First Vienna Award

From 1933, Hungarian foreign policy closely collaborated with Nazi Germany in the hope of revising the borders[2] that had been established by the 1920 Treaty of Trianon. In March 1933, the Hungarian prime minister declared that Hungary "requests justice in the historical principle" and wanted the redeem of Hungarian-inhabited territories that had been lost after World War I. In June 1933, Hungarian Prime Minister Gyula Gömbös visited Germany and, together with Adolf Hitler, concluded that Czechoslovakia was the main obstacle for "rearrangement" of Central Europe and that Czechoslovakia should be disintegrated from within, internationally isolated and then eliminated by military power.[3] During a meeting with Hitler in August 1936, Miklós Horthy explained the purpose of a common attack against Czechoslovakia as removing a "cancer tumor from the heart of Europe".[4] At the end of 1937, Hitler decided to start action against Czechoslovakia. In 1938, Germany and Hungary focused on creation of a common platform against Czechoslovakia, and in November, Hitler negotiated with the Hungarian government and on the destiny of Czechoslovakia.[5]

Hungarian representatives considered an attack to be too dangerous and wanted to preserve the country's relationships with France and Britain, whose support for the problem of Hungarian minorities came on the condition of Hungary not engaging on German military actions.[2] That outraged Hitler and led to a change in the German view of Hungarian territorial demands in eastern Czechoslovakia.

Before the Munich Agreement, a Hungarian government emissary officially asked the German and Italian delegations to resolve Hungarian demands together with the questions of Sudeten Germans. However, Hitler did not agree because he was not satisfied with the previous passivity of Hungary and had his own plans for Central Europe. The French and British delegates (Édouard Daladier and Neville Chamberlain) saw potential danger in such a complex solution, but the Italian delegate, Benito Mussolini, allowed Hungarian demands were reflected in an appendix to the agreement. That requested Czechoslovakia to resolve the minority question with Hungary and Poland within three months through bilateral negotiations; otherwise, matters would be resolved by the four signatories of the agreement.[6] After the annexation of Zaolzie and Český Těšín by Poland, the Hungarian question remained open. Poland later annexed further territories in northern Slovakia (on December 1, 1938, villages in Kysuce, Orava a Spiš) comprising 226 km², with 4,280 inhabitants. The Hungarian government understood the appendix of the Munich Agreement as an agreement of the Great Powers for the revision of peace treaties and emphasised that it did not mean only the revision of borders based on ethnicity but also the eventual restoration of territory of Hungary before 1918[7] (the creation of a common border with Poland). Official Hungarian circles were aware that Hungary alone was too weak to enforce territorial demands towards Czechoslovakia because they knew that any attack would encounter the resistance of Czechoslovakia's more modern army.[note 1] In that situation, Hungary decided to fight with Czechoslovakia in the diplomatic field and to push for territorial revision in the spirit of Munich Agreement.[8]

The Munich Agreement defined a three-month period to resolve Hungarian demands, and the Hungarian government pushed to start negotiations immediately. The pressure was increased on the Hungarian side by border conflicts and by diversion actions in Czechoslovakis. The first conflict occurred in the early morning of October 5, 1938, when troops of the Royal Hungarian Army crossed the border and attacked Czechoslovak positions near Jesenské[9] with the goal of capturing Rimavská Sobota.[10] Hungarian troops withdrew after the arrival of Czechoslovak reinforcements, which killed nine Hungarians and captured prisoners. Two days later, Hungarian troops tried to cross the Danube near Štúrovo (Párkány), but failed again.[10] The Czechoslovak situation was worse in Carpathian Ruthenia, with its lower density of fortifications, where paramilitary units of Rongyos Gárda infiltrated Czechoslovak territory. The first two units of the Rongyos Gárda crossed the border on October 6, 1938, and two days later, they blew up the bridge over the Borozhava River. Such actions continued during the negotiations and after the First Vienna Award. During the second day of bilateral negotiations (October 10, 1938), Hungarian troops murdered a railway officer in Borozhava and damaged railway facilities.[11]

Czechoslovakia had an interest in stabilizing the situation because the foreign ministry had to resolve problems with Poland and Germany and did not want to start negotiations before October 15. The Czechoslovak minister of foreign affairs was focused on building new relationships with Germany and Italy to negotiate guarantees for new borders.[12] After the Munich Agreement, all political subjects in Slovakia concluded that it is necessary to change the position of Slovakia within the state and declared its autonomy on October 6, 1938. The new, autonomous government understood the definition of borders as a priority, and the Slovak People's Party requested participation in the negotiations.[13] The central government in Prague was aware that the delegation should be led by a Slovak and considered Milan Hodža or Imrich Karvaš. However, after the creation of an autonomous government, Foreign Minister František Chvalkovský proposed its representatives, Jozef Tiso or Ferdinand Ďurčanský. Both politicians refused on the justification that the role was in competition with the central government. When it was emphasised that it is mainly the interest of Slovakia, they accepted.[14] Moreover, Tiso hoped that Hungarian partners would more likely accept concessions if they did not negotiate with representatives of the central government.[15] Under the pressure of the threat of internal destabilisation of Czechoslovakia because of diverting actions and the further radicalisation of the situation in Hungary, Czechoslovakia agreed to begin negotiations on October 9.

