incom-ers who build their houses in the new part (Újtelep) of the vil-lage. The two parts of the village (Újtelep and Régi falu) dif-fer both in architecture and demographic structure. A direct bus connection to the town of Pécs provides a quick and easy connection between the village and the town. Many villagers work in Pécs and their children go to school there.
The investigation of interpersonal and group-relations is set into a historical framework, starting from the resettlements in 1947/48, proceeding through the era of state socialism and arriving finally to the years of the post-socialist reform econo-my and social changes. Although the analysis follows a chrono-logical line, so that it can be considered a historical writing, it is based on personal narratives -closer to oral history-, my intention is to “read” those ethnic borders which divide (and also connect) the resettled people from Czechoslovakia (often referred to as “Upper Hungarians” /felvidékiin Hungarian), the
“native villagers” of Hird (referred to as “the Hungarians”), and the native Germans (“the Schwabs”).
As Frederick Barth underlines (1996), cultural/ interethnic borders are never rigid, they change both in time and space, and they are highly situation-dependent. It means that when we speak about detecting such borders, we analyse intereth-nic situations.
I classify the studied situations according to the classic dichotomy of informal/formal and private/public.
Three main layers (spheres) of ethnic contacts have to be distinguished: 1. village level, 2. internal group relations, and 3. beyond-village level (relations towards homeland).
Scanning through situations of the above-indicated layers, the analysis looks for cases where ethnic separation causes the break of cultural continuum between the coexisting cultural/
ethnic groups in Hird.
affected the village, the German inhabitants were deported from here and the Hungarians from Czechoslovakia were set-tled into their houses.
The resettlements of ethnic Hungarians from Czechoslo-vakia, from villages in the area of Galanta took place during spring 1947. People from Matúškovo were resettled to Hungary in April 1947. Hungarian families from two other vil-lages, Mostová and Horné Saliby were transported to Hird during this period as well.
All these families were agricultural workers, having their own land holdings in the native village. The majority were small or medium-sized landowners (kisgazdain Hungarian). A few of them (approximately 4-5 farmers per village) were big landowners (nagygazda); among them some small merchants (shopkeepers and innkeepers) could be found. Their holdings did not exceed 15 Hungarian holds(about 7 ha).
From an economic point of view, one has to note that, according to the Hungarian-Czechoslovak government agree-ment, the resettled Hungarians were not entitled to more than 15 Hungarian holdsof land in their new village. As most of them did not own more than this land in their original vil-lage, there was no sense of economic deprivation. This fact significantly influenced their perceptions and later accounts of their displacement.
The first transport from Matúškovo departed in April 1947, followed by another one in May of the same year. The latter was a “mixed transport” (as the villagers called it) with families from a few neighbouring villages in the Galanta area, who were left out from previous waves of deportation for var-ious reasons.
Narratives of resettled families, their first impressions in Hungary, events at the Pécs railway station, their arrival to Hird, all play a central role in their life stories, as corner-stones of their further personal destinies.
Due to the asynchronicity between the deportation of Germans out from Hird and the settling-in of Hungarians (the former process was slower than the latter), resettled Hungarian families arrived to the village while the Schwabs
were still in their houses. So it meant that two family nuclei, the old inhabitants and the resettled, had to cope with the sit-uation of living under the same roof for a few months. This lasted until the Germans were finally deported to Germany or moved within Hird, into houses of relatives. One would expect serious conflicts between these families, induced from obvi-ous emotional reasons, but in fact such conflicts did not hap-pen. They tried to cooperate within harsh circumstances, and did not turn their anger against each other. The similarities in their situation (being both under resettlement), made them accept and help each other. Today there are still friendships and personal contacts in the village dating back to this peri-od.
The New village (“Újtelep”)
Constructions of the new part of the village started in the mid-1950s. In the beginning, all the builders were displaced Germans, who needed new homes. They were the first in the village who had the necessary financial means for starting new constructions.
The Hungarians from Czechoslovakia appeared in this new part of the village only during the 1960s, coming from sur-rounding villages to move closer to their relatives in Hird, or moving in Hird for economic reasons (its vicinity to work-places in Pécs). They bought houses from local “settlers”
(telepesek, a pejorative term for Hungarians who came from other counties of Hungary) who had come in the course of internal settlement campaigns after 1945. They were land-less, poor families, without much experience of independent, self-sufficient farming- thus both the Czechoslovak Hungarian and German families considered them as “inferior”. Because of this low prestige and the unsuccessful agricultural collec-tivisation of the earlier years, most of them left the village.
