Addendum I


Anti-German and Anti-Hungarian Discriminatory Edicts,
Decrees and Statutes, Czechoslovakia, 1945-1948

Contents

   
Page
I.
Presidential and Constitutional Edicts
1
II.
Laws and Statutes
2
III.
Government Decrees
3
IV. 
Decrees of the Slovak National Council (Bratislava)
4
V. 
Ministerial Decrees
5
VI.
Decrees of the Slovak Commissioners (Bratislava)
6

 

Istvan Huff
President
Human Rights for Minorities in Central Europe - Vancouver Society
606 - 1640 Esquimalt Avenue
West Vancouver, BC
7V7 1R0
Canada
Email: huffist#intergate.ca (use @ instead of #)


 

 

 

I. Presidential and Constitutional Edicts

005/1945
Edict of the President of the Republic concerning the invalidity of transactions involving property rights from the time of the occupation and concerning the National Administration of property assets of Germans, Magyars, traitors and collaborators and of certain organizations and associations.
(May 19, 1945)
012/1945
Edict of the President of the Republic concerning the confiscation and early re-allotment of agricultural property of Germans, Magyars, as well as traitors and enemies of the Czech and Slovak people.
(June 21, 1945)
016/1945
Presidential edict concerning the establishment of special People's Courts for traitors and collaborators.
(June 19, 1945)
017/1945
Presidential edict concerning People's Courts for unfaithful citizens.
(June 19, 1945)
021/1945
Presidential edicts concerning legislative power during the time of transition. The president had temporary power to exercise legislative function. Reprint from the Uredni Vestnik (Official Gazette) in exile in London, England. (February 27, 1945)
027/1945
Presidential edict concerning domestic colonization. (Colonization of the Slavic population in German and Hungarian districts).
(June 27, 1945)
028/1945
Presidential edict concerning the settlement of Czech, Slovak or other Slavic farmers on the confiscated properties of Germans, Hungarians and other enemies of the state.
(May 20, 1945)
033/1945
Presidential edict concerning the right of Czechoslovak citizen-ship. German and Hungarian nationals lost their citizenship.
(August 2, 1945)
050/1945
Presidential edict concerning films.
(August 11, 1945)
059/1945
Presidential edict concerning the repeal of civil servant appointments during the occupation.
(August 20, 1945)
071/1945
Presidential edict concerning forced labor services of persons who had lost Czechoslovak citizenship.
(September 19, 1945)
081/1945
Presidential edict concerning the dissolution of all German and Hungarian clubs and cultural, social and sports associations in Czechoslovakia. Their confiscated properties were transferred to the state and, in most cases, their libraries were destroyed.
(September 25, 1945)
088/1945
Presidential edict concerning public labor. This edict ordered the deportation of the Hungarian nationals to the evacuated German districts in Bohemia.
(October 1, 1945)
091/1945
Presidential edict freezing bank deposits belonging to Germans and Hungarians and prohibition of withdrawals even for personal expenses. Total losses suffered by the Hungarians in Czechoslovakia were estimated to be 1.102 billion Czech crowns as of July 16, 1948.
(October 19, 1945)
100/1945
Presidentia l edict concerning the nationalization of mines and some other industrial plants.
(October 24, 1945)
101/1945
Presidential edict concerning the nationalization of the feed industry.
(October 24, 1945)
102/1945
Presidential edict concerning the nationalization of banks of stock corporations. (October 24, 1945)
103/1945
Presidential edict concerning the nationalization of private insurance companies. (October 24, 1945)
105/1945
Presidential edict concerning the purging committees reviewing civil servant activities.
(October 24, 1945)
108/1945
Presidential edict concerning the confiscation of enemy property and the funds for national regeneration. Hungarian property was confiscated with the exception of their personal belongings.
(October 25, 1945)
 
Presidential edicts concerning nationalization excluded all Hungarians from any compensation.
143/1945
Presidential edict concerning civil action limitations in criminal proceedings. (October 27, 1945)

 

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II. Laws and Statutes

026/1946
Concerning voter lists.
(February 21, 1946)
065/1946

Constitutional law concerning the National Constituent Assembly. It effectively abolished the franchise of Hungarians in Czechoslovakia.
(April 11, 1946)
083/1946
Concerning the employment of Germans, Hungarians, traitors and collaborators. This law went so far as to terminate employment of Hungarians.
(April 11, 1946)
128/1946
Concerning the nullification of all property transactions through which a Hungarian acquired property after September 29, 1938, the date of the Munich Four-Power Agreement. Subsequently such property, although legally transacted and fully paid by a Hungarian, was either returned to its previous non-Hungarian owner or transferred to the state.
(May 16, 1946)
 
It is noteworthy that on February 12, 1942, four years after the first Vienna arbitral award, the Hungarian government concluded a bilateral treaty which compensated and thoroughly satisfied the individuals involved.
130/1946 105/1945
Concerning the addenda and changes to Presidential edict dealing with Purging Committees.
(May 16, 1946)
163/1946
Concerning extraordinary provisions which permitted the termination of a transaction between a Hungarian and a real estate owner.
(July 18, 1946)
164/1946
Concerning relief to victims of war and fascist persecution.
Hungarians became ineligible for relief due to the loss of their Czechoslovak citizenship, as a result of Presidential edict 033/1945.
(July 18, 1946)
232/1946
Concerning the disenfranchisement of Czechoslovak citizens of ethnic Hungarian origin. Government decree 216/1946 also prohibited the election of a Hungarian to factory committees even in situations where almost all the workers in certain agricultural or industrial workplaces were Hungarian. Hungarians were excluded from trade unions in post World War II Czecho-slovakia.
(December 10, 1946)
247/1946
Concerning the modification of Presidential edict 105/1945 dealing with Purging Committees.
(December 19, 1945)
252/1946
Concerning employee compensation in the event of employment loss as a result of confiscation or land reform. Hungarian workers held no claim to compensation.
(December 20, 1946)
090/1947
Concerning legal procedures in the land registry office for the distribution of confiscated property.
(May 8, 1947)
107/1947
Concerning provisions against unauthorized border crossings.
(May 29, 1947)
114/1948
Concerning additional nationalization of industrial plants.
(April 28, 1948)
115/1948
Concerning additional nationalization of feed industry plants.
(April 28, 1948)
118/1948
Concerning nationalization of wholesale commerce.
(April 28, 1948)
119/1948
Concerning nationalization of foreign trade and international shipping.
(April 28, 1948)
120/1948
Concerning nationalization of enterprises of over fifty employees.
(April 28, 1948)
121/1948
Concerning nationalization of the construction industry.
(April 28, 1948)
122/1948
Concerning nationalization of travel agencies.
(April 28, 1948)
123/1948
Concerning nationalization of printing shops