Negotiations were held between October 9 and October 13, 1938 in Komárno, on the Slovak northern bank of the Danube River, just on the border with Hungary. The Czechoslovak delegation was led by Jozef Tiso, the prime minister of the autonomous government, without any experience with similar negotiations, and it included Ferdinand Ďurčanský, Minister of Justice in the Slovak cabinet, and General Rudolf Viest. The central government of Czechoslovakia was represented by Ivan Krno, Political Director of the Czechoslovak Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who held rank of Ambassador Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary. Autonomous Carpathian Ruthenia was represented by Ivan Párkányi (minister without portfolio). The Czechoslovak (Slovak and Ruthenian) delegation was not completely prepared for lack of time. By contrast, the Hungarian delegation comprised experienced individuals[12] and was led by the Foreign Minister Kálmán Kánya, and the Minister of Education, Pál Teleki. The Hungarian government welcomed the composition of Czechoslovak delegation and believed that it would be easier to influence inexperienced Slovak politicians by promises.[12] Thaf expectation was not fulfilled since other Slovak delegates refused any possibility to return to Hungary.[12]

The Hungarian government's strategy for the negotiations was to demand areas in which at least 50% of Hungarians lived according to the 1910 census.[12] That formulation was chosen with respect to the signers of the Munich Agreement, but Hungary also requested areas which did not match those criteria.[16] On the first day, Hungary supplied memorandum with the requested territorial changes. The Hungarians further demanded a plebiscite in the remaining territory in which Slovaks and Ruthenians would declare whether they wanted to be incorporated into Hungary.

Hungary demanded territories up to and including a line defined by Devín (Hungarian: Dévény), Bratislava (Pozsony), Nitra (Nyitra), Tlmače (Garamtolmács), Levice (Léva), Lučenec (Losonc), Rimavská Sobota (Rimaszombat), Jelšava (Jolsva), Rožňava (Rozsnyó), Košice (Kassa), Trebišov (Tőketerebes), Pavlovce nad Uhom (Pálóc), Uzhhorod (Slovak: Užhorod, Hungarian: Ungvár), Mukacheve (Mukačevo, Munkács), and Vinogradiv (Nagyszőlős). The territory was 14,106 km² (with 12,124 km² in Slovakia and 1,982 km² in Carpathian Ruthenia). It included 1,346,000 citizens (1,136,000 in Slovakia, 210,000 in Carpathian Ruthenia). According to the last census, 678,000 of them declared other than Hungarian nationality (553,000 in Slovakia, 125,000 in Carpathian Ruthenia) in 1930.[17]

Hungary also requested the immediate takeover of two border towns from Czechoslovakia as a "goodwill gesture". The Czechoslovak delegation agreed on the railway town of Slovenské Nové Mesto (until 1918 a suburb of the Hungarian town of Sátoraljaújhely) and the town of Šahy (Hungarian: Ipolyság). Both were occupied by Hungary on October 12.

Local population welcomes Hungarian troops in Losonc (Lučenec)

The main difference between the arguments of the two parties was that the Hungarians presented the 1910 census figures, as had Germany during the Munich Conference, but Czechoslovakia presented the latest 1930 figures and contested the validity of the 1910 census. Later, it also presented figures from Hungarian censuses before 1900. The census from 1910 was unacceptable for the Czechoslovak delegation because it represented the peak of Magyarization and differed from previous Hungarian and later Czechoslovak censuses as well as postwar censuses from other countries in which the Hungarian minority lived (Austria, Romania and Yugoslavia). Tiso gave an example, as he was also counted as a Hungarian during that census.[18] At the same time, the Hungarian delegation did not accept the results of the Czechoslovak census, proposing to use the Hungarian census from 1880, before the peak of Magyarization, as a compromise. The Hungarians also did not agree on definition of "pure Hungarian" towns like Košice, as were understood by Hungarian delegates.

The request for a plebiscite for Slovaks and Ruthenians about rejoining Hungary was refused as irrelevant, because the Munich Agreement did not address question of these two nations, the idea violated the sovereignty of Czechoslovakia and the Ruthenian delegate declared that the Ruthenian nation (except communists) had already expressed its will to live in Czechoslovakia in the past.[20]

The Hungarian delegation refused several Czechoslovak proposals. The Czechoslovak delegation offered Hungary the creation of an autonomous Hungarian territory within Slovakia.[21] Kánya characterised the proposal as a "bad joke" and declared that it was "absolutely impossible to discuss this question".[21] Czechoslovakia then offered to cede Great Rye Island (Slovak: Žitný ostrov, Hungarian: Csallóköz, 1838 km², with 105,418 inhabitants, almost all were Hungarians), the creation of a free port in the town of Komárno and a population exchange in the remaining frontier regions.

