zionism. 29 The goal of the National

Federation of Transylvanian Jews founded on 20 November, 1918 was to get the Jews be

26 Tivai, 54.27

Alpár Salamon Ferencz: A Holokauszt helytörténetének oktatása V-VIII. osztályban. A csíkszeredai zsidóság

története. [Teaching the local history of the Holocaust in grades 5-8. The history of the Csíkszereda Jewry.]

Unpublished, p. 29.28

Randolph L. Braham: The Hungarian Holocaust, Gondolat, Budapest, 1988, I. 141.29

Ferencz S. 32.


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declared as a national minority. The Jewish Party was established in 1930. Nevertheless, the

efforts of Romanian politics to divide Jews and Hungarians and get Jews confess to belong to the

Jewish national minority reducing the number of the Hungarians failed in most cases. The local

Jews including those of Csíkszereda regarded themselves to be Hungarians of the Israelite

confession.

That might have be the reason why Romanian politics were characterised by growing

anti-Semitism between the two World Wars while there had been no anti-Jewish movements

although the people of Csík, in fact, did not love the Jews.

After the war, in 1920-21, the community re-built its temple, the number of followers

increased and the Jews took part in the life of the town unimpeded. In 1928, a new president of

the community was elected in the person of Mátyás Grünberg who operated a steam machine atMadéfalva, and as Jakab Glasner was elected chief rabbi at Kolozsvár, his place was taken by

Romeo Krausz.

The political background, however, was the spread and strengthening of Romanian anti-

Semitism: In 1930, the ill-famed Vasgárda (Iron Guard) was established from the legion of Saint

Michael Archangel founded by Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, then more and more anti-Semitic

decrees were published from 1937. Under the Goga-Cuza Government, more and more anti-

Jewish laws were passed in Romania ‘to curb the invasion of the Jewry’ and ‘to protect the

Romanian national interests’. The Csíkszereda media regularly informed its readers about those

measures, since the Jewish community belonged among the citizens of the town.

The situation, however, changed after the Second Vienna Award, when the anti-Jewish

laws of Hungary were also introduced in Csíkszereda, the Jewish papers were banned

everywhere in Transylvania and the citizenship of the Jews was withdrawn. Nevertheless, in an

interesting way, the Csíki Papers only carried anti-Jewish articles infrequently, while the

Gyergyó Papers and the Sekler Word of Sepsiszentgyörgy openly took sides with anti-Semitism.

A city commander, Elemér Éder appointed to Csík from the mother-country is said to

have been behind the abuse of Jews. He could only recruit a low number of followers mostly

from among ‘individuals of a doubtful existence’: ‘In general, the evil, bad and i mpatient spirit

imported by the conquering second-rate class of administrators was only received with the


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sympathy of a minority of the population, those who had been hot-blooded, wanted positions or

an easy life, while the more serious part distanced itself and we felt their willingness to help and

their empathy towards our humiliation. There were some who took part in plundering the assets

of the Greek Orthodox Church committed by the infamous colonel Éder... on the other hand, our

gratitude and acknowledgement goes to Dr. Károly Kovács, Dr. Gábor Pál, Dr András Nagy.

Jun. Dr. József Gál, Pál Kovács and many other compatriots at Csíkszereda, who rose above the

lowly atmosphere of the times, and did not allow to be dirtied by mud.’30

The behaviour of the representatives of the Christian churches - Catholic parish priest

Ferenc Bíró and Minister of the Reformed Church Pál Kovács - gained importance at that time.

Mainly because Ferenc Bíró had a great influence on the members of town management. Miklós

Adler said of him ‘he had been a main manipulator of all political city issues.’ 31 While Pál

Kovács often tried to intervene to mitigate anti-Jewish measures, Ferenc Bíró openly expressed

his disapproval if somebody tried to involve him in similar interventions.

Actually, the active intervention of the top management of the town would have been

necessary when general Elemér Éder - quite illegally - ordered the Jewry of the city to pay a

blood money of 80,000 Pengo and threatened those delaying or unable to pay to be evicted.

Éder divided the Jews into three categories: those who had to be evicted from the

country, that meant about 20% of the Jews; those who ‘only’ had to be relocated to other parts of

the country - about 60%, and the remaining 20% was considered to be reliable enough to be

allowed to stay in the town.32 He actually implemented his idea later on: 81 people of 24 families,

who were unable to pay the required 100-150 Pengo of repayment of public work, were

transported to Gyimesfelsőlok and he tried repeatedly to get them over the Romanian border in

November, 1940. It failed due to the resistance of the Romanian Border Guards, so they were

returned to the city jail, and then they were deported to Kőrösmező on 16 November. Margit

Slachta, the mother superior of the Social Sisters intervened in the interest of those deported, as aresult of which the deportations were stopped but 21 out of 36 people moved across the

30 Adler, 70/1974.

31 Ibidem.

32 Bodea, 63.


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Ukrainian border disappeared. Gábor Pál, a well-known figure of public life at Csík intervened in

their interest as well. However, the Catholic priest Ferenc Bíró demanded indignantly that Margit

Slachta who had turned to him should leave him out of such things because ‘it’s got nothing to

me, I am not interested’33Only Benő Shultz and his wife survived the deportations.

In 1942, at the next deportations, 19 and then another 22 families were ordered to be

deported in accordance with Act 8130/1939. The reason referred to was that their presence had

been threatening the interests of national security. Although a social worker at Csíkszereda, Judit

Veres tried to turn to Imre Sándor episcopal representative at Kolozsvár (Cluj) for help, her

efforts failed. Slachta received a rudely rejecting letter from Ferenc Bíró, when she tried to reach

the termination of further deportations: ‘I apologise, if you have such power available to you

there, please, do not involve me anymore, because I cannot undertake such clerical part.’34

The intervention by Emma Stróbl with police captain Pál Farkas proved more efficient,

because she was promised the same day no more deportations would take place until appeals are

evaluated.

Despite of that, several families were moved across the border to Ruthenia in 1942.

In the meantime the position of the Jews remaining in the city deteriorated: they were

under police control, they had to report to National Central Authority Controlling Foreigners

(KEOKH) because their citizenship had been withdrawn. Jewish youth were at the beginning still

conscripted for military service, but they were banned from wearing their awards. At the

beginning, graduates from high schools served as volunteers with armbands, but they were

gradually deprived of the armband, the bayonet and then the uniform. An example for that is a

request by Andor Lempert, requesting recognition of his eligibility for the armband, which was

33 Adler, 70/1974.

34 Tamás Majsai, Egy epizód az Észak- Erdélyi zsidóság második világháború alatti történetéből. Margit Slachta

fellépése a Csíkszeredáról kiutasított zsidók érdekében. [ En episode from the history of the Jewry in Northern

Transylvania during World War 2. The intervention of Margit Slachta in the interest of Jews expulsed from

Csíkszereda.] In: MEDVETÁNC, 1988/4, 1989/1, p. 15.


