Hitler’s Transfers of Population in Eastern Europe

Fresh from his conquest of Poland, Hitler on October 6, 1939, announced to the Reichstag that there would be "a new order of ethnographical conditions, that is to say, a resettlement of nationalities in such a manner that the process ultimately results in the obtaining of better dividing lines." A day later he signed a decree transferring to the Reich all Germans who are "threatened with de-Germanization," and he entrusted to Heinrich Himmler, chief of the Gestapo, the duty of carrying out the resettlement program as Commissioner for the Strengthening of Germandom. So well did Himmler work that by March 1941 all German settlers beyond the Reich's new northeastern border and beyond the Carpathian Mountains, which are considered to be the Reich's strategical southeastern frontier, had been transferred to Germany.

Was this transfer of Germans to the Reich really based on a plan for new ethnographical divisions? The program was a tacit part of the Italo-German Pact of May 22, 1939. Mussolini was eager to clear the provinces of Venezia Tridentina (Bolzano and Trento) of their German-speaking people. He had been unable to Italianize them in the course of 16 years, and the region's industrial capacity and position near the frontier of his new but dreaded ally meant that it was one of vital strategic importance to Italy. The program also figured tacitly in the Russo-German Pact of August 23, 1939. Stalin was glad to free his future border zone of a population which might be disloyal in case of war with Germany. Hitler had always assumed the rôle of "protector" over the German-speaking citizens of the smaller countries in Eastern Europe. As long as he hoped to acquire the territories on which they lived without having to wage a war against the Western Powers, he proclaimed the inseparability of blood and soil. But by April 1939, when he began to realize that Britain might really fight for Poland, he was ready to sacrifice the German outposts in Italy and in future Russian territory in order to gain Italian coöperation and Russian neutrality. Hitler held back from the resettlement plan as long as the German minority in Poland was needed to undermine that country. Then, after Poland's defeat, he announced it, not as a change of policy enforced upon him by circumstances, but as a "new order" for the benefit of all Europe.

II

The process of resettlement began on October 15, 1939, with the signature of the German-Estonian Protocol on the transfer of the German minority in Estonia to the Reich. The first ship with German migrants left Tallinn on October 20. Differences over money claims delayed the signing of the German-Latvian Protocol to October 30.

In Latvia and Estonia, where the transfer was negotiated before Russia actually annexed those countries, the individual Volksdeutscher was free to make his own choice of citizenship. Migrants from Estonia were allowed to take with them their personal belongings and motor vehicles, a small amount of cash and, in the case of artisans and professional workers, some materials, tools and instruments. Latvia permitted all movable property, including livestock, to be taken. Other property was handed over to the Trustee at the German Consulate at Tallinn, in Estonia, and to the German Resettlement Corporation in Latvia; it was ultimately used by the German Government for the purchase of goods in addition to those paid for under the clearing system.

On September 23, 1940, Germany and Russia began to negotiate the transfer of German-speaking people from Lithuania, by that time a Soviet republic, as well as of some Germans who had stayed behind in the other two Baltic republics. A careful registration of all migrant property was made in Lithuania, which suggests that Russia transferred the property to the Reich in the form of goods.[i]

On November 3, 1939, Germany and Russia signed an agreement to exchange the Volksdeutsche of the Polish areas occupied by Russia for the Russians, White Russians and Ukrainians in the German-occupied territory. (The Germans announced later that many Ukrainians had preferred to remain in the Reich.) In the Russian-occupied territory a mixed German-Russian Commission selected the people to be transferred. These Germans, as well as those coming from Rumania, were granted German citizenship only after a careful examination in Germany. Lack of transportation facilities prevented those coming from eastern Poland and Rumania from carrying anything with them but their personal belongings.

The number of Germans transferred from the Russian-occupied areas exceeds the total number of Germans in those areas as given in the last census. Even the natural increase possible during the interval would not make up the difference, especially since that increase would be largely offset by the process of assimilation. The Nazis profited by the extensive studies made by the Volksbund für das Deutschtum im Ausland, the Deutsche Akademie (both under Karl Haushofer) and the Deutsche Ausland-Institut in Stuttgart, which trace the origin and ramifications of German families abroad, their settlements, employment and political and cultural affiliations. These studies enabled the Nazis to disregard any postwar assimilation which may have occurred. The fact seems to be that since the Russians did not stop anyone who wanted to leave, there were some migrants who were glad to depart in order to escape the nationalization of their property and the collectivization of their farms.