Since Hungary turned down that offer as well, on October 13, the Czechoslovak delegation proposed another solution. The goal of the Czechoslovak proposal was to the create borders with balanced minorities in both states (including Slovaks in Békés County).[22] As well as the principle of balanced minorities, the proposal included the Czechoslovak strategic interest of preserving the railway to Carpathian Ruthenia. Pál Teleki refused the proposal without a deeper study[23] as a "humourous border" and that Hungarian delegation "analysed the map only to be polite".[24]

Although the Czechoslovak delegation declared that it was open for further discussion about its proposal and offered consultation with their experts, the Hungarian delegation refused further discussion.[25] On the evening of October 13, after consultations in Budapest, Kánya declared that the negotiations had failed and asked the four signatories of the Munich Agreement to be the adjudicator. As the United Kingdom and France had decided not to make any decision, the adjudicators became German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop and Italian Foreign Minister Galeazzo Ciano.

On October 13, the day the negotiations deadlocked, Hungary conducted a partial mobilisation. Czechoslovakia performed actions to strengthen its security and declared martial law in the frontier region.[26] After the failure of bilateral negotiations, the dispute about borders escalated to a wider international level. The Axis powers took the initiative in favour of Hungary to realise their own plans in the region.

Hungary sent delegations to both Italy and Germany. Count Csáky went to Rome. Kálmán Darányi went to Germany and told Hitler that Hungary was ready to fight and "[would] not accept the behavior of the Slovaks".[27] However, the situation in Central Europe changed after the Munich Agreement and the German-Hungarian-Polish bloc was over. Germany refused to take steps to strengthen Hungary.[28] Hitler declared that if Hungary started a conflict, nobody would help. He refused the idea of a common conference of the four signers of the Munich Agreement, the demands for plebiscite in Slovakia and Carpathian Ruthenia and the Hungarian claims for Bratislava.[27] Instead, he advised Hungary to continue the negotiations and to preserve the ethnic principle. He proposed that Germany would act as a mediator. Ribbentrop and Darányi agreed on a map which would be offered to Czechoslovakia ("Ribbentrop line"). The line later became source of misunderstanding between Hungary and Germany. According to Darányi, Ribbentrop did not accept his requests because several important towns remained on the Czechoslovak side[29] (Bratislava, Nitra, Uzhorod and Mukachevo; the question of Košice was open[28]). Germany rejected the accusations and declared that Ribbentrop line was created after consulting Darányi and with his agreement. When the Hungarian government insisted, Ribbentrop announced that German mediation had ended.[27]

At the same time as Darányi, Czechoslovak Foreign Minister František Chvalkovský also visited Germany to negotiate with German representatives. Hitler blamed Czechoslovakia for the failure of negotiations with Hungary and requested their renewal. He gave Chvalkovský a map with the Ribbentrop line and promised to guarantee new borders, based on that proposal. Back in Prague, Chvalkovský recommended to accept the Ribbentrop line. However, the Slovak autonomous government was against such a solution and hoped that it would be possible to achieve further corrections. On October 19, Tiso and Ďurčanský met with Ribbentrop in Munich and managed to persuade him to assign Košice to Czechoslovakia and to accept the prior proposal of keeping balanced minorities both in Czechoslovakia and Hungary.[30] Czechoslovak experts prepared material that argued that the Hungarian statistics were unreliable and that Hungarian demands were not compliant with the ethnic principle but were driven by foreign policy and strategic factors.[31] They argued that the Hungarian claim for Košice was not motivated by ethnic or historical reasons but focused on elimination of the largest communication, economic and cultural centre it the east and on the interruption of the railway to Carpatian Ruthenia and allied Romania, thus totally isolating the eastern part of the republic, which could be later annexed by Hungary.[30] Both Tiso and Ďurčanský believed that they had persuaded Hitler. Tiso sent a letter to Prague to notify about positive results.[31]

A few days later, Ribbentrop revealed himself to be quite hostile to the Hungarians. As Ciano saw it, "The truth is that he intends to protect Czechoslovakia as far as he can and sacrifice the ambitions, even the legitimate ambitions, of Hungary".

After October 17, activities around Subcarpathian Rus' intensified. Poland proposed a partition of Subcarpathian Rus' among Hungary, Poland and Romania. Romania, a staunch ally of Czechoslovakia against Hungary, refused the proposal and even offered military support for Czechoslovakia in Subcarpathia. Hungary, in turn, attempted to persuade the Subcarpathian Rus' representatives to become part of Hungary. A common Polish-Hungarian border, which would arise by a Hungarian annexation of Subcarpathian Rus', had been a longtime dream of both Poland and Hungary, Poland was moving troops toward that frontier for support. However, since a common Polish-Hungarian frontier would mean a flanking of Germany, Germany was willing to face such a frontier only if Poland made compensation by giving up the Danzig corridor to East Prussia. Poland refused the German proposal. On October 20, the Rusyns produced a resolution more or less in favour of a plebiscite concerning the entirety of Subcarpathian Rus' becoming part of Hungary. Five days later, Subcarpathian Prime Minister Andriy Borody was placed under arrest in Prague, and Subcarpathian Foreign Minister Avhustyn Voloshyn was appointed prime minister. He was willing to consider the cession only of ethnically-Hungarian territories to Hungary and rejected the idea of a plebiscite.

