CYIL vol. 9 (2018)

JÁN KLUČKA CYIL 9 ȍ2018Ȏ part in the struggle for the liberation of Czechoslovakia) were to be deprived of Czechoslovak citizenship and their transfer to the Germany would be executed in organised lines within the shortest possible period, i.e. about two years. As a consequence of this measure one of the most serious causes of international conflicts and disputes was to be removed. (Resumé – paras. 2 and 3 of the Memorandum). According to the Memorandum: “The ultimate aim of this plan is the elimination of the German Minority in Czechoslovakia qua national minority and the integration of the people of the Republic into one national unity” (para. 21 of the Memorandum). Regarding the Hungarian Minority in Czechoslovakia, the Memorandum points out that this “raises problems less dangerous than those causes by the German Minority and its situation can be solved either of it transfer to Hungary” and/ or: “Incidentally the presence of a considerable Slovak minority in pre-1938 Hungary makes it possible to solve this problem largely on the basis of exchange of population“ (para. 20 of the Memorandum). At the Potsdam Conference, in August 1945, the request of the Czechoslovak government for the unilateral deportation of Hungarians from the country was refused (mainly due to pressure from the USA). An Agreement on a Population Exchange between Czechoslovakia and Hungary was signed on 27 February 1946 under pressure from the Allied Control Commission. 50 The victorious Allied states signed the peace treaty with Hungary in Paris on 10 February 1947, but the population exchange was a slow process that lasted from April 1947 until December 1948. According to different estimates between 45,000 to 120,000 Hungarians were transferred under the bilateral exchange while 71,787 or 73,200 Slovaks from Hungary (the exact number depends on the source consulted) were resettled in Southern Slovakia. 51 The post-war situation of the German minority was different. According to the data of the Czechoslovak Ministry of Interior, 2,165,135 ethnic Germans were expelled by the end of October 1946. 52 The citizenship of persons belonging to the Hungarian and German minority remaining in the territory of Czechoslovakia was stipulated at the beginning of the 1950s by special laws. 53 The practical application of these measures significantly reduced the minority population of German and Hungarian origin in post-war Czechoslovakia. One canalsomentionanothermeasurewhich led toa considerabledecreaseof another specific minority. The following analysis is therefore regarding the Treaty between Czechoslovakia and the USSR on Transcarpathian Ukraine from 29 June 1945. 54 The Protocol to the Treaty signed the same day gave members of the Ukrainian and Russian Ethnic Group in the Czechoslovak territory the right to choose USSR citizenship before 1. January 1946. The post-war status of the Polish minority however remained beyond the above mentioned system concerning the German and Hungarian minorities. It is worth noting that in Warsaw on 10 March 1947 50 Published under Act No. 145/1946 Collection of Laws. 51 AHONEN, P.: People on the Move: Forced Population Movements in Europe in the Second World War and its Aftermath , Berg Publishers, 2008, p. 83. 52 PYKEL, P.: The expulsion of the Germans from Czechoslovakia. Available at: EUI Working Paper HEC/2004/1, p. 20. 53 Act No. 245/1948 Collection of Laws on the Citizenship of Persons of Hungarian Ethnicity restored Czechoslovak citizenship to those who were citizens of Czechoslovakia on 1 November 1938 and who were not subject to the “voluntary exchange of population” between Slovakia and Hungary in 1946. Act no. 34/1953 Collection of Laws on the Acquisition of Czechoslovak Citizenship by Particular Persons restored Czechoslovak citizenship to ethnic Germans who lost it as a consequence of the Presidential Decree no. 33/1945 and who were permanent residents of the Czechoslovak Republic. 54 Published under Act No. 186/1946 Collection of Laws.

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