The final agreement with Italy was signed on December 21, 1939. This agreement allowed the German-speaking people of the Italian provinces of Bolzano, Trento, Udine and Belluno a "free and spontaneous" option on the question of German citizenship, with the provision that those who chose it would be transferred to Germany. The polls closed on December 31, 1939, but the transfer need not be accomplished before the end of 1942. The original provision for the transfer of those who did not opt for Germany to other parts of the Italian Empire was dropped. Out of 266,985 eligibles, 185,085 indicated their willingness to go to the Reich, most of them from Bolzano. If this transfer is completed, and if Italy again raises the population of Bolzano province to its former size, the German minority will still constitute 20 percent of the population there.

Italy sold the real property of the migrants in the open market, and a fixed sum was then charged to her clearing account with Germany. The individual Italian seems to have recovered the equivalent of his property in Germany. It is doubtful whether the other migrants have.

On September 5, 1940, after Russia had taken Northern Bukovina and Bessarabia from Rumania, Germany and Russia agreed upon the exodus of the Volksdeutsche from these territories. On October 29, 1940, Rumania ratified an agreement which released the Germans of Southern Bukovina and Dobruja to Germany. Thus the "principle" of having no German settlements beyond the Carpathians was realized. There can be no doubt that Rumania was forced to accept the property of the migrants in payment for her oil and other products.

In all, approximately 490,000 Germans from Eastern Europe had been transferred to Germany by March 1941. The following table shows the total German population of the various countries, the number sent from each, the percentage of those who had been employed in agriculture, and also the number of those who had worked as self-employed farmers and were therefore ready for immediate settlement on German farms:

In addition to these migrants from Eastern Europe, 66,000 former Italian citizens were transferred to Germany. By March 1941, 8,000 had been settled in the Austrian province of Carinthia and 58,000 in Tyrol-Vorarlberg, just over the Alps from their former homes. This latter settlement is continuing, though slowly. It has been said that some emigrants from Italy also have been settled in the eastern fringes of the new German district of Katowice,[ii] in Poland, and also in Moravia, but no evidence of this is available.

III

Most of the migrants from Eastern Europe were settled in the Wartheland,[iii] part of the territory seized from Poland by Hitler.[iv] This was the region in which Germanization was most urgently needed. Originally there were 9,000,000 Poles in the whole of the annexed territory, as compared with 600,000 Germans. Even after 1,500,000 to 2,000,000 Poles had been expelled, the proportion of Germans was still too small if the territory was ever to be successfully Germanized.

Germans from the Gouvernement General, which was under German control at the time of the transfer, were settled in the Wartheland immediately, on farms whose Polish owners had been transferred to the much smaller farms evacuated by the Germans in the Lublin and Chelm districts. The other migrants had to spend an initial period in camps. Hotels, schools, nunneries and monasteries were seized for the purpose, also lunatic asylums which had been emptied by "mercy" killings. Here the migrants filed their property claims and were examined as to working capacity and fitness to be German citizens and peasants. (No one can become a German citizen or peasant who is not of German descent or who has a hereditary disease.) The migrants were also given lessons in National Socialism and a good many of them probably had to be taught German. The farmers were trained in modern farming methods. Those who were able to do so had to work in nearby factories. They received one-third of their earnings in cash, the rest after their settlement on farms.

Agricultural and industrial workers, artisans and professionals were quickly absorbed as a result of the war boom and the ouster of the Poles. A decree which allowed the confiscation of Polish property not only for the defense of the Reich but also for the "strengthening of Germandom" furnished the necessary furniture, tools, instruments and farms.

IV

But Hitler's chief purpose was to build a "wall of German peasant farms" along the new 1939 border to protect Germany against the Polish tide.

Infiltration of Poles into neighboring German areas has been a German nightmare ever since Landflucht (migration from rural into industrial areas) depopulated the eastern part of Prussia. In 1886 Bismarck began purchasing Polish estates for the settlement of German farmers, but the Poles circumvented him by buying up land whenever it became available. To discourage this, the Prussian Government in 1904 forbade the building of houses on land that had changed into Polish hands; and in 1908 the Prussian Parliament, on Bülow's insistence, passed a law which authorized the Government to confiscate Polish estates. The Junkers, however, sabotaged this law, which they thought set a dangerous precedent for a general land reform.

The German Republic in its turn was fearful of increasing the famine which existed in the early revolutionary days and so failed at first to enact any great land reform. However, under a law of 1919 (fully executed only after 1927) 57,500 farmers were settled on small-sized and medium-sized farms, most of them in the east.