Negotiations between Czechoslovakia and Hungary resumed via diplomatic channels. Czechoslovakia adopted the "Ribbentrop line" in the hope that it would receive a guarantee of new borders from the side of Axis powers and proposed it officially on October 22. Czechoslovakia offered to cede Hungary territory with 494,646 Hungarians and 168,632 Slovaks.[32] Czechoslovakia would retain Bratislava, Nitra and Košice.[30] Hungary turned down the proposal, causing Germany to withdraw its position as mediator. Hungary demanded for the territories offered by Czechoslovakia to be immediately occupied by Hungary, for there be a plebiscite in the disputed territory and for Subcarpathia to "decide its own future". For Czechoslovakia, it was unacceptable to cede territories immediately that were not subject of discussion and to resolve the question of the remaining parts later. By accepting the proposal, Czechoslovak boundary fortifications would stay on the Hungarian side, and the Hungarian army could invade more Czechoslovak territory.[33] Hungary also warned that if Czechoslovakia refused that proposal, Hungary would demand arbitration (Italo-German in Western Slovakia, Italo-German-Polish in Eastern Slovakia and Subcarpathian Rus'). Then, Czechoslovakia would have no choice but to accept Hungarian demands or to agree with arbitration. That decision was forced also by fact that France and Britain had lost interest on Czechoslovakia and considered the region to be in the German sphere of influence.[34] Both parties hoped that Germany would support their demands. The Slovak autonomous government also accepted the idea of arbitration with unrealistic expectations, based on assurances of Ribbentrop.[34]

Although the Hungarian government demanded arbitration, it did not have the prior approval of Germany. Germany insisted on its negative opinion and argued of Hitler's disagreement, Ribbentrop's disappointment with previous negotiations with Darányi and the danger of military conflict in the case if one part does not accept results.[35] Hungary managed to persuade Italy that the powerful German influence exercised through Czechoslovakia could be eliminated by a strong Hungary.[36] Ciano accepted this proposal and promised to advocate Hungarian interests. During Ribbentrop's visit to Rome (October 27–30, 1938) Ciano persuaded Ribbentrop about the importance of arbitration for the future position of Axis powers in the region and Ribbentrop promised to persuade Hitler.[36] Italy took the initiative and proposed to achieve common agreement in Rome as a basis for arbitration. Ciano, who had been briefed by Hungarian experts, was in a better position than the less-informed Ribbentrop and achieved several important concessions.[36] On October 31, the Hungarian envoy in Rome confidentially informed Hungarian government, "Ribbentrop definitely agreed with return of Košice, Uzhorod and Mukachevo".[36]

On October 29, 1938, Czechoslovakia and Hungary officially asked Germany and Italy to arbitrate and declared in advance that they would abide by the results.[36]

František Chvalkovský, Galeazzo Ciano, Joachim von Ribbentrop, Kálmán Kánya

The award was made in Vienna by the foreign ministers of Germany (Joachim von Ribbentrop) and Italy (Galeazzo Ciano). The Hungarian delegation was led by Foreign Minister Kálmán Kánya, accompanied by Minister of Education Pál Teleki. The Czechoslovak delegation was led by Foreign Minister František Chvalkovský and Ivan Krno. Important members of the Czechoslovak delegation included representatives of Subcarpathian Rus' (Prime Minister Avgustyn Voloshyn) and of Slovakia (Prime Minister Jozef Tiso and Minister of Justice Ferdinand Ďurčanský). Hermann Göring was also present.

The arbitration began in the Belvedere Palace, in Vienna, at noon on November 2, 1938. The Czechoslovak and the Hungarian delegations were allowed to present their arguments. Chvalkovský was brief and left the task of presenting the Czechoslovak case to Krno. Despite explicit demands by Czechoslovak representatives, both arbiters refused to let Slovak Prime Minister Tiso and Subcarpathian Prime Minister Voloshyn participate. Ribbentrop and Ciano reasoned that only the representatives of the central governments could participate (Czechoslovakia, rather than the partially-autonomous Slovakia or Carpatho-Ruthenia).[37] They assumed that Chvalkovský would be more submissive and that Tiso would complicate the negotiations.[37] The negotiationd were a formality, and a new border was drawn after half a day. When the award was announced by Ribbentrop around 7 p.m., the Czechoslovak delegation was so shocked that Tiso actually had to be talked by Ribbentrop and Chvalkovský into signing the document.[38]

Czechoslovakia had to surrender the territories in southern Slovakia and southern Carpathian Ruthenia south of the line (and including the towns of) Senec (Szenc), Galanta (Galánta), Vráble (Verebély), Levice (Léva), Lučenec (Losonc), Rimavská Sobota (Rimaszombat), Jelšava (Jolsva), Rožnava (Rozsnyó), Košice (Kassa), Michaľany (Szentmihályfalva), Veľké Kapušany (Nagykapos), Uzhhorod (Ungvár), and Mukachevo (Munkács) – to the border with Romania. Slovakia lost 10,390 km² with 854,277 inhabitants[39] – 503,980 Hungarians (58,99%), 272,145 Slovaks or Czechs (32,43%), 26,151 Jews (3,06%), 8,947 Germans (1,05%), 1,825 Ruthenians, 14,617 other and 26,005 foreign citizens[40][41] (according to the Czechoslovak census of 1930). Considering the average population growth since the last census, it is possible to estimate the total size of population at the time of the arbitration at 935,000 people, 300,000 of whom were Slovaks and Czechs[39] Czechoslovakia lost also additional territory in Carpathian Ruthenia.

