Second Vienna Award

• 1. Treaty of Trianon Legacy

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  The 1920 Treaty of Trianon carved the multiethnic Kingdom of Hungary into several new nation states. This decision left millions of ethnic Hungarians outside the borders of their new homeland. The territory of the new state was about one-third the size of prewar Hungary. Historically important areas were assigned to other countries, and natural resources were distributed unevenly. Hungarian leaders viewed this outcome as a national humiliation and a real tragedy. They considered the treaty deeply unjust compared to how non-Hungarian populations saw it as justice for marginalized groups. This sense of grievance dominated public life and political culture during the interwar period. The government swung increasingly toward the right under Regent Miklós Horthy. Eventually, Hungary established close relations with Benito Mussolini's Italy and Adolf Hitler's Germany. These alliances allowed Hungary to regain southern Czechoslovakia in the First Vienna Award of 1938. It also gained Subcarpathia in 1939. However, neither award satisfied Hungarian political ambitions regarding Transylvania.

• 2. Axis Arbitration Process

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  On the 1st of July 1940, Romania repudiated the Anglo-French guarantee of the 13th of April 1939. King Carol II suggested that Germany dispatch a military mission to Bucharest. He sought to renew the alliance of 1883. Germany used Romania's desperation to force a revision of the territorial settlement produced by the Paris Peace Conference of 1919. In an exchange of letters between Carol and Hitler from 5 to the 15th of July, conditions were set. Carol insisted no territorial exchange occur without a population exchange. Hitler conditioned German goodwill on Romania having good relations with Hungary and Bulgaria. Romanian foreign minister Mihail Manoilescu met with German minister plenipotentiary Wilhelm Fabricius. Negotiations began at Turnu Severin on the 16th of August. The initial Hungarian claim covered territory with 3,803,000 inhabitants. Almost two-thirds of these people were Romanian. Talks broke off on the 24th of August. The German and Italian governments then proposed arbitration. Minutes of the Romanian Crown Council of the 29th of August described this as communications with an ultimative character. Foreign Ministers Joachim von Ribbentrop of Germany and Galeazzo Ciano of Italy met on the 30th of August 1940 at the Belvedere Palace in Vienna. They reduced the Hungarian demands to territory with a population of 2,667,007. The treaty was signed by Hungarian Foreign Minister István Csáky and Romanian Foreign Minister Mihail Manoilescu.

• 3. Demographic Statistics Analysis

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  The territory in question covered an area of approximately 43,000 square kilometers. The 1930 Romanian census registered for the region a population of 2,393,300. In 1941, the Hungarian authorities conducted a new census registering a total population of 2,578,100. Both censuses asked language and nationality separately. The results showed significant discrepancies between the two counts. Hungarian statistics listed 1,380,500 Hungarians representing 53.55% of the population. Romanian statistics listed only 912,500 Hungarians representing 38.13%. Romanian figures showed 1,176,900 Romanians making up 49.17%, while Hungarian data showed 1,029,000 Romanians at 39.91%. Historian Keith Hitchins summarized that some 1,150,000 to 1,300,000 Romanians remained north of the new frontier. About 500,000 Magyars continued to reside in the south according to these conflicting records. Apart from natural population growth, differences were caused by migration and assimilation. By January 1941, 100,000 Hungarian refugees had arrived in Hungary from South Transylvania. Nearly the same number of persons arrived from Hungary into the reannexed territory as those who moved to Trianon Hungarian territory from South Transylvania. On the other hand, nearly the same number of Romanians left for Southern Transylvania by February 1941. A fall in total population suggests a further 40,000 to 50,000 Romanians moved from North Transylvania to South Transylvania.

• 4. Military Occupation and Massacres

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  Romania had 14 days to evacuate the concerned territories and assign them to Hungary. The Hungarian troops stepped across the Trianon borders on the 5th of September. Regent Miklós Horthy attended the entry. The troops reached the pre-Trianon border on the 13th of September. Generally, the ethnic Hungarian population welcomed the troops regarding separation from Romania as liberation. The large ethnic Romanian community considered the Second Vienna Award a return to long Hungarian rule. Upon entering the awarded territory, the Royal Hungarian Army committed massacres against the Romanian population. On the 9th of September, in the village of Treznea, some Hungarian troops made a 4 km detour from the Zalău, Cluj route. They started firing at will on locals of all ages and killed many of them. Some Hungarian sources recorded that 87 Romanians and 6 Jews were killed including the local Orthodox priest. Other Romanian sources give as many as 263 locals who were killed. In similar circumstances, 159 local villagers were killed on 13 and the 14th of September 1940 by Hungarian troops in the village of Ip. Lieutenant Zoltán Vasváry commanded the Hungarian troops who perpetrated this massacre. On September 14, on order of Vasváry, a pit 24 m by 4 m wide was dug in the village cemetery. Corpses were buried head-to-head in two rows with no religious ceremony. The Nușfalău massacre occurred in the village of Nușfalău on the 8th of September 1940 when a Hungarian soldier tortured and killed eleven ethnic Romanians.

• 5. Fortified Line Engineering

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  The Carol II fortified line had been built by Romania in the late 1930s at the order of King Carol II to defend the western border with Hungary. Stretching across approximately 400 kilometers, the line itself was not continuous but protected only the most likely routes towards inner Transylvania. It had 320 casemates: 80 built in 1938, 180 built in 1939 and the rest built in the first half of 1940. There was a distance of about 400 meters between each casemate. All were made of reinforced concrete with varying sizes but all were armed with machine guns. Artillery was placed between the casemates themselves. In front of the casemates there were rows of barbed wire, mine fields and one large antitank ditch which in some places were filled with water. Firing from the casemates was calculated to be very dense and crossed to cause as many losses as possible to enemy infantry. The role of the fortified line was not to stop incoming attacks but to delay them. After the Vienna Award, the entire line fell in the area allotted to Hungary. Romanian troops evacuated as much equipment as possible but dug-in telephone lines could not be recovered. They were eventually used by the Hungarian Army. The Hungarians also salvaged as much metal as possible which amounted to a huge amount. After all useful equipment and materiel had been salvaged, the casemates were blown up by the Hungarians to prevent them from being used again.

• 6. Allied Nullification and Restoration

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  The Second Vienna Award was voided by the Allied Commission through the Armistice Agreement with Romania on the 12th of September 1944. Article 19 stipulated that the Allied Governments regard the decision of the Vienna award regarding Transylvania as void. They agreed that Transylvania should be returned to Romania subject to confirmation at the peace settlement. That came after King Michael's Coup of the 23rd of August 1944 when Romania changed sides and joined the Allies. Thereafter, the Romanian Army fought Nazi Germany and its allies first in Romania and later in German-occupied Hungary and Slovakia. This included operations during the Budapest Offensive, the Siege of Budapest, the Bratislava, Brno Offensive, and the Prague Offensive. After the Battle of Carei on the 25th of October 1944, all territory of Northern Transylvania was under control of Romanian and Soviet troops. The Soviet Union kept administrative control until the 9th of March 1945 when it was reverted to Romania. The 1947 Paris Peace Treaties reaffirmed the borders between Romania and Hungary as they had been originally defined in the Treaty of Trianon 27 years earlier.