The Hungarians arriving from Czechoslovakia received the land of the German families in the village, and started farm-ing almost immediately. Accordfarm-ing to their accounts, the first two years (1947-48) were relatively successful and some
supplementary activities (marketing, and “black business”, such as buying milk and wine in the village and selling it in the town at a considerable profit) provided them with a nor-mal standard of living. Their economic situation changed in the beginning of 1950s, when the agricultural delivery obli-gations (beszolgáltatás) started, putting a heavy burden on each family living from agriculture. During this period, the Germans who found a place in the rapidly growing industry became better-off than the families stuck to land and farm-ing. In the Hungarians this caused a feeling of economic dep-rivation, and in such a situation jealousy.
The house: informal/private sphere
Although the living together of families from the two,
“exchanged” ethnic groups happened to be a non-voluntary encounter, this fact did not cause deep conflicts in everyday life. Paradoxically, friendships and good personal relations emerged from this period. The interdependence and difficult conditions encouraged them to accept each other and coop-erate. The Hungarians offered working possibilities to the Germans at harvest time. Also they (the Upper Hungarians) did not claim German properties in most cases (e.g. furni-ture, personal objects in the houses), to which legally they were entitled. A certain level of trust developed between these families coming from the two ethnic groups, and in exchange, the Germans shared with the newcomer Hungarians their local knowledge and networks (e.g. informa-tion about black market activities, agricultural experiences).
This early sympathy might be explained by the meeting of two very similar value systems, where hard physical work and the increase of material wealth stayed on top of the list.
The church: formal/public sphere
In the very first period after settlement, the Sunday church provided an occasion for meeting each other. Both the natives (“Old Hungarians” and Germans) and the newcomers
were Roman Catholics. The time before and after these col-lective religious activities provided occasions of social inter-action, and people used them as such. However, these meet-ings did not bring about mixing from the very first time- the order of sitting in the church (partly preserved until now) reflected an ethnic division: the Germans sitting on the right side of the church, Hungarians on the left.
The pub: informal/public sphere
My early hypothesis was that if there was an ethnic separa-tion in the beginning, it was certainly reflected in the most important place of village public life, in the pub. This was not proved during my fieldwork and could not have been found in narratives about the “early times” either. There were no sep-arate pubs for the Germans, Hungarians and Hungarians from Czechoslovakia in the village. Men went to the same places, without any preferences based on ethnic terms, and there were no conflicts because of this mixing.
The workplace: formal/public sphere
As it has already been discussed, before collectivisation, while the Germans established a living in industry, the new-comer Hungarians became involved in agriculture through the lands received as a compensation for their left-behind prop-erty in the native village. When the collectivisation of agricul-ture finally started in Hird the Hungarians lost these lands and “escaped” to industry, following the German way of eco-nomic survival. There were good working opportunities in Pécs and in the nearby mines of the Mecsek hills. In Hird itself, a cement and a hemp-factory were established in the 1950s. Common workplaces resulted in friendships, and not surprisingly, various informal situations (factory balls, trips) brought people together more than any other “classic” village situation (interactions in a village shop, church, etc).
The socialist regime encouraged the integration of Hungarians from Czechoslovakia, assimilating them to new
living conditions and homogenizing the mixed population.
Industrialization resulted in a fast integration of the individual (and not of the resettled as a group) who was required to choose an appropriate and well-paid occupation.
This development affected not only the Hungarians from Czechoslovakia, but also the Germans. Eventually, a radical linguistic change took place within these families, forced by indirect political pressure, as being a German was an “unfor-tunate” identity in a post-war socialist Hungary, an identity which was better not to be displayed in public or to preserve at all.
The native Hungarian- resettled Hungarian relationship can be best characterized as “neutral”, devoid of any partic-ular sympathy or conflicts. This was supported in narratives from both groups. During the period of the population exchange, especially in the time of the newcomers’ arrival, there was rivalry between these groups, but shortly after the natives realized that their property and status in the village was not endangered by these changes, all potentials for con-flict disappeared.
The Hungarians from Czechoslovakia, according to their accounts, felt closer to the Germans in Hird, because of their similar historical destiny (minority status) and the actual sit-uation (resettlement), because of their interdependence in the early times of living under the same roof, and because of their similar value systems.
Level III: External relations