Hitler's inaugural message of 1933 declared that the "back-to-the-land policy" was "the basic principle" of his program. Actually, however, the Nazis were interested in agrarian reform only in so far as it promoted self-sufficiency and decreased the need for imports. As soon as their armament program was under way they began not only to neglect farm settlement but also to admit increased numbers of migrant Polish farmhands. In 1934, 4,931 new farms were created -- approximately the same number as in preceding years. Then the figure dropped rapidly, until it was only 1,456 in 1938 and 798 in 1939.[v] And an increasing number of these were not in the east, but in other parts of Germany. While the Nazis were talking about the inseparability of blood and soil, Landflucht was continuing at an accelerated pace in spite of an increase in agricultural prices, a ceiling on industrial wages and strict control of migration to cities.[vi] The northeast suffered particularly from this movement.[vii] But in 1939, when the Nazis had 40,000 German farmers available for settlement, they could not settle them in depopulated eastern Prussia. They needed them for the Germanization of western Poland.

The number nevertheless was too small to form a solid wall. The Polish provinces of Lodz, Pomorze, Poznan and Silesia, which form the bulk of the annexed territory, had more than 350,000 farm holdings when the Nazis took over. Only a negligible number could have been in German hands. The Nazis planned to eliminate all small farm holdings and to create medium-sized farms throughout the annexed area.[viii] About 110,000 farmers from southwestern Germany (Baden and Württemberg), where small holdings prevail, were also to be transferred to western Poland. It was calculated that 40,000 farmers from western Germany could be placed on farms in Wartheland after the migrants from the east had been settled there, while the remaining 70,000 would be settled later in the frontier districts of Katowice and Ciechanow and in Pomorze.[ix]

By August 1940 a total of 12,250 farmers had been settled in Wartheland. Then difficulties arose. Contrary to expectations the war had not been won. The Nazis needed the highest possible returns from the soil; but the newcomers were not familiar with the modern methods of farming practised in Germany. Above all, German industry was not in a position to deliver the farm implements and the material for the new buildings needed on the enlarged holdings. The great colonial scheme was given up in the spring of 1941 even before the Russian campaign began. Hitler, who never fails to twist a failure into an advantage, declared that the settlement plan had to wait the return of the soldiers who were entitled to farms as the reward for victory. Most of the remaining migrants were hurriedly settled on the farms best suited to the purpose. Some may even remain in the camps, others may be returned to Lithuania, and the farmers of the southwest are still on their "dwarf" holdings. The German farm wall crumbled before it was completed.

Pauperized and deprived of their land, the Poles now are working in greater numbers than ever before on the feudal estates of eastern Germany. They are not hindered; on the contrary, they are welcomed, because hands are needed. Hitler, who promised to draw new lines of ethnographical demarcation, has in fact enlarged the zone where the nations are intermingled. But the German goes eastward as the master, and the Pole goes westward as the serf.

When Germanization of the soil had to be stopped, Germanization of the individual began. If it is true that blood determines the individual's instinct and demeanor, then assimilation is "utopian." At any rate, that is the word Hitler used for it on October 6, 1939. Nevertheless, the Nazis now attempt it. When citizenship was granted to the Volksdeutsche [x] after the annexation, the process was selective. In March 1941, however, a "Registration of German Folkdom" was decreed, avowedly in order "to unearth the German folkdom hidden by Polish names and to free it from perversion."[xi] Every family with one German grandparent or a relative in the Reich, and every Pole who gives indication of German descent or expresses his willingness to become a German, is closely examined to determine his fitness. "Willingness" is sometimes relative. The Poles have no right to own property; they get smaller food rations than the Germans; they do not benefit from tax exemptions; in many counties 15 percent of their wages are deducted and used for the reconstructions of the east; and they are liable to forced labor and deportation. In these conditions "willingness" can sometimes be exacted by terror or bought by bribes.

V

While western Poland was serving as the goal of the German westward migration, central, southern and eastern Poland were selected as the area towards which Europe's outcasts were to be directed.

How far these regions have been depleted by the three great eastward migrations cannot be said, for these movements were hidden by the Russian censorship. More than a million Polish soldiers and civilians, including 300,000 to 500,000 Jews, must have fled eastward and southward from the German onslaught in 1939. The Russians deported 2,000,000 Polish citizens to Asiatic Russia and Siberia after their occupation of eastern Poland. How many Poles, White Russians, Ukrainians and Jews were among them ? Nobody, probably, knows. The number of people who fled from the Russian-occupied areas and from western Russia when the Russian armies were retreating in 1941 is also unknown.