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rejected under the title he was deemed a Jew in accordance with his own statement.35 Similarly,

Lipót Török and his son were also conscripted and he was banned from wearing his awards

gained in World War I.

The Defence Act (1939:II) taking effect in March, 1939 laid the foundations for forcedlabour service: ‘unreliable’ elements, such as Jews, communists and other national minorities

were conscripted into unarmed units of labour service. At the beginning, they mainly built roads

or airfields, or drained swamps, later they were placed under the control of the second Hungarian

army.

Several companies of forced labourers operated at Sekler Land. Two workers’ companies

were commanded to Gyimesközéplok and Uzvölgye from Bihar County in summer 1942. Most

Jews of Csík and Háromszék were conscripted into the labour company No. 110/40, whose maintask was to dig the foundations of a hotel at Csíkszereda. Later, they were commanded to the

Ukraine, from where several of them managed to return home in the course of a disordered

retreat. In spite of that, many died as a result of different diseases, under-nourishment, the cold

and - last but not least - the cruelty of their own superiors.36 In memoirs, Zoltán Szabó of Taploca

is mentioned, who had harnessed the Jewish forced labourers to torment them. The conductor

Elek Sarkadi, who died of typhoid fever somewhere in the Ukraine was one of the famous

victims of the forced labour service.

Getting baptised might have been an escape route for the Jews in forced labour service.

Christian forced labourers were given a white armband and they were treated differently from the

Jews. A request of Gyula Reiszmann an Israelite from Budapest to be baptised can be found in

the archives of the Gyulafehérvár Catholic Diocese, which was submitted to the Kolozsvár

Municipality. Gyula Reiszmann served in the labour company No. 101/72 at Csíkcsicsó working

at the rebuilding of the Szereda railway line. His wife and daughter had already been converted,

but he had not been able to take part in preparatory sessions due to his illness. The parish priestat Csicsó, Imre Buzás, taught him every Sunday and he recommended Gyula Reiszmann to be

35 Csíkszereda Város Polgármesteri Hivatalának iratai [Documents of the Mayors’ Office of the Town of

Csíkszereda] 1859-1968, 239/ 29 cs. pp. 215, 216., 3 October, 1941.36

Ferencz S. op.id. p. 44.


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baptised. The governor, however, referred to the Decree No. 1939/376 by Áron Márton37 to say

that Reiszmann could be baptised six month later at the earliest ‘after he had fully interiorised

religious knowledge’.38

The case of Franciska Rosenthal of Csíkszereda is not unique. The arch deacon ofSzereda, Ferenc Bíró, only submitted her application when the preparations provided in the

decree had been completed – a year after she had applied. The arch deacon stated ‘it is an

internal turn of consciousness and any lay motive can be fully excluded’39. A reply was soon

received: she may be baptised provided her marriage is settled or can be settled.

On the whole, the population did not sympathise with the racist elements, it was rather

the ‘imported’ officers of administration that were considered anti-Semitic in the town. When

following the German occupation of Hungary, the obligation of wearing the ‘yellow star’ wasintroduced in Csík as well, many residents looked at the wearers of the star with emphatic

respect. Dr. András Nagy wrote: ‘The yellow star has been introduced for the Jews; we regarded

it as mean cruelty and greeted those wearing it with almost emphatic respect, after all, the Star

of David is an honourable sign, similar to what the cross is for the followers of Christ.’ 40

Confining people to a ghetto and deportations, however, started on 3 May, 1944. The

Jewry of Csík County was interned in two ghettos: the Jews of Csík and Kászonszék to

Sepsiszentgyörgy and those of Gyergyó-szék to Szászrégen. Police captain Farkas, who had been

so generous in 1942, celebrated now the de-Jewishness of the town with flying colours:

37 Áron Márton issued his instructions regarding the baptism of Jews in his first Episcopal circular in 1939

numbered 1939/376. Accordingly, the sacraments of Christianity can only be provided if the sincerity of the

intention has been proved. As a result, he required a year of preparation in principle and practice. The preparation

meant minimum an hour a week of academic education and introduction to the liturgy. In addition, other conditions

had to be met: e.g., the provisions of valid civil laws had to be observed, and Jews from other Dioceses could not be

given permission to be baptised. People whose previous marriage could not be settled in accordance with church law

were also excluded from getting permissions 38

Gyulafehérvári Érseki Levéltár, Helytartósági Iratok [Arch Bishop’s Archives of Gyulafehérvár, Municipality

Documents], 25. 2604/ 15 August, 1943.39

Ibidem, 433/ 22 January, 1944.40

Dr András Nagy: Lót visszanéz [Lot looking back], Csíkszereda, 2001, p. 216.


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‘After this four-year period of struggles, the dawn of 4 May, 1944 came41,’ when teams of

detectives and policemen appeared at the door of each house where Jews had been living. They

roused those sleeping there and hurriedly drove them to police cells - all members of the

community with their modest bundles, those employed there had a last chance to pillage them

and the elderly and the children spent the night, the last one for most of them, lying on the floor.

Police captain Farkas managing the process did not go to church that afternoon contrary to his

habit but as a general of a winning battle was sitting astride his chair in the courtyard watching

the subdued enemy with pleasure.’42

312 Jewish residents of the town and its neighbourhood were transported to the

Sepsiszentgyörgy collection camp on trucks. The families of chief engineer Mihály Szántó as

well as the Fried and Ackermann families could remain in the town. Although Pál Farkas offered

exemption to the Adler family, they did not make use of it and left together with the deported

ones.

After the deportation of the Jews, the police searched the houses of families that had been

known as ‘friends of Jews’ trying to find valuables left behind. Although few people dared to

take sides openly with the Jews, everybody was afraid, because those employing the services of

Jewish physicians were harassed even before the deportations there were still some who agreed

to keep the valuables of the Jews.43

The Csíkszereda Jews were transported to Szászrégen from the ghetto at Szentgyörgy and

then deported to Auschwitz. Of them, Klára Török, Dr Ferdinánd Kiszelnik and Doctor Adler

managed to return home. The Jews ordered to provide labour service had a better chance for

survival: Zoltán Popper, Samu Bermann and his brother, Arnold Berkovics and one of his

brothers also returned home from the Ukraine where the 110/40 company was commanded,

although many of their Christian mates had wanted to get rid of them at any price.