Slovaks in the redeemed territory joined the existing Slovak minority in Hungary, but only about 60,000 Hungarians[42] remained in the Slovak State. The new border did not respect the principle of ethnic borders requested by Hungary as a "correction of injustices of Treaty of Trianon" or the Hungarian census of 1910. The most obvious violations of the ethnic principle occurred in areas around Nové Zámky–Vráble–Hurbanovo, the area around Jelšava and the area around Košice.[42] Only 8 of 79 villages around Košice had a Hungarian-majority population,[42] besides the 42,245 Slovaks in Košice.

Czechoslovakia lost the direct railway connection to Carpathian Ruthenia and to allied Romania.

Tiso took the result personally, especially because he had failed to arrange the evacuation of Košice.[38] He announced the results of the award on the radio late in the evening and blamed the central government for its long-term policy but accepted the result.[note 2][43]

The ceded territories were occupied by the Royal Hungarian Army (Magyar Királyi Honvédség) between November 5 and 10, 1938. On November 11, Horthy solemnly entered the main town, Košice (Kassa).

The recovered Upper Hungary territories were incorporated into Hungary on November 12, 1938 by an act of the Hungarian Parliament. Following the ancient counties of the Kingdom of Hungary, the occupied territory was divided into two new counties with seats in Nové Zámky and Levice, and some lands became part of other Hungarian counties.

The First Vienna Award led to worsening anti-Hungarian sentiments in Slovakia. Shortly after the award had been announced, János Esterházy, a leader of the Hungarian minority in Slovakia, proposed for Hungary to return to Slovakia 1000 km² of the territory that Hungary had received, predominantly Slovak lands between Šurany (Nagysurány) and Palárikovo (Tótmegyer), to ensure long-term peaceful co-existence between the two nations. His proposal was not accepted by the Hungarian government.[44] The obvious violation of the ethnic balance between the two countries' minorities, which had repeatedly been endorsed years before by Hungary, and the short period between the award and a Hungarian attack against Slovakia in March 1939, caused anti-Hungarian sentiment and social movements to become a significant unifying element for Slovaks during World War II. Anti-Hungarian demonstrations were held on each anniversary of the award in which anti-Hungarian slogans were shouted and Hungarian houses or cultural institutions were damaged. On the third anniversary, a mob furious because of the shooting of Slovaks by Hungarian police in Komjatice destroyed the Hungarian Cultural House.[45]

Hungary annulled Point 4 of Article 27 of the Treaty of Trianon, which committed it to respect the new borders that were defined by the treaty. According to Deák, Hungary also violated Articles 48 and 49 of the treaty, which guaranteed independence and rights of new Czechoslovak state.,[46] and in addition to territorial gains based on the First Vienna Award, Hungary ignored the results of the arbitration and tried to annex Carpathian Ruthenia few weeks later.[23]

From the Middle Ages to well into the 18th century, Hungary and Poland had shared a historic common border, and they had always enjoyed good relations.[47] After the Munich Agreement on September 30, 1938, both countries had worked together to restore their historic common border.[48] A step toward their goal was realised with the First Vienna Award (November 2, 1938).

Under pressure from Hitler, Slovakia declared total independence on March 14, 1939, and Czechoslovakia ceased to exist. Two days earlier, Hitler had given Hungary permission to occupy the rest of Carpatho-Ruthenia within 24 hour but to abstain from attempting to annex the remainder of Slovakia, which Hitler wanted to turn into a strategically-located German ally, especially for his planned invasion of Poland. On March 14–15, what remained of Carpatho-Ruthenia declared its independence as Carpatho-Ukraine, and shortly afterward, between March 15 and 18, it was occupied by Hungary. After occupying Carpatho-Ukraine, Hungary occupied a small amount of Slovakia on March 15. Seeing no substantial reaction, Hungary on March 23 launched a larger attack on eastern Slovakia. The plan was to "advance as far west as possible". After a short Slovak-Hungarian War, with several Hungarian air raids, such as March 24 on Spišská Nová Ves, Hungary was forced by Germany to stop and negotiate. The negotiations (March 27 – April 4) gave Hungary further territories in Eastern Slovakia (1,897 km²) with 69,630 inhabitants, almost exclusively Slovaks or Rusyns. Unlike the earlier Vienna Award, the annexed territories were not justified on ethnic grounds. (The Hungarians justified this under the grounds that the Vienna Award had been an arbitration between Hungary and Czechoslovakia, the latter of which having ceased to exist a few days earlier.)