The largest group deported to the Gouvernement General by the Nazis was made up of 1,500,000 to 2,000,000 Poles from the German-annexed areas. Second in number were the Jews. There were 200,000 Jews left in Germany, Sudetenland and Austria by the time Germany declared war on the United States.[xii] The Bohemian-Moravian Protectorate then contained at least 84,000. At the time of the annexation, 545,000[xiii] were in the annexed parts of Poland, most of them in the province of Lodz. Besides, there are approximately 6,900,000 Jews under German domination in the east.[xiv] How many of these were killed by the war, by starvation or by organized Nazi terror, and how many were able to flee into Russia or Turkey, or even into Italy, cannot be stated exactly.

In Germany and her five southeastern dependencies, where local anti-Jewish policy has been fully coördinated with the German, Jews are now concentrated in huts outside the cities or sent to labor or concentration camps. Many are deported to the Lublin "Reservation," in the Gouvernement General, or to the neighborhood of Pinsk. More recently they also have been sent to the ghettos of Kaunas and Minsk. Those in the camps and near Lublin and Pinsk have to work on roads and canals or on rivercontrol and swamp-draining projects. The rest live in ghettos isolated from the outside world.

Reports indicate that most of the Jews from the annexed parts of Poland have been deported to the Lublin Reservation, with the exception of 160,000 to 200,000 who are concentrated in the ghetto of Lodz. The number of Jews deported to the Gouvernement General or Ostland from old Germany, Austria, Sudetenland and the Protectorate is not under 40,000, by a very conservative estimate. In addition, Hungary deported at least 18,500 Jews to Galicia in 1941; 54,000 were dumped into the Ukraine from Rumania last fall; and this spring Slovakia seems to have begun sending her 70,000 Jews to Poland. But when no trains are available for deportation, or when Germany needs hands, this policy is shrewdly and coldly interrupted. Recently, Jewish artisans from the Ukraine have been sent into Germany proper.

It should be noted, however, that deportation to the Gouvernement General is not restricted to Jews. At least 30,000 Slovenes from Croatia have been sent there, as have Rumanians from Northern Transylvania. Recalcitrant Frenchmen from the occupied zone are among the latest arrivals.

The deportations do not represent merely a policy of racial and political hatred. Cheap labor is needed, particularly for vast canal-building and swamp-draining projects. Workers in Germany and the countries allied with the Reich would probably rebel if they were put at this work. In the "Annex" (Nebenland), as the Germans call the Gouvernement General, public morale is of no importance.

In contrast to the policy followed in the Protectorate, the Volksdeutsche in the Gouvernement General have not been made German citizens. In the hierarchical order established by the conqueror they form the second class, under the Reich Germans who govern the country. Third in rank are the Poles. Ukrainians, Ruthenians and even White Russians can be elevated above the rank of a Pole if their respective bureaus in Berlin agree. Volksdeutsche who have been convicted of committing hostile acts against the Reich after the 1939 campaign are degraded to the lowest rank, that of the Jews. The natives of the Baltic countries are treated slightly better than the Poles, because their police are needed to help guard the rear of the German army.

VI

In the Carpathian region, just as in the north, Hitler has failed to draw new lines of ethnographical demarkation.[xv] Transylvania, the Rumanian and Jugoslav Banat, and the areas taken from Slovakia and Jugoslavia by Hungary, all are still zones of mixed nationalities.[xvi]

The German claim that there are 2,000,000 of their race in the Carpathian region is, of course, highly exaggerated. Nowhere are the Germans in a majority. The actual figures are shown in the following table:

The Vienna award of August 30, 1940, provided for three voluntary transfers in this region. Rumanians in Northern Transylvania, which had been awarded to Hungary, were permitted to opt for Rumanian citizenship within six months. Acceptance of this citizenship made migration to Rumania within the next year compulsory. Transfer of property was allowed. The 452,000 Magyars in the Rumanian territory that was Hungarian before 1920 and that was not transferred to Hungary in 1940 were allowed to opt for Hungarian citizenship under the same conditions. As both countries were eager to uphold their claims to the whole region awarded to Rumania after the First World War, they discouraged migration. Hungary even sent back the Magyars who crossed the frontier, claiming that they had been illegally expelled. On the other hand, she welcomed Magyars from Bukovina (11,150 in 1930), who left when Russia annexed that territory.