41 Doctor Adler’s memory is mistaken here, deportations started at Csíkszereda also on 3 May.

42 Dr. Nagy, op.id. p. 216.

43 Béla Bács, Katalin Szabó, Voltak. Emlékezés a csíkszeredai zsidó közösségre [They were. Memories of the

Csíkszereda Jewish Community], Csíkszereda, 1999, Memories of Klára László, p. 17.


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Those returning home had to face the same problems as the returning Jews in other cities

of Hungary: their goods had disappeared, Christians had moved into their houses or businesses. 44

An interesting momentum of the situation is that while the requisitioning of Jewish properties in

other parts of Hungary only started in 1944, according to the documents of the Mayor’s Office of

the Town of Csíkszereda, the properties ‘the owners of which have been away for at least a year,

their place of residence is unknown and they are hindered in returning home and managing their

belongings’ were already placed under control in 1943.45

The residents of Csíkszereda did make use of the opportunity. The documents of the

Mayor’s Office of the Town of Csíkszereda include section No. 72 named the administration of

Jewish properties, in which widow Ferencné Dávid requested already on 5 October, 1943 to allot

her a vacant room in the courtyard of 66, Kossuth Lajos Street owned by widow Sándorné

Dazbek. A similar request was rejected saying such flats could only be allotted to reliable

individuals loyal to the nation, and anyway the town management was still waiting with the

issue.46

Not only the individual damage was huge; the community itself suffered losses of such

size it could never recover from completely: ‘The insides of the Synagogue was broken

completely, the Hebrew books were damaged as well as the buildings. The facilities of the ritual

bath were completely destroyed, the flat of the ‘shochet ‘was damaged, the fence of the cemetery

was removed and the graves were damaged during the war.’47 So, the immigration of the Jews of

Csíkszereda to Israel started in the 1960s. The number of the population of 129 in 1947 was

diminishing continuously with only 5 remaining by 1992. Today not one Jew is living in Csík.

44 Teréz Nagy remembers that after the deportation of her Jewish tenants she found her house empty when she

returned home: ‘By the time I got back, the house had been sealed. There had been a big cauldron there for

rainwater, but even that had been taken off. I found a completely empty flat. Ibidem, p. 25.45

The flats of the victims of the 1941 and 1942 deportations also belong there. The documents of the Mayor’s

Office of the Town of Csíkszereda, 1859-1968, 239/ 28. p. 53., 12 May, 1943

46 Documents of Mayor’s Office of the Town of Csíkszereda 1859-1968, 239/72, p. 178.

47 Alpár Ferencz S.: A Holocaust történetének tanítása V-VIII osztályban. A csíkszeredai zsidóság története.

[Teaching the local history of the Holocaust in grades 5-8. The history of the Csíkszereda Jewry.]


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The relati onship of Jews and Chr istians as reflected in the local press

Several printed papers were published at Csíkszereda in the period researched. Csíki

Papers had an outstanding importance. The economic and social weekly had been published

from 1888 till 1944, first by the printing house of Márton Györgyjakab and then after LajosVákár had taken over the Book and Stationery Shop of József Szvoboda, in his edition. The

managing editors of the weekly included Mózes Vitos, Catholic priest; Gyula Élthes and Dr.

Lajos Csipak, canon, then Viktor Részegh had been the editor-in-chief from 1926 till 1944.

In the period under Romanian control, the title of the paper had to be written in

Romanian as well, so it was published under the title Ziarul Ciucului, then in the 1930s, the

names of the editor-in-chief and the owner of the weekly were also printed in Romanian. Initially

a social paper, it also monitored the events of Romanian and Hungarian politics and reported on

major political events influencing the life of the town.

Two other short lived weeklies were also published at the town in the same time, the

Csíki News as a weekly in 1911 as a competitor of Csíki Papers. The founders, Gábor Pál and

József Gál formulated independence, public service and justice as the main goals of the weekly.

The Csík People’s Weekly had been published from 1931 to 1944 at Csíkszereda as a

political, social and economic weekly. At the beginning its editor-in-chief was Pál Péter

Domokos then Ferenc Péter, owner of the printing house from 1933. The weekly provided space

for the literary attempts of neighbouring authors, and represented the democratic spirit of public

life at Csík as opposed to the ‘imported spirit of decorousness’ of the 1940s.

Although the weeklies reported on the events from opposing perspectives at a given point

of time, their analysis reflects the relationship between the Jewry at Csíkszereda and the

‘indigenous population’ of Hungarian nationality. The concept is used consciously, because -

despite a high degree of immigration - all foreigners are considered ‘strangers’ in the villages

becoming parts of Csíkszereda, such as Zsögöd, Csíksomlyó or Taploca although not in the city

itself.


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The history of Jews at Csíkszereda comprises three different periods. They are

characterised by the county or the town belonging to different state-forms in different times. The

laws of the Austrian-Hungarian Monarchy had applied to the Jews until the end of World War I

or the Trianon Treaty, Csíkszereda had become part of Romania after 1919, and it was returned

to Hungary in 1940 by the Second Vienna Award. The laws of the three state powers involved

had different attitudes to the Jewry. At the same time, the behaviour of the local population was

also different regarding the application of the laws subject to how much they felt the given

political formation to be their own. The laws identified the rights of the Jewry or their constraints

at Csíkszereda.

The Olmütz Constitution proclaimed on 30 December, 1849 was an important point of

emancipation for the Jews living on the territory of the Monarchy. It included the religious

equality of all residents of the state as well as the independence of civil and political rights of

religious denominations. Although the Constitution was repelled in 1851, the equality of citizens

before the law remained in effect. The issue of emancipation, however, was taken off the agenda

at the time of neo-absolutism and a re-negotiation of the topic was only brought along by the

1867 Reconciliation. Equality, in the end, was implemented, when the Parliament adopted a draft

law by Prime Minister Gyula Andrássy, in which Article 1867/XVII said the Israelite population

of the country was given equal rights with Christian residents with respect to all civil and

political rights. The last step of emancipation was the declaration of the Jewish religion as an

‘accepted religion’ on 2 November, 1895 in Article 1895/ XLII. In the same year, the law on

civil marriage was published legalising marriages between Jews and Christians that had been

deemed proselytism earlier.48 In that way, the road was open to mixed marriages (which was

objected to by the Catholic Church49), promoting and accelerating the assimilation of the Jews in

that way.

