Jews in Ruthenia, Southern Slovakia Found Harder Hit by Hungarian Laws

That the Jews of the newly reoccupied territories of Ruthenia and southern Slovakia are suffering most from Hungary’s anti-Semitic legislation has been amply confirmed by a two -day trip which this correspondent has just made to the towns of Munkacs and Kassa.

Munkacs, an impoverished agricultural town in the southern reaches of the Carpathian mountains, has a population of about 30,000, of which 17,500, or almost 60 percent , are Jews. Half of the 12,500 non-Jews in Munkacs are Magyars, while the remainder are either Slovaks or Ruthenians.

A stronghold of Jewish or thodoxy, Munkacs is famous for its Chassidim, and for the devoutness of its Jewish youth, a higher percentage of whom wear ear curls and the traditional Jewish garb than in any other town in eastern Hungary. The late Lazar Spira, one of the best known of the “wonder rabbis”, came from Munkacs.

Until the return of Munkacs to Hungary and the application of the anti-Semitic laws, however, the Magyars there had always lived on cordial terms with their Jewish fellow citizens. If the majority of the stores and businesses in Munkacs were Jewish owned, the majority of the peasants round about were also Jewish, and the Jews in general were just as poor, if not poorer than the population as a whole.

Another factor that bred harmony between the Magyars and Jews of Munkacs was that the latter were completely Magyarized and considered themselves Hungarians rather than Ruthenians or Slovaks. Although the Magyars themselves numbered only 20 percent of the population, their Jewish allies, numbering 60 per cent gave them a four to one majority over the rest of the inhabitants. Thus, the predominately Hungarian character of Munkacs was maintained during 20 years of Czechoslovakian rule.

The return of Munkacs to Hungary, however, occurred simultaneously with the passage of the second Hungarian Jewish law, and since then Nazi elements have taken over the control of the town. They are now rewarding the Jews for their past loyalty by ruthlessly depriving them of every means of earning a living.

Of the 40 Jewish lawyers who were practicing in Munkacs a year ago, 35 have been expropriated and the five who remain are subject to discrimination before the bar.

More than 700 Jewish merchants, artisans, teachers, clerks, and civil employees have been removed to date, and another 500 are due to be deprived of their jobs or licenses by the first of May.

In Hungary proper existing Jewish merchants and artisans have not been affected by the law, although Jews are prohibited from opening up new businesses until such time as the proportion of Jews in business or handicraft enterprises has been reduced to 12 per cent. In Ruthenia, however, the authorities are exceeding the spirit of the law and are actually turning out already established traders and artisans.

This in spite of the fact that Munkacs has one of the largest Jewish populations of any town in Hungary. Whereas, in most Hungarian towns, the ultimate effect of the law will be to deprive one out of three Jews of his livelihood, the effect in Munkacs will be to deprive four out of five Jews of his means of earning a living. When that time comes the already serious relief problem of Munkacs will have assumed calamitous proportions.

kassa, 65 miles northwest of Munkacs, appears to be as prosperous as Munkacs seems impoverished. It was prosperous, before Munich, but since its reincorporation within the Hungarian frontiers it has suffered a severe economic setback, and this has aggravated the local Jewish problem beyond its real importance.

Before the creation of Czechoslovakia in 1920, Kassa was one of the most flourishing cities of northern Hungary. Once confined within the narrow Czech frontiers, its importance increased still further, until by 1930 it had become the virtual metropolis of eastern Czechoslovakia, about which revolved the economic life of such towns as Munkacs, Ungvar, Presov and Levoca. In the twenty years it remained under Czech control the population of Kassa increased from 35,000 to 75,000.

Since its return to Hungary , however, Kassa has been reduced to the status of a frontier town and its population has decreased from 75,000 to 50,000 .Most of its former trading area remained in the new Slovakian state, while its former trading area in Hungary, separated from it in 1920, had long since been reintegrated about Miskolc, 60 miles to the south.

In reality, therefore, Munkacs and Ungvar, which are poor towns, are now economically better off than Kassa, which has become an economic cul-de-sac since revision of the Hungaro-Slovakian frontier.

The economic insecurity of the past year has only fed the flames of anti Semitis, with the result that Kassa’s Nazi movement has become the most powerful of the entire region. Arrow-Crosses have been painted all over the city, on walls, street cars, and mail boxes, as well as Jewish stores. And the young Nazi see to it that Jewish shop-windows receive a fresh Arrow-Cross, applied with soap, every time a merchant takes the trouble to remove their former smears.

More than 500 Jewish merchants have been forced to close up shop in the past year and an equal number of Jewish employees have been deprived of their jobs.

To date, 320 Jewish families have been expelled from Kassa because they were unable to prove to the satisfaction of the police that they were Hungarian citizens.

The local situation has been complicated by the fact that approximately 4,000 Jewish refugees from Slovakia and Poland have settled in Kassa and placed an additional burden on the city’s normal population of 8,000 Jews.

At present, 3,100 Jews in Kassa are completely dependent on charity , So great has been the strain on the two local relief organizations–one financed by the orthodox community, the other by the progressive community–that even the police and the Catholic Church have been constrained to contribute money, food, and clothing to keep the Jews from starving.

Where it will all end, local Jewish leaders cannot say. They only know that an average of ten persons a day are being added to their relief rolls as the expropriation goes on and as hitherto economically independent Jews run out of money. Their funds are so limited, however, that only 90 filler (16 cents ) a month per person will be available for relief from now on-which is obviously insufficient to feed one person for a single day, much less provide him with food, clothing, and shelter for a month.

If the situation of the Jews in Munkacs is serious–and it is –then the situation of the Jews in Kassa can only be described as desperate.