Until mid-March 1939, Germany had considered that "for military reasons a common Hungarian-Polish frontier was undesirable". Indeed, Hitler had warned Hungary not to touch the remainder of Slovakia when he authorized Hungary to occupy the rest of Carpathian Ruthenia in March 1939. He meant to use Slovakia as a staging ground for his planned invasion of Poland. In March 1939, Hitler changed his mind on the common Hungarian-Polish frontier and decided to betray Germany's ally, the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, who had already in 1938 begun organising Ukrainian military units in a sich outside Uzhhorod under German tutelage. Polish political and military authorities saw the sich as a danger to the neighbouring southeastern Poland, with its largely Ukrainian population.[49] Hitler, however, was concerned that if a Ukrainian army that was organised in Rus accompanied German forces invading the Soviet Union, Ukrainian nationalists would insist on the establishment of an independent Ukraine. Hitler, who had plans for the natural and farming resources of Ukraine, did not want to have to deal with an independent Ukrainian government.[50]

Hitler soon had cause to regret his decision regarding the fate of Carpatho-Ukraine. In six months, during his 1939 invasion of Poland, the common Hungarian-Polish border would become of major importance when Horthy's government, on the ground of long-time friendship between Poles and Hungarians, declined, as a matter of Hungarian honour,[51] Hitler's request to transit German forces across Carpathian Rus' into southeastern Poland to speed Poland's conquest. That, in turn, allowed the Polish government and tens of thousands of Polish military personnel to escape into neighbouring Hungary and Romania and from there to France and French-mandated Syria to carry on operations as the third-strongest Allied belligerent, after Britain and France. Also, for a time, Polish and British intelligence agents and couriers, including the notable Krystyna Skarbek, used Hungary's Carpathian Ruthenia as a route across the Carpathian Mountains to and from Poland.[52]

The Vienna Award escalated in Slovakia into the first deportations of Jews. Tiso and his collaborators looked for a scapegoat, which was found in Jews because of their demonstration in favour of Bratislava to be part of Hungary on the evening before the arbitration. Between November 4 and 5, 1938, Slovakia's autonomous government deported 7,500 Jews into the new Hungarian-Slovak border (Tiso justified the step as "letting them go where they wanted"). Hungary refused to accept them, who included some who were elderly or children, and the deported Jews found themselves imprisoned in no man's land during the cold autumn weather. Hundreds of Jews stayed in a camp in Veľký Kýr and Miloslavov, where they were unable to move to residences in either Slovakia or Hungary.[53]

After the Vienna Award, the Hungarian government and United Hungarian Party organised celebrations and a triumphant entry of the Hungarian army into the redeemed territories. Organizers consciously imitated the entry of Hitler's army into the Sudetenland.[54] The result of arbitration was met by the most of the Hungarian population by local statements of disagreement.[54] Hungarian Honvéds were not welcomed also in some "pure Hungarian" villages, and in one village, their accommodation had to be arranged by force.[55] A few days before the arbitration, Budapest had also received messages from some of borderline villages that rejected became part of Hungary ("Stay there, do not liberate us. We are having a good time, better than you, liberate yourself").[55] The Vienna Award finally refuted interwar Hungarian propaganda that "Slovak brothers" dreamed about returning to the 1000-year Hungarian Empire and could not openly declare their opinion under Czech domination.

Hungary imposed a military administration on the redeemed territories.[55] Between October 28 and 29, 1938, Béla Imrédy and the leader of the United Hungarian Party Andor Jaross made an agreement that representatives of the party who stayed in redeemed territories would be part of a civic group of general staff, which would hold supreme authority.[56] One of its parts (the Upper Country Unification Group) later became the basis for the Ministry for Upper Country, led by Jaross. All other political parties were banned, and obstacles were made for the introduction of other parties from Hungary. The United Hungarian Party then used its power for the persecution of Slovaks as well as Hungarians who had disagreed with the activities against Czechoslovakia before the award.[56] Military administration was changed to civilian on December 21, 1938.[57]

Hungary performed a new census in the redeemed territory in December 1938. The census took place in an atmosphere of expulsions, persecutions, restriction of civil rights and psychological coercion of Hungarian authorities. In addition, it was performed under direct control of military bodies and violated several principles for taking a census of nationalities.[58] According to the results, the population consisted of 86.5% Hungarians and 9.8% Slovaks.[59] The total size of Slovak population was reduced to 121,603,[60] 67 villages lost Slovak majority the size of the Slovak population was decreased by 74,100 and the Hungarian population increased by 77,715.[58] Contrary to the Czechoslovak census of 1930, the Hungarian census again counted not the nationality declared by citizens but the "mother tongue" registered by census commissars, as in the Hungarian census from 1910. The two censuses significantly differed in the view on Jewish population. In Czechoslovakia, Jews were allowed to declare separate Jewish nationality, but in the Hungarian census, they missed own mother tongue, and their real numbers can be estimated only by their declared religion.[61]

For a full comparison of the censuses, it is necessary to take into account the population transfer after the border change (voluntary or forced), the demographic changes during the previous 20 years of Czechoslovakia (such as the arrival of Czechoslovak state employees and colonists and natural domestic migration), the bilingualism of the population and the reliability of previous statistics, particularly of the 1910 census from the peak of Magyarization).