48 László Gyémánt: Evrei din Transilvania în epoca emancipării (1790 -1967), Editura Enciclopedică, Bukarest,

2000, p. 211.49

Although the Catholic Church objected to the introduction of civil marriage as one impairing its rights, the same

was used for reference to reject the third anti-Jewish law. Esztergom Archbishop Jusztinián Serédi spoke at the 18

July, 1941 session of the Upper House as follows: ‘The law 1894: XXXI was a grave mistake, when it referred

marriage to within the scope of the state: the present draft supporting it is consistent in the same mistake as it


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The above laws meant safety for the Jews although they could not protect them from

local acts of ‘bravado’ as we could see in the case of Móric Hetman of Csíkszereda. Despite that,

the Jews were considered having equal rights with Christians at court and they represented an

integral part of Csíkszereda. It can also be followed in the articles of local papers; their

advertisements were published in the papers, notifications of the Jews’ marriage or death were

also customary, while they took every opportunity to donate for public causes.

The following advertisements can be read in the Csíki Papers:

‘Clothes for men, ladies, boys and children in the shop of József Mózes in the new

Grünwald house in Kossuth Lajos street.’

‘Main warehouse of the Niszel brothers distributors of Dréher beer at Csíkszereda.’50

‘Phonographs with waking device sold by Ignácz Ackermann.’An advertisement for tinsmith Berkovics and Kóka appeared in almost every issue in

1921.51

Marriage notices were also frequent: ‘Emil Friedlander, timber merchant at Csíkszereda

celebrates his marriage to Ms. Ella Schuller in Paşcani (Romania) on 11 August this year.’

Applications for changing somebody’s name were also published in the papers expressing the

intention for assimilation: ‘Sámuel Kesztenbaum a resident of Csíkszereda applied to the

Hungarian Royal Ministry of the Interior to change his name and that of his dependent children

to ‘Kertész’.52

The paper also regularly published the list of donors in different situations. Jews could

often be found among them: ‘...the following persons gave donations to the purchase of

instruments for the orchestra of the Csíkszereda Voluntary Firemen: The timber plant of Sámuel

establishes new obstacles to marriage. On the other hand, the esteemed Bishops’ Bench together with the Catholic

followers is consistent with truth when relying on God’s laws it objects to the new obstacles to marriage in the same

way as it objected to the idea of civil marriage earlier.’ A püspöki kar tanácskozásai. Az 1939. évi június hó 10 -ére

összehívott országgyűlés felsőházának naplója [Meetings of the Bishop’s Bench. The Minutes of the up per house of

the Parliament convened on 10 June, 1939] (1939-1944). Vol. II. Az Athenaeum Irodalmi és Nyomdai

Részvénytársulat nyomása, Bp., 1942.II.k.) p. 283.50

Csíki Papers, 20 December, 1911, issue 51, 6.51

Csíki Papers, 6 January, 1921, issue 2, 3.52

Csíki Papers, 2 July, 1913, issue 27, p. 2, apud: Alpár Ferencz S, op.id.


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Klein, Emil Friedlander (50 Crowns), Samu Fried, Herman Magyar (20 Crowns), Adolf

Zimmermann, Gyula Lacher, Dr Manó Zakariás, Adolf Friedman, Jakab Niszel and Lázár

Lebovits (10 Crowns), Adolf Niszel and Albert Grünwald (6 Crowns).’53

On selecting their topics of public and social life, the managing editors of the papers took

into account that many of their subscribers were Jewish, so you can see frequent articles dealing

with issues affecting the Jewry in the period. Such returning topic is the position of the Jewry in

Romania. The Csíki Papers often published articles comparing the position of Jews in Hungary

and in the Regat assessing the position of the local Jews to be advantageous and condemning at

the same time the ‘barbarism’ of Romania’: ‘The position hitting the Jewry in Romania is really

insupportable. Every modern state shares the benefits of legal equality with the Jewry. There are

only a few backward eastern countries that still allow the social stigma separating the Jewry from

Christian people. Romania, however, had got to the gate of civilised states. There is no reason torepel the Jewry on this land.’54

While the Csíki Papers was more of a philo-Semitic attitude, the Csíki News had an

opposing view. An article was published in the News a few months later reporting on the

struggle of Jews for their rights: ‘the Romanian Jews recently want to achieve equal political and

civil rights. The Jews in Romania do not have the same free playing field as elsewhere including

our country. The attitude still prevails that the Jews are not citizens (...) and they should only be

there as tolerated foreigners. (...) The attitude of Romania is that of self-protection, because they

are aware that Jews, particularly the immigrants, may cause more damage than benefit to the

state.’55

Nevertheless, none of the papers uses the style applied by Mózes Vitos in Csík County

booklets. On the contrary, Csíki News tries to mitigate the negative attitude of the article stating

at the end: ‘Explaining the above, we bow to our Jewish compatriots, who assimilated under the

Hungarian aegis share our good or bad fate.’56

The orientation did not seem to change emphatically after the Trianon Treaty. Since both

nations were in the minority, you can discover an attitude of supporting each other in the articles.

53 Csíki Papers, 15 March, 1911, issue 11,

54 Csíki News, 1 February, 1913, issue 5, p. 4. Jews requesting their rights again. apud: Alpár Ferencz S, op.id.

55 Csíki News, 12 July, 1913, issue 28,

56 Csíki News, 12 July, 1913, issue 28,


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The editorial of issue 12 in 1921 was published under the title Building a new Babel . In it, Ignác

Ágoston emphasised: ‘Loving our race and loyalty to our religion does not exclude the altruist

love of our fellow men and respecting the religious beliefs of others.’ 57

Although there are some short news indicating hidden anti-Semitism, they are not

outstanding among the many articles on public life. For instance, you can find some aphorisms

like that: ‘The money-lender is like a vampire with the difference that a vampire will leave its

victim when it has had enough, while a money-lender can never have enough and will continue

to suck. (San-Toy)’58 Although the aphorism is not about the Jews, the concepts of money-

lenders and Jews had been linked so much in the public mind that everybody understood the

hint.59

Unfortunately, no issues of the Csíki Papers of 1921 to 1936 have remained. The

advertisements by the Jews, however, were continued in that period. Several advertisements can be found by Jews from the music events of the Hutter Café to the wine seller of widow Mórné

Grishaber wholesale wine merchant at the Daradics-house.60

The period between the two world wars, however, was more and more characterised by

escalating anti-Semitism in Romania. The Goga-Cuza Government, which came into power on

29 December, 1937, raised anti-Semitism to the rank of state politics and started to expel the

Jews from public life: Jewish papers were banned, licences of pubs were withdrawn, Jews were

excluded from public transport, they were forbidden to have Christian household help and, what

was the worst, a review of the citizenship of the Jews was ordered. The activities of the Vasgárda

(Iron Guard) also contributed to the Jewry feeling threatened in the country.