Germans in Northern Transylvania were given two years to decide whether they wanted to migrate to Germany. Property transfer was allowed, partly freely, partly under the clearing system. How many went to Germany is unknown.

One more transfer resulted from the Rumanian partition. The treaty of September 7, 1940, by which Rumania ceded Southern Dobruja to Bulgaria, provided for the exchange of the Bulgars in Northern Dobruja for the Rumanians in Southern Dobruja. This was to be carried out by a Rumanian-Bulgarian Commission within three months of ratification. Voluntary migration from other regions was also to be permitted; and the government which received voluntary migrants of its own nationality was entitled to expel a like number of nationals of the other country. Movable property, including livestock, could be transferred. Landed property was seized by the country from which the migrant departed, and he was entitled to damages from the country of his final settlement. All property claims resulting from the transfer of population were renounced by both countries. The Mixed Commission decided on the transfer of 54,000 Bulgars to Bulgaria, and, apparently, of 110,000 Rumanians to Rumania. Pressure seems also to have been exerted on the Turks. Military considerations probably dictated the policy of making the Dobruja a region of ethnical purity.

Apart from the agreement covering Northern Transylvania, there has been no attempt to transfer the Germans within the Carpathian region. They have been organized in "National Groups" established by bilateral treaties between the "country of their origin" (Germany) and the country of their residence. Once a person has claimed to be a Volksdeutscher and has been recognized as such by the leader of the National Group, he and his descendants are permanently bound to the group. Throughout the region family names which were once German must be Germanized again, a procedure which, for certain historical reasons, favors the Germans. Assimilation of Germans is prohibited. The members of the National Group have full rights of citizenship in the countries of their residence, and they also enjoy the rights granted to national minorities by the postwar treaties, such as the right to their own language before the courts and administrative agencies. In addition, they have full cultural autonomy and "free cultural intercourse with Germany," which means that their schools and universities, although paid for by the countries of their residence, are supervised by Germany. The groups constantly extend their self-government into the sphere formerly reserved to national governments.

The German minority in Croatia, for example, does not exceed 3 percent, but by an agreement concluded in October 1941, the leader of the German National Group is a Director of State immediately under the Poglavnik. He issues decrees "within the framework of the law." The county leaders of the group enjoy similar rights. Full bilingualism is decreed for districts with a German minority of at least 20 percent, and it may also be claimed where the German minority is between 10 and 20 percent. All Germans are entitled to show the German colors and to sing the German anthems. Government officials swear the oath of allegiance to the "new state" and to the "German Folkdom and Führer."

VII

By the transfer of Germans to the Reich, Germany has so far gained approximately 275,000 employable persons. This is a small number compared to her needs. Nevertheless, the Germans in the Carpathian region were not transferred to the Reich. They are more useful where they are as an instrument of control. Instead of transferring these strategically located Germans, the Nazis have organized a great centripetal migration which brings labor to Germany from all the European countries, whether allied, subjugated or neutral. Between April and December 1941 the number of foreign laborers in Germany increased from 1,500,000 (in addition to the 1,400,000 prisoners of war working there in April) to 2,100,000. Among these were more than a million Poles. Generally, 25 percent of the foreign workers are women. Since then, new contracts have been made and 700,000 Russian prisoners have been brought in. To avoid grumbling by German workers, foreigners are paid German wages, but it is doubtful whether they all get extras for the support of their families. The Poles, and probably the Greeks and Serbs also, have to pay a punitive tax of 15 percent on their gross earnings.

As long as the war lasts the need for labor and the unrest in the subjugated and associated countries will force the Nazis to continue transferring labor to Germany and concentrating outcasts in Poland and Ostland.

Will the victors attempt to resettle the dislocated populations after the defeat of Germany? It should be attempted, and could be done, only in connection with a comprehensive political program for Eastern Europe as a whole. That program would have to take account of the new frontiers, the political and economic conditions, present and future, in each of the eastern nations, the relations of those nations with each other, the future status of minorities, the availability of overseas outlets for future emigration, and the amount of financial assistance to be made available from outside in order that the transfers might be conducted with the minimum of hardship and the greatest hope of permanent success. After so much suffering, these peoples deserve no less.

[i] The agreements with Russia, Italy and Rumania on property transfer have not been published.

[ii] The district of Katowice, part of Upper Silesia, is made up of Polish Silesia, Cieszyn, Hultschin and the western fringes of Kielce and Krakow. It has only 145,000 Germans in a population of almost 3,000,000.