The non-Hungarians in the territory ceded by the First Vienna Award can be divided into three groups: those who left already before the Award came into force, those who remained in their place during the war until it was integrated to Czechoslovakia again and those who were expelled from the region.[62] The Czechoslovak press reported after the Munich Agreement that border adjustments with Hungary were imminent and so the Czechoslovaks had five weeks to decide whether they stayed or left. According to Janics, the officials and farmers who opted to move out (81,000 people) were given administrative, military and public safety support and were provided road vehicles and railway wagons to transport their property.[63] Deák estimates the number of state employees and Czech colonists who left the territory before the arrival of the Hungarian army as half,[64] and the total number of Slovaks who left the territory before December 1938 (voluntarily or forcibly) is unknown and can be estimated only by comparison of both censuses in 1930 and 1938 and the assumed population growth. His estimate is about 50,000 people of Slovak nationality.[64]

Hungary breached several points of the agreement on the evacuation and the transfer of territory from the beginning, particularly its commitment to prevent violent acts on territory under its administration.[65] The nationalist Hungarian thinking considered the Czech and Slovak colonists, who obtained their lands in the ethnic Hungarian territories by the nationalist Czechoslovak land reform, as aliens. While some of these colonists left before the Award and others stayed where they were, a number of them were expelled by force and intimidation. Tilkovszky puts the number of expelled families at 647.[66]

Deák documents that the expulsion of "colonists" was not realised as an arbitrary act of nationalists but that the Hungarian General Staff gave an order to expel all Slovak and Czech colonists on November 5, 1938.[67] That also included their family members and descendants.[68][69] On November 11, 1938, the Hungarian General Staff issued a new edict, which imposed measures against colonists, ordered their immediate expulsion and defined them as enemies of the state. The organised persecution of non-Hungarian population was based on those orders. Soldiers and police could freely perform home inspections without needing official authorisation and could also confiscate stocks of food, livestock and grain.[69] The term "colonists" covered agricultural colonists but was interpreted by Hungarian government as any non-Hungarian population thar had settled in the concerning territories since 1918 for any reason. Exceptions were not allowed even for those who declared to have Hungarian nationality.[68] Beside Slovaks, Moravians and Czechs, forced expulsion also affected Germans [70] Forced expulsion was frequently preceded by arrest and imprisonment related to physical tortures. In others, it involved transportation to border with Czechoslovakia with military assistance.[71]

The colonists were followed by state employees, by Slovak farmers (including those who inherited land or bought it in a standard legal way with their own money[72][73]) and then by anybody denoted as an unreliable. Lists of unreliable persons were prepared by members of the Hungarian United Party already before the First Vienna Award.[73] The measures took place in a violent way with shooting, casualties and looting of Slovak and Czech stores and property.[72][73] Military bodies usually did not react to complaints, or they openly declared that they would not do anything against offenders and violence.[74] Under such conditions, many Slovaks and Czechs decided to leave the territory. In addition, they signed official statement that they moved voluntarily and all of their property, early for items that were allowed to be exported, passed into the ownership of Hungary.[74] In Gbelce (Köbölkút), three Czech colonists were shot dead and one hanged.[75] Employees of public administration had to leave the territory in 48 hours and were replaced by administration from Hungary.[73]

As a reaction to the expulsion of colonists, Czechoslovakia started to take countermeasures and declared that further expelled civilians would be settled on land belonging to members of the Hungarian minority and Hungarian citizens (the Hungarian aristocracy owned 50,000 ha of agricultural land and 14,000 ha of woods in Slovakia).[60] The Hungarian government rapidly changed its approach and the commission which had to resolve problems of colonists met from Hungarian initiative on December 1, 1938. Hungary promised that it would stop mass expulsions and was open to negotiations about property issues.[60] Changes in Hungarian policy were driven by several factors. The new Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs, István Csáky, advocated the opinion that Hungarian steps did not have the expected effects, increased anti-Hungarian sentiment, caused disillusionment of the last Hungarophiles and pushed the Slovak government into co-operation with the central Czechoslovak government.[60] The Hungarian government continued the expulsions,l but claimed that they were not mass expulsion, that Slovaks and Czechs had left the territory voluntarily and that Hungary had not prevented them from doing so.[60]

Although Miklós Horthy had promised to guarantee the freedom of Slovak language and culture in the redeemed territories, Hungary failed to protect its new minorities. The promise of the Slovak government of "adequate help and protection" of non-Hungarian citizens and its recommendation to stay in the territory the live were also naive, counterproductive and led to unnecessary losses of lives and property.[77]

All non-Hungarian organizations were dissolved, and their property was confiscated or given to Hungarian organisations.[78] In Nové Zámky, Jewish citizens were interned in a colony abandoned by Slovaks and Czechs shortly after the event, and Jewish lease agreements were canceled and office spaces were given to Christians.[78]

All schools that had been built by Slovak League (there were approximately 150) were declared to be the property of the Hungarian state.[79] According to Jablonický, Deák and other authors, 862 of 1,119 teachers lost their jobs by the end of 1938; others followed in the next years.[79] Janics puts the total number of teachers at 1,088 and added that most of them had left voluntarily when the Award came into effect.[80] At the beginning of 1939, the Slovak government protested the expulsion of Slovak teachers and the liquidation of Slovak schools and threatened reciprocal measures against Hungarian minority schools if Hungary's policy continued.[81]