It had led to a gradual disappearance of articles on Jewish topics in the papers of Csík,

although Jewish advertisements were still published:

57 Ignác Ágoston: Új Bábelt építünk , Csíki Papers, 1921, issue 12, p. 1.58

Csíki Papers, 6 January, 1921, issue 1, p. 3.59

The implication became quite interesting during World War II, when the police took action against ‘profiteers’. In

those cases, the profiteers were not the Jews as it appeared from the lists, but the social response of the articles led to

the condemnation of the Jews.60

Csíki Papers 1291. issue 12, p. 3 and issue 18, p. 6.


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‘Dr. Miklós Adler physician returned from military service and opened his surgery.’ ‘Dr.

Mano Fejér (Emanuel) physician for internal medicine, genecology, paediatrics, skin and

venereal patients.’61

On the other hand, it was reported in the 28 July issue that 8 Jewish physicians were

placed into availability service in Csík County: Dr. Edvard József of Gyergyóditró, Dr Móric

Weisz of Kászonaltíz, Dr Kahan Jenő Pokenaru of Szentdomokos, Dr. Samu Gerson of

Gyergyótölgyes, József Berkovics of Csíkszereda, Marcel Harnisch of Úzvölgy, Dr Emil Siegler

of Ditró-hodos and József Herskovits of Gyimesközéplok were dismissed from service.62

The Paper also reported in the month preceding the Second Vienna Award that the State

Monopoly Treasury ‘closes down all tobacco shops owned by Jews with a 30-day notice.’63

The 36th issue of the Paper, however, was published after the Second Vienna Award; and

a crack in Christian-Jewish relationship can be felt in its tone. Although a significant number ofanti-Jewish articles had not been published earlier, the Paper took over the official government

politics from then on and a covered anti-Jewish attach could already be found in the first issue

after the political takeover:

The author said ‘only a few days have passed since the Vienna Award, but those few

days have triggered a stream of price increases in the commerce of the town.’ Therefore, it urged

quick and strict measures noting ‘it is a first rate racial obligation today to be understood both by

traders and consumers.’64

In spite of the above, the tricolour flagpoles by Salamon Alter were still advertised in the

same issue.65 The ‘return’ of Northern Transylvania resulted in satisfaction in the majority of the

Transylvanian Jewry, who hoped they would be freed from increasing humiliations by

Romania.66 Since, however, they had no information on the situation in Hungary, their happiness

proved to be premature: the Jews in Northern Transylvania had actually got into a worse

61

Csíki Papers, 14 July, 1940, issue 27, p. 3.62

Csíki Papers, 11 August, 1940, issue 32, p. 4.63

Csíki Papers, 18 August, 1940, issue 33, p. 4.64

Csíki Papers, 8 September, 1940, issue 36, p. 3.65

Ibidem, p. 4.66

Braham, op.id. I. p. 144.


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situation after the ‘return’ than their fellow citizens remaining on the territory of Roman ia.67 At

the time of the Second Vienna Award, on 30 August, 1940, the first two anti-Jewish laws 68 had

already been in effect in Hungary, which were immediately applied to the Jews of Northern

Transylvania after the military occupation of the region. Jewish illusions on the improvement of

their status as a result of the change of power quickly vanished. Jewish papers, leagues or

federations were banned. The anti-Jewish measures of military authorities were even

supplemented by the civil authorities.

The Hungarian press of Transylvania was reorganised, which resulted in newspapers

becoming the trumpets of the right wing. Although the Transylvanian Papers had used anti-

Semitic attitudes ever since its foundations in 1932, the papers published in smaller towns have

not published any open anti-Jewish attacks until the political change. Then together with larger

papers (such as for instance, the Hitel [Credit], Pásztortűz [Shepherd's Fire] or the Katolikus

Szemle [Catholic Review]) journalists at small towns took over a tone of humiliation of the Jews

under the aegis of racial protection. Such papers included Szamosvölgye of Dés, Székely Szó of

Sepsiszentgyörgy or Gyergyói Lapok of Gyergyószentmiklós.

67 Ibidem, p. 143.

68 Act No. 1938/XV, or First anti-Jewish Law “ A társadalmi és gazdasági élet egyensúlyának hatályosabb

biztosításáról ” [‘On the more effective provision of the balance of social and economic life’ ] took effect on 29 May,

1938. The law provided the ratio of Jews could not exceed 20% in the liberal professions or at companies employing

more than 10 people.

Act No. 1939:IV „a zsidók közéleti és gazdasági térfoglalásának korlátozásáról ” [‘On restricting the penetration of

Jews in public and economic life’ ], or the Second Anti-Jewish Law was published a year later, on 5 May. The law

provided Jews could not obtain Hungarian citizenship either by naturalisation or by marriage, it banned them from

civil service, it provided judges and prosecutors of Jewish descent had to be placed in retirement and teachers at

high schools, elementary schools and public notaries had to be dismissed. The ratio of Jews was maximised in 6% in

the liberal professions, but Jews could not be directors or managers either in film production or at theatres or at the

media.

The law identified in detail who was to be regarded Jewish. A person was deemed Jewish if he/she, at least one of

his/her parents or at least two of his/her grandparents were the members of the Israelite confession when the law

took effect or before that. (Cf. Braham, op.id. pp. 106 and 130)


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It is interesting to note that Csíkszereda papers were more reserved in that regard.

Although articles disapproving the behaviour of the Jews were published from 1940 to 1944 and

the Csíki Papers took over the ‘imported spirit of decorousness’ emphasising the protection of

Sekler blood, you can hardly find any openly abusive or inciting articles in the whole of five

volumes.

Two interesting facts can be observed in the period: at first, immediately after the

political takeover, the ‘racial consciousness’ is strongly emphasised and celebratory addresses

with loyalty to the nation as their main motive are often quoted in full. At the same time, articles

on Jewish topics disappeared from the papers, as if the Jews were not members of the society of

the town any longer. Quite few advertisements are published by Jews compared to previous

years, because you can find only four advertisements in the period from 30 August, 1940 to 1944

while there had been several advertisements in almost every issue in the 1920s. In them Jewish

physicians - Dr József Berkovits and Dr Manó János Fejér informed their patients they had

returned from military service and opened their practice. In the first issue of the 1941 volume

restaurateur Jenő Neumann wished its customers a Happy New Year. Previously the papers

reported on the position of Romanian Jews as well, then however, the decrees of the town

commandeer relating to Jews were not published.

