Achilles’ Heels: Minorities and Religion

Abstract

Hungary had now formalized its friendship with all its neighbor states except Czechoslovakia; to fail making a similar treaty with it would have meant admitting the inadmissible, that differences between the two countries were still too great for a formal pact of friendship. The population exchange was proceeding extremely slowly. Of the 92,390 Slovaks who had registered for resettlement 73,273 had left the country. But only 68,207 of the 105,047 ethnic Magyars slated for transfer to the mother country had actually made the move. Another 6,000, not included in the formal exchange, had resettled voluntarily.¹ The discrepancy in figures was all the more puzzling as the Slovaks in Hungary were under no pressure to leave, nor were there any discriminatory measures instituted against them. At the same time the Magyars in Slovakia were being mercilessly harassed. The Hungarian legation in Prague was besieged by people seeking relief from the persecutions.²