The expulsion of teachers was often related to violence and public degradation.[79][81] In Losonc, Hungary deported 54 Slovak teachers on the demarcation line[82] (Deák documents further examples of steps that eliminated Slovak schools).[83] Slovaks lost 386 primary schools attended by 45,709 Slovak children and 29 council schools ("burgher schools") attended by 10,750 children.[84] Four grammar school were closed in Kassa, and six in other towns.[84] Remaining Slovak state employees such as railway workers were forced to enroll their children into Hungarian schools.[85] In several Slovak villages, police dispersed parents' associations, and parents who demanded Slovak schools were beaten.[86] Parents from Regeteruszka and Balogd who demanded Slovak schools were imprisoned for two weeks. In several places Hungarian police burned Slovak school supplies, requested for them to be burned by the school director or simply confiscated them.[note 3][86] However, that pressure was generally not sufficient. For instance, in Nagysurány, Slovaks excluded from their community anybody who enrolled children to Hungarian schools.[87] Overcrowding Hungarian classes with Slovaks had negative impact also on quality of education of local Hungarian population.[87]

The slow adoption of Hungarian confirmed that the idea of Hungarian state remained fictitious for Slovaks.[88] In the fall of 1943, the Hungarian government came to the conclusion that direct Magyarization trends would be replaced by educational activities in the mother tongue of minorities. The plan did not take place because of the later occupation of Hungary by Germany.[89]

The Hungarian government ordered the revision of trade licences for Jews in the redeemed territory. The anti-Jewish measure was not then applied for the rest of Hungary. 80% of Jews lost their license with significant impact on economic life; in towns like Kassa, Érsekújvár and Losonc, every second shop was closed.[90]

Slovakia lost 41% of its agricultural soil, which produced approximately 80% of products required for food supply.[91] That was a notable loss for Slovakia but was not of clear benefit for Hungary. The existing problems with overproduction, caused problems for local farmers and for Hungary's economic policy. Only half of Southern Slovakia's 400,000 tons of wheat production was used locally, and the other half had no consumers.[92] The border between the redeemed territories and Hungary proper was closed during the military administration and so distribution in that direction was impossible.[note 4] The situation improved only partially during the civilian administration, when grain and livestock prices remained low. The Hungarian government tried to improve the situation by state intervention purchases, but that failed to resolve the long-term implications of the overproduction. Prices of agricultural goods decreased by 20–30%.[93] Existing cartels in Hungary had limited possibilities to grow the most profitable crops. This included in particular sugar-beet and tobacco, which became constrained and for which the conditions of farmers growing such crops became worse. That resulted in The Economic Association of Nitra County demanding the right "to grow sugar-beet under the same conditions as during Czech rule". The request was refused.[94] On February 24, 1939, the government cabinet restricted growing of red pepper only to limited areas around Érsekújvár.

Czechoslovakia provided more job opportunities by construction of roads, regulation of rivers and building construction. The projects were stopped after the arbitration. Unemployment rates increased, and unlike Czechoslovakia, Hungary did not provide any unemployment benefits or state health insurance for workers in agriculture. Retirement and disability pensions were also lower.[95] Unemployed workers who received support under Czechoslovak rule requested the same from Hungary.[96] Salaries and as working conditions worsened, but taxes meanwhile increased. Money conversion at exchange rates disadvantageous for local citizens (7-1) automatically decreased salaries by 20%.[97] Hungarian soldiers profited from the exchange rate and bought up the remaining cheap Czechoslovak goods at the expense of their sellers. New goods from Hungary were 20–30% more expensive. Electricity, radio and railway tickets became also more expensive.

Local Hungarians had difficulties understanding the problems because interwar propaganda had portrayed reunification of the ethnically-Hungarian territories as beneficial for both parties. However, in many aspects, Czechoslovakia gave Hungarians more civic and social rights than Hungary did just a year later. The Hungarian government answered by appealing to Hungarian patriotism.[note 5] In April 1939, Hungarian professors wrote demands to the Hungarian government and protested against price rates and their bad social situation.[97]

Social problems on the concerning territories were discussed in the cabinet meeting on December 22, 1939. The interior minister, Ferenc Keresztes-Fischer, who was responsible for questions of common goods, health service and social policy, proposed a solution based on unification. The Minister for Upper Country, Andor Jaross, disagreed with that solution and proposed providing the Czechoslovak welfare system for those in the redeemed areas for a transitional period but had no objections to decreasing it to the Hungarian level.[91] The cabinet finally agreed on a compromise. The elimination of Czechoslovak laws from the acquired territories was understood as a duty but it had to be done gradually. The first step was to decrease the value of a retirement pension from its Czechoslovak value (150 pengő) to its Hungarian value (60 pengő) through a transition value of 120 pengő. Sickness insurance for workers in agriculture was preserved in the form of Czechoslovak regulation for the moment, but it was changed from compulsory to voluntary. In Slovakia, the Czechoslovak system of welfare was preserved after the breakup of Czechoslovakia.[91]