Let us review how the first issues after the ‘return’ related to the new situation. For

instance, in issue No. 41 of 13 October, 1940 the welcoming address to Miklós Horthy by

Archdeacon Ferenc Bíró known of his anti-Semitic attacks was published on the first page.

Although the address was not anti-Jewish, it reiterated the usual right-wing slogans:

‘A nation can only honour the great values of human life, freedom, esteem of its race and

the love it involves if that nation has been in possession of those values for hundreds of years.

(...) We preserved and saved our love of freedom at the time of oppression’ – at that time ‘the

awareness of our race has been clarified even more.’69

That initial period was characterised by inauguration of national flags and greatcelebratory addresses most of them including anti-Jewish attacks. However, the articles and

addresses did not so much strive to attack the Jews but to glorify the own nation, the own blood:

‘now, on the occasion of the return, we have to emphasise the objective of the paper is to keep

69 Csíki Papers, 13 October, 1940, issue 41, p. 1.


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awake the Sekler s’ racial consciousness.’70 Nevertheless, the article identified the political

orientation of the paper too: ‘the Sekler nation must have its place in a strong right wing in

national politics’.71

Different celebratory addresses provided opportunities for the locals to express their

animosity towards the Jewry, and the papers also cited some of those in the beginning. In the

articles the nobility of the Hungarian national spirit, the glory and struggles of the Sekler nation

were emphasised, but obeisance to the racist ideal can also be found in the addresses either

hidden or more openly.

A statement by the Romanian press according to which the Sekler Land was crying to

return under Romanian rule resulted in huge protest: over 10 thousand people took an oath to the

Hungarian flag when a national flag was inaugurated at Csíkszereda on 12 January, 1941. The

address by Ferenc Bíró at the event and its reception reflects to a certain extent the ideas of therepresentatives of the church and their impact on the public at Csíkszereda. According to the

journalist, ‘The huge crowd broke into applause after each of his words’.72

He said ‘...every nation should safeguard its spirit to keep it clear and strong. (...) the

twelfth hour of the revolution struck: liberalism and free masonry proliferating under its pretext

have finished their work destroying religion and nation: they deserve a dishonourable grave.’73

As you can see, Bíró voiced the slogans of classical anti-Semitism identifying the Jews with

liberalism and free masonry and although the paper did not publish the other parts of his address,

it was obvious he was able to take control of its audience, i.e., the ideas voiced by him were

favourably received.

On the other hand, it should be noted that no right-wing statements affirmative of racism

can be found in any addresses by canon Dr. Lajos Csipak.

A visit by army chaplain István Zadravecz74 at Csíkszereda and his pilgrimage at

Csíksomlyó are similarly interesting. So many people took part at the mass held on the occasion

70

Csíki Papers, 27 October, 1940, issue 43, p. 1.71

Ibidem72

Csíki Papers, 9 January, 1941, issue 3, p. 3.

73 Ibidem

74 István János Uzdóczy Zadravecz (1884-1965) a Franciscan monk, one of the founders of the Anti-Bolshevik

Committee and the Etelköz Federation, the Roman Catholic army chaplain of the Prónay Commando and the


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of his visit that the majority of the followers could not fit into the church. 75 Therefore, there were

some villages, where he delivered 3-4 addresses in the course of his pilgrimage.

The papers only published articles openly attacking the Jews infrequently. They rather

practised a method of hints, in which they did not speak of Jews but of liberals, free masons,

Bolsheviks or money-lenders or profiteers. That is why the following quotation delivered by

lieutenant-colonel Ferenc Virág when recruits took their oath after deliberation can be deemed an

unusual example: ‘That impostor, swindler race did not hesitate to wring the arms from the hands

of noble Seklers from behind to promote its own material advantage when we were shedding our

blood on the battlefield and fought for our beautiful country.’

Such articles were, however, infrequent and you could see them immediately after the

change of power and then later in the course of 1944. They, however, express the political

opinion of the paper. The same, however, did not prevent the editor-in-chief of the paper toremember in issue 45 a famous physician of the city, Hugó Hirsch, a converted Jew who moved

to Kolozsvár with his wife.

The surgeon Hugó Hirsch settled at Csíkszereda during World War 1, and gained

acknowledgement among the people with his innovative procedures and with his generosity.

Hugó Hirsch represented the assimilated Jews at the city, he had been baptised and had a close

connection with the Catholic Church and was an honorary member of the Franciscan Order.

Although he was regarded a Jew all the time – ‘and it was often told him in no uncertain terms’76

the people of Csík trusted and respected him.

He set up a surgical ward of the hospital in 1912 at Csíkszereda, he introduced X-ray and

laboratory tests, and then he set up his own institution doubling the number of hospital beds in

the city in that way. Named Hirsch Sanatorium, the institution had become known all over

Transylvania. Since he treated the poor at low rates or even free of charge, and because he was

kind to children, many loved him in the town. To celebrate the 25th anniversary of his operation

Hungarian Royal Army, the member of the Upper House of the Parliament, church speaker and author and popular

priest was known of his ‘Anti-Bolshevist’ views.75

‘Even the big churches at Ditró and Csíksomlyó taking 8,000 people proved to be too small.’ 2 March, 1941, issue

9, p. 3.76

Dr András Nagy, Városkép és ami hozzá tartozik [The city and what belongs to it], Pallas-Akadémia, Csíkszereda,

1995, p. 57.


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as a doctor, a ‘ceremony involving every body close and far was organised for him, which

cascaded as an avalanche lasting for weeks and during which about 5,000 people came to greet

him placing a multitude of gifts to his feet. After the greetings, a public dinner of 300 people was

held in the cinema hall of Vigadó with speeches until the night’77

It illustrates how people evaluated him as he ‘influenced the spiritual and social life of

the town. Sometimes from the background but more often in a visible and tangible way

distributing generously both material and intellectual assets but also expecting acknowledgement

or even homage for it’78

When he left the town, the Csíki Papers remembered his activity in the following article:

‘Dr. Hugó Hirsch has served our people for almost 3 decades. He has grown with his

heart and soul to the land of Csík, he loved and understood so much. Now he has left for

Kolozsvár to spend the remaining time of his retired life there and left all the memories of his

activities behind. We are moved to say goodbye to him on behalf of all who loved and respected

him not only as an erudite physician but a person of Hungarian build in all his culture and

undertaking the fate of Hungarians, who stood by our people together with his wife offering so

much to our people at the time of its greatest trials.’79

When the chief physician died, an editorial of one and a half pages was dedicated to his

memory in the 15 June, 1941 issue, in which his loyalty to the Hungarian nation was again

emphasised: ‘And we could see that he stood in his place, he shared the guard with us in a

Christian and Hungarian spirit, in times good and in times when the world collapsed and the

night seemed to bury Hungarians. He dreamt together with us about a Hungarian resurrection‘.80

The Provincial of the Franciscan Order delivered an address at his funeral and his body was

consecrated by Ferenc Bíró.

