"Muszkaföldön" Felvidékiek visszaemlékezései a szovjet hadifogságra
„In the Land of the Muscovites”: Testimonies of Soviet Captivity by Hungarians from Southern Slovakia

Author(s): Zoltán Kőrös
Subject(s): Oral history, WW II and following years (1939 - 1949)
Published by: Fórum Kisebbségkutató Intézet
Keywords: Second World War; World War II; prisoner-of-war captivity; POW captivity; forced labour camp; Soviet Union; USSR
Summary/Abstract: Regarding those who returned from prisoner-of-war (POW) camps, a semi-jocular saying once circulated: it was said that when prisoners arrived at the railway station in Budapest after their release, those returning from Western captivity would ask for a porter, while those returning from Soviet forced labour camps would ask for a stretcher. As with any reality, however, the fate of the prisoners was not quite so black and white. Those who had been in the West also told harrowing tales, yet—to use the words of one of my interviewees—the most horrific ordeals took place at the "Eastern University." The primary material for this volume consists of the latter group of World War II POWs: Hungarians from Southern Slovakia who—having endured the "Land of the Muscovites"—spent varying lengths of time in Soviet captivity. More precisely, we present the testimonies of Hungarian survivors from the districts of Šaľa, Galanta, Senec, Dunajská Streda, Komárno, and Nové Zámky. The book is divided into two parts: the introductory section (Preface) presents the nature of Soviet captivity based on thematic excerpts from interviews conducted with thirty-eight survivors. The book is divided into two parts: the first (Preface) discusses the nature of Soviet POW camps based on thematic excerpts from interviews with 38 former prisoners. The second and main part consists of the complete personal narratives of Károly Tóth, József Sulci, and Arnold Merva. This book serves as a memorial not only to those who survived captivity but also to those who perished, as all of them were victims and, ultimately, heroes of the Hungarian community in Slovakia. This current publication is an expanded version of the 2015 first edition.

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