[iii] Wartheland is made up of the provinces of Poznan (excluding the northern strip) and Lodz (without the eastern section) and three or four Warsaw counties (the border line differs on various maps). Its population of 4,550,000 includes not more than 330,000 Germans.

[iv] The miners from Galicia have been sent to Katowice.

[v] Some 21,200 farmers were settled between 1933 and 1939; and 5,000 were removed when the army needed their land.

[vi] The agricultural population of the old Reich decreased from 20.8 percent to 18 percent, and the percentage of workers engaged in agriculture and forestry decreased from 28.9 percent to 26.0 percent, between 1933 and 1939.

[vii] The districts of Marienwerder and Königsberg increased their populations slightly because of shipbuilding and other war industries. But if these districts are disregarded, the regions adjacent to western Poland lost approximately 250,000 inhabitants between 1933 and 1939.

[viii] The 3,600 big estates which are run by the Ostdeutsche Land be wirtschaftungsgesellschaft (Ostland), a unit of the Reich's Food Estate, were exempted from this program. Ostland also supervises the small farms as long as they are in Polish hands.

[ix] It was also planned to settle 2,500 to 4,000 farmers from small holdings in the Saar region in Lorraine.

[x] A decree, now in force for practically the whole area from the Baltic Sea to Bulgaria, defines a Volksdeutscher or Volkszugehöriger, the latest official term, as a person who is not a German citizen but who professes to be a German and whose profession is confirmed by his descent, language, demeanor, education and other circumstances. In dubious cases, the decision rests with the local Nazi leader.

[xi] The same method has been used in Luxembourg. The remaining people of Alsace and Lorraine also seem to be considered as Germans after the expulsion of the unconvertibles (particularly those who had moved in after 1918). French is banned from schools, courts and administration offices throughout the area. People are herded into organizations affiliated with the Nazi Party. In Alsace the schools and courses organized by the Labor Front correct the "perverted German" spoken by the population.

[xii] The German armies trapped 72,000 Jewish refugees from the Reich in Northern and Western Europe, and 7,000 to 8,000 in Eastern Europe. There are 30,000 in unoccupied France.

[xiii] The figures on the Jews in Germany and the zone between the old German and Russian borders are drawn from reports of the Joint Distribution Committee. They are more recent than those of the last census. Russian figures are of 1939, as reported by the Institute of Jewish Affairs.

[xiv] Slovakia, 70,000; Greater Hungary, 800,000; Rumania, 275,000; Croatia, 31,600; Germanoccupied Serbia, 9,300; Bulgaria, 62,000; Greece, 73,000; Gouvernement General, 1,180,000; Eastern Poland (including Eastern Galicia, now also part of the Gouvernement General), 1,575,000; Lithuania, 240,000; Latvia, 94,000; Estonia, 5,000; Northern Bukovina and Bessarabia, 442,000; White Russia, 450,000; Ukraine, 1,550,000.

[xv] The partition of Rumania increased the percentage of her Rumanian population from 71.9 in 1930 to 84.9 in 1941. The population of Rumania also includes 580,000 (4.4 percent) Germans, 528,000 (4 percent) Magyars and 237,000 (1.8 per cent) Slavs. These figures are from Wirtschaft und Statistik, 1941, p. 17. This uses the 1940 census, which is not available in the United States. Since then, 73,000 Germans and 54,000 Bulgars have been transferred to Germany and Bulgaria respectively. The various awards of territory made to Hungary decrease her Magyar population from 92.1 percent in 1930 to 73 percent of a population of 15,000,000 in 1941. From Slovakia she acquired 448,000 Ruthenians (Hungarian census of 1910) and 374,000 Slovaks (FOREIGN AFFAIRS, October 1939, p. 113), which, with the 105,000 Slovaks in her postwar territory (1930) and the 31,000 in the Baranya-Backa area taken from Jugoslavia (Jugoslav census of 1921) raises the number of Slovaks in her territory to 510,000. She also acquired approximately 442,000 Serbo-Croats from Jugoslavia. How many were killed in the recent terror or sent back into Jugoslavia is unknown.

[xvi] For Transylvania and the Rumanian Banat, see FOREIGN AFFAIRS, October 1940, p. 237. The Jugoslav Banat, at present occupied by Germany, has a population of 562,000, including 240,200 Serbo-Croats, 17,600 Slovaks, 69,500 Rumanians, 98,500 Magyars and 126,500 Germans (1921). The Baranya-Backa area has a population of 784,600, including 262,200 Serbo-Croats, 31,000 Slovaks, 277,600 Magyars, 1,600 Rumanians and 190,000 Germans.