ORGANIZATIONAL EFFORTS OF THE VOLKSBUND IN TRANSCARPATHIA (1938–1944)

The study summarizes the activities and organizational efforts of the Volksbund (People’s Association of Germans in Hungary) in Transcarpathia in the period between 1938 and 1944. The Volksbund was founded in November 1938 as an organization representing the interests of the German minority in Hungary. In 1939, the Hungarian government allowed the People’s Union of Germans to operate only as a cultural organization, but according to the so-called Vienna Agreement on the Rights of National Minorities (August 30, 1940) between the Kingdom of Hungary and Germany, it became the only legitimate organization of the German minority in Hungary recognized by the state, and the association was granted full freedom of activity, including in spreading national socialist ideology. The purpose of the study is to analyze the activities and organizational efforts of the Volksbund in Transcarpathia in 1938–1944. Documents kept in the Berehove District of the State Archives of the Transcarpathian Region of Ukraine were reviewed and processed. Among other things, the materials of the county government commissioners of Ung and Ugocsa, the documents of the Maramures Public Administration District and the records of the mayor of Uzhhorod county town were used. These funds included the part of the documents of the Volksbund groups operating in Uzhhorod and in the Maramures Public Administration District. The works of Norbert Spannenberger, Loránt Tilkovszky, Angela Gröber, Zsolt Vitári and Román Oficinszkij provided an excellent theoretical and methodological framework for studying this topic. Transcarpathia was part of the Kingdom of Hungary between 1938 and 1944, during which time around 13,000 Germans resided in the region. The Volksbund began organizing in Transcarpathia in 1939, and by 1941, its primary organizations were established in approximately thirty-eight settlements. However, little is known about the operation of the Volksbund in Transcarpathia. In historical works concerning the region, the history of the Transcarpathian German minority was long only briefly addressed in a few paragraphs