Ip massacre

The events of the Ip massacre escalated in the early hours of 14 September 1940, in Ipp, (today Ip, Sălaj County), Northern Transylvania. After two Hungarian soldiers died there in an accidental explosion, rumors spread that they had been killed by Romanians. After another incident the Royal Hungarian Army, influenced by the rumor, indiscriminately massacred around 150 ethnic Romanians in the nearby locations and surrounding areas.

Ip massacre
Hungarian troops marching in nearby Zalău, five days earlier
LocationIpp, Kingdom of Hungary (present-day Ip, Sălaj, Romania)
Coordinates47°13′45″N 22°36′22″E
Date13/14 September 1940
03:00 (CET)
Attack type
genocide (targeted killing of the local ethnic Romanians), ethnic cleansing, reprisal
WeaponsMachine guns, rifles, revolvers, bayonets
Deathsbetween 152–158 ethnic Romanians + 16 reported deserters
PerpetratorRoyal Hungarian Army, locals, Nemzetőrség members

Events

After the Second Vienna Award of 30 August 1940, as a result of German–Italian arbitration, northwestern Transylvania reverted to Hungary. The area ceded by Romania contained the northwestern part of the homonymous region and the Székely lands. A total of eight of the 23 Transylvanian counties included in the interwar period were entirely alienated, and another three were split. Thus, Sălaj County was also attached to Hungary. On 7 September 1940 the Hungarian Second Army arrived at Ipp (present-day Ip) where they made a short stop. After preparing to leave, more acquired grenades exploded in one of the sling-carts and in the detonation two soldiers died. The negligence of the proper storage was quickly identified but soon rumor had it that it was a willful action. This view escalated rapidly.[1]

On 8 September 1940, the Second Army entered the city of Zalău.[2]

On 13 September, the military commander of the district of Szilágysomlyó (present-day Șimleu Silvaniei) was informed that the nearby villages of Alsókaznacs, Felsőkaznacs, Márkaszék, Porc, Lecsmér, Somály, and Kémer (present-day Cosniciu de Jos, Cosniciu de Sus, Marca, Porț, Leșmir, Șumal, and Camăr) armed Romanian groups were looting. According to the report their number was between 80–100. Based on this report the 32nd Regiment stationing in Zilah (present-day Zalău) assigned a group to investigate the area. Meanwhile, the road, they arrived to Szilágynagyfalu (present-day Nușfalău) where they had been informed a few days before in Ipp two soldiers died in a detonation thus the same day they entered the commune where they conducted a raid instantly.[3]

After the reconnaissance, 18 suspicious persons were found and 16 had been executed, according to the official reports, because of their attempts to desert. Overnight, the Hungarian troops were residing in the local school when they were shot at from the street with a machine gun around 03:00 AM (some witnesses attested that the shootings came from a flat in the center, and five persons with machine guns were captured). In retaliation, between 152 and 158 ethnic Romanians were killed.[1][4] The commander of the Hungarian troops who perpetrated the massacre of civilians was lieutenant Zoltán Vasváry.[5]:278, 280 Some sources have stated that the Hungarian Army was supported by local vigilantes.[6]

The soldiers went house-to-house in panic and shot everybody indiscriminately. On 14 September, in Somlyócsehi (present-day Cehei), one person was killed. In the nearby Felsőkaznacs and Szilágcseres forests (present-day Cosniciu de Sus and Cerișa) 55 persons were killed. According to some other sources, the area most affected was Sălaj, where 477 Romanians were massacred.[7]

On September 14, at the order of Lt. Vasvári, a pit 24 meters long by 4 meters wide was dug in the village cemetery; the corpses of those killed in the massacre were buried head-to-head in two rows, with no religious ceremony.[5]:293

Trial

The facts were established by Decision no. 1 of the Northern Transylvania People's Tribunal (which sat in Cluj and was presided by Justice Nicolae Matei[8][9]), in a public sentence from 13 March 1946. The findings of the Tribunal were as follows:[5]:280

  • Lieutenant colonel Carol Lehotcsky, the military commander of Șimleu Silvaniei district, was found guilty or ordering reprisals against the Romanian inhabitants of Ip and nearby villages.
  • Ștefan Farago, a landowner from Ip and commander of a local militia was convicted for inducing Lehotcsky to order those repressive measures. (Adalbert Ujhaly was also found to have participated in this inducement, but he had died before the trial.)
  • Lt. Vasváry was found guilty of commanding the unit that carried out the massacre.
  • Fifteen locals (Nicolae Bereș, Sigismund P. Bereș, Francisc Borzási, Vasile K. Dereș, Biro Emeric Jr., Biro Emeric Sr., Alexandru Csepe, Francisc I. Csepei, Sigismund Csepei, Paul B. Fazekas, Alexandru Kisfaluși, Bálint Kisfaluși, Arpád Ösz, Ștefan Pinces, and Mihai Soos) were found guilty of cooperating with the Hungarian soldiers in perpetrating the massacre.

See also

References
  1. A történelem tanúi – Erdély – bevonulás (1940), p. 25; ISBN 978-963-251-473-4 (in Hungarian)
  2. Fătu, Mihai; Mușat, Mircea; Bodea, Gheorghe (1985). Teroarea horthysto-fascistă în nord-vestul României: Septembrie 1940 – Octombrie 1944. Bucharest: Political Publishing House. Archived from the original on 2015-02-15. Retrieved 2015-02-15.
  3. Illésfalvi Péter: A román-magyar kapcsolatok katonai vonatkozásai 1940–1944 között (Pertinence of the Romanian-Hungarian military relations between 1940–1944), Háború, hadsereg, összeomlás Magyarország katonai részvétele és szerepe a második világháborúban. Szerk. Markó György, Zrínyi, Budapest, 2005. pp. 93–103.(in Hungarian) (War, army, downfall – The participation and role of Hungary in WWII)
  4. Ţurlea, Petre (1996). Ip și Trăznea: Atrocități maghiare și acțiune diplomatică românească. Bucharest: Encyclopedic Publishing House. ISBN 973-45-0181-X. OCLC 243869011.
  5. Lechințan, V. "Procesul criminalilor de război de la Ip, Treznea, Huedin, Mureșenii de Câmpie și din alte localități sălăjene" [The Trial of the War Criminals from Ip, Treznea, Huedin, Mureșenii de Câmpie and other localities from Sălaj County] (PDF) (in Romanian). Retrieved 5 October 2020.
  6. Lehrer, Milton G. (1991). Pătroiu, Ion (ed.). Ardealul pământ românesc. Problema Ardealului văzută de un american (in Romanian). Cluj-Napoca: Vatra Românească. ISBN 973-29-0010-5.
  7. "VII – Transilvania în cel de-al Doilea Război Mondial". Istoria României. Transilvania (in Romanian). II. Cluj-Napoca: George Barițiu Publishing House. 1997. p. 34.
  8. "Liberation of northern Transylvania (25 October 1944)". The Museum of the Holocaust in Northern Transylvania. 2018. Retrieved 5 October 2020.
  9. "Final Report of the International Commission on the Holocaust in Romania" (PDF). Wiesel Commission. 11 November 2004. p. 2. Retrieved 5 October 2020.
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