77 Dr Nagy, op.id. p. 57.

78 Ibidem.

79 Csíki Papers, 10 November, 1940, issue 45, p. 5.

80 Csíki Papers, 15 June, 1941, issue 24, p. 1.


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It is interesting he had not been deemed a Hungarian in his life, but when he left the town

and people had to remember him, his ‘national spirit’ was truly acknowledged.

Another outstanding Jewish personality of the town, Elek Sarkadi, was also given nice

praising articles in the Csíki Papers. Elek Sarkadi who was called ‘Lekó’ by his friends, was theteacher of music at the grammar school in the 1930s as well as the conductor of the city’s Song

and Music League. Similarly to Hugó Hirsch, he had also been baptised because he had married

a Christian woman. Under his leadership, the amateur string orchestra consisting of only a few

people had improved into a forty-member symphonic orchestra within a few years’ time. Dr.

András Nagy remembered him as a jovial person easy to like who ‘danced to the accented

rhythm of the operetta ‘Mágnás Miska’ on the podium’.81

On the ceremonial reception for the military marching into Csíkszereda after the Second

Vienna Award, Sarkadi conducted the Hungarian Anthem. He proved several times that the

music life of a small town may be outstanding. He was awarded the first prize at several national

musical competitions conducting Mátrai képek [Images of the Mátra], Székely keserves [Sekler

lament], Jézus és a kufárok [Jesus and the peddlers] (choir compositions by Zoltán Kodály -

translator’s note). The Csíki Papers reported on his activities: ‘The Csíkszereda Song and Music

League that has been performing such honourable deeds led by conductor Elek Sarkadi is

travelling to Budapest’82 . When Transylvania ‘returned’, the National Hungarian Song

Federation arranged a festive concert inviting only 4 choirs from Transylvania. The Csíki choir

led by Elek Sarkadi was among them and according to a report in issue 50, it was extremely

successful. Of course, the Hungarian character of the choir was not f orgotten: ‘the success was

not only due to the Sekler character of the choir but also to the renewed spirit of Hungarian

choirs in which the Csíkszereda Song and Music League led by Elek Sarkadi was a pioneer in

the life of Hungarian music.’ 83

The excellent conductor, however, was not saved from being a Jew by his ‘Hungarian’

activity: although he had been exempted from forced labour service until 1944 with reference tohis merits, he had to join the army in the end and died of typhoid fever in the Ukraine.

81 Dr. Nagy, op.id. 49.

82 Csíki Papers, 24 November, 1940, issue 47, p. 5.

83 Csíki Papers, 15 December, 1940, issue 50, p. 3.


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A similar short article remembered the merchant Rezső Michna on his death: ‘He

belonged to our city he had been loyal to not only in the good times of peace but also when we

were hit hard by fate. His noble figure could be seen at all Hungarian appearances of the past 22

years.’84

Jenő Neumann ‘an hotelier and restaurateur respected by all’ also deserved a few lines of

commemoration on his death.

As it could be seen, only a smaller part of articles referred directly to the Jews. They

rather spoke about Seklers as a superior race implying in that way contempt or sometimes

defamation of the Jews. Reviewing the article of five volumes, such articles constitute the

majority of writing on the Jews. The available publications can be roughly divided into four

groups:

1.

The first and probably most important group of articles mentioned the Jews inrelation to logging and timber trade. It is known that the majority of the Jews immigrating into

Sekler Land were engaged in logging. The issue was also vitally important for the Seklers. The

articles published on the topic all spoke about expelling the Jews from the timber trade; that was

demanded louder and louder. Already on 20 October, 1940, at the inauguration of a national flag

at Csíkmenaság, Áron Antal advised ‘Jewish peddlers must be removed from logging so that the

woods that have remained from the plunder of the Wlach should be real help for our people in its

life.’85

Similarly, the editorial of issue 43 published ‘Sekler s in the new situation’ discussing the

same topic: ‘the timber trade is the most profitable branch of the business life of Seklers. It must

be taken out of the hand of the Jews. (...) Those unreliable and aggressive elements who have

been the traitors of the Hungarian cause under Wlach rule should disappear!’ 86

The implementation of the principle of taking the whole of the timber trade in

Transylvania into the hands of Seklers was not so simple. Problems already arose in December,

1940: ‘At its latest session, the Transylvanian Business Council dealt with the position of the

timber industry in Sekler Land and found that the majority of that ancient industry was not in the

84 Michna Rezső, mint a Magyar történelmi események számontartója. [rezső michna, as a chronicler of Hungarian

historic events],Csíki Papers, 11 May, 1941, issue 19, p. 3.85

Csíki Papers, 20 October, 1940, issue 42, p. 1.86

Csíki Papers, 27 October, 1940, issue 4.3, p. 1.


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hands of Christians any longer. Existing Christian companies are unable to employ the sufficient

number of Christians. In accordance with the provisions of the anti-Jewish law, Christian

workers must be found and new jobs must be created.’ 87 Therefore, the issue of ‘transfer’ of the

timber trade was raised again in January with a rather pessimistic conclusion: all those measures

are insufficient to solve the problem of the timber trade in Csík County; the only possible

solution would be to establish cooperatives.88 Accordingly, the topic was raised again and again,

and in 1942, audits by Balassa - instructed by the Minister of Culture - sued logging merchants

Simon Haim, Sulem Haim and Sulem Segal in the value of several hundred thousand Crowns. 89

2.

A separate category of the articles touched upon the Jewish issue while

introducing the programme and activities of the Transylvanian Party. They are interesting

because by introducing the programme of the party to which Dr. Gábor Pál of Csíkszereda also

belonged an interesting and paradoxical image is presented on the Christian-Jewish relationshipat Csíkszereda. We know that Gábor Pál was the director of the grammar school, who first

admitted Jewish students to the Csíksomlyó Grammar School promoting in that way the

integration of the Jews into the community of the small town. However, the same tolerance

remembered by doctor Adler or András Nagy are not reflected in his speeches at Parliament as

the leader of Transylvanian MPs. In an address delivered in Parliament on 2 December, 1940, he

addressed the Jewish issue separately: ‘after the switch of power the Jewry parted with the

Hungarian people, they established a political party opposed to us. The immigrant Jews from

Budapest assisted in this controversy and separation’, but he also acknowledges ‘there have been

some Jews who have taken side with the interest of Hungarians’.90

The Transylvanian Party emphasised on every possible occasion ‘we regard the land and

capital our national assets, national perspectives must be enforced in the distribution and use of

both’. Count Béla Teleki speaking at the Nagyvárad meeting of the Party emphasised: ‘more has

87 Csíki Papers, 22 December, 1940, issue 51, p. 6.

88 Dr. Ferenc Karda: A csíkmegyei erdőgazdálkodás átállítása [T ransfer of the timber trade in Csík County] , Csíki

Papers, 19 January, 1941, issue 3, p. 2. ‘It will not solve the national task of excluding finally and for good the

persons and organisations from the timber trade in Csík, which have caused the moral and material decline of our

race by exploiting the timber trade.’ 89

Csíki Papers, 8 March, 1942, issue 10, p. 3.90

Csíki Papers, 8 December, 1940, issue 43, p. 8.


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been spoken of the Jewish issue than what has been done. Since the Jews are not issued trade

licences, they work in the black economy and are to the detriment of the Hungarian homeland by

not paying taxes’. He believes the situation can be solved by evicting those without Hungarian

citizenship without delay.91

The same idea appeared in the transcript of an address by Miklós Kállay delivered at the

great assembly of the Transylvanian Party on 6 June: the possibly full-scale eviction of the Jewry

is the final solution. He also believed the lack of flats caused by the war could be solved by

taking flats from those who lived in big flats unjustified. 92 Later on, an article reported on how

the principle was applied in practice: the property of the heirs of Lipót Rosenfeld of Ditró was

expropriated for the purposes of a girls’ middle school.

József Bálint, Transylvanian MP advised on 17 December, 1943 regarding the Jewish

issue ‘the Jewish issue has been with us for 2,000 years. It was born when condemning the Sonof God the Jews pronounced their own sentence. He said the right of existence of the Jewish

religion ceased when the Christian churches were established.’ 93 It was also him who exclaimed

when the anti-Jewish law was submitted to Parliament: ‘debuisset fridem!’ i.e., why not earlier?

3. Articles reporting on the anti-Jewish laws and their application.

The reference to the anti-Jewish laws in the above article is interesting because - as it has

been shown above - surprisingly little information was provided by Csíkszereda papers about the

Jews and the anti-Jewish laws. Not one line was written about the fact that the law of ‘numerus

clausus’ took effect immediately after the takeover, and as a result, no Jewish students were

admitted to the grammar school of the town in the academic year 1940-41. Similarly, nothing

was reported about the effective two anti-Jewish laws.

The Csíki Papers reported on 30 April, 1942 that in accordance with a government

decree, the Jewish-owned shops had been closed down with immediate effect, and it published

on 15 November that the Government had introduced property tax for the Jews. Only a footnote

advises that tenders for the supply of stationery and printed forms are only open for people who

can certify the Law 1939/IV does not apply to them; or else that only Hungarian citizens not

deemed Jewish can be admitted to training courses for insurance agents. However, not one report

91 Csíki Papers, 4 April, 1943, issue 14, p. 1.

92 Csíki Papers, 6 June, 1943, issue 23, p. 2.

93 Csíki Papers, 23 April, 1944, issue 17, p. 1.


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or interpretation of the anti-Jewish laws themselves can be found. In 1944, three short articles

reported on the conscription of Jews of drafting age, listing the data of Jewish telephone

subscribers or the fact that all Jewish schools ceased to operate in the country with effect from 30

June. That is all to be found about the anti-Jewish laws in five volumes of the Csíki Papers. In

addition, the paper quoted a few excerpts from speeches by Hitler or Göbbels presenting the

Jews as enemies: ‘the eternal Jew forced us into a merciless war’94 and ‘there is no delay in

preparation, we must clash that devastating race before the Jews trigger revolutions in the whole

world.’95

4.

In addition, a few articles dealt with price increases referring to Jews as the

culprits, however, it turned out from the actual list of arrests that most of them had been

Hungarians. The terms used, on the other hand, unambiguously refer to the Jews: ‘This our

nation has already been corrupted by speculators and profiteers’, so it is a national duty tosupport the fight against price increase. An article mentions there has been a nationwide

movement ‘to sentence everybody to execution by hanging who are deemed the enemy of the

nation by their actions threatening public supply.’ According to the author, such a motion would

be voted for unanimously by Csík County.96

There are a few more attacks on ‘Aladars’, which ‘help to ruin or avoid the laws

established in the interest of the life and survival of the nation of course in return for a rich

profit.97

Those attacks were not numerous - only 13 articles were found in the five volumes

openly referring to the Jews and including negative evaluation or incitement. On the other hand,

it must be also taken into account that none could be found offering protection for the Jews

except for some articles commemorating Jewish deaths. There were just a few faint remarks

according to which ‘it is not timely today to tune peoples’ soul towards political rancour.’98

94 Address by Hitler, Csíki Papers, 28 March, 1943, issue 13, p. 2.

95 Address by Göbbels, Csíki Papers, 28 February, 1943, issue 9, p. 2.

96 Csíki Papers, 11 January, 1942, issue 2, p. 3.

97 Csíki Papers, 10 January, 1943, issue 2, p. 3 and 3 January, issue 1, p. 4.

98 The meeting of the Party of National Renewal at Csíkszereda. Csíki Papers, 10 January, 1943, issue 2, p. 2.


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People who ‘did not allow being drenched in mud’99 and took no part in incitements at

Csíkszereda must have been very low in number. The papers did not promote anti-Jewish

incitement, which is surprising since we know the town commander Elemér Éder and the police

captain Pál Farkas were openly anti-Semitic. The deputy mayor Dr Ábrahám was also one who

‘received with applause’ any anti-Jewish movement.

The ‘market atmosphere’ of the times must have been general in the town. Two examples

can be shown. One of them is the memoirs of András Grünberg in the booklet ‘They were’ by

Katalin Szabó and Béla Bács. According to it ‘when we were children at school, our classmates

tried to remind us of our being Jewish every time and not in a very nice form. We had to be

careful how we behaved, how we responded so as not to be g iven mocking words.’100

As it could be seen, even people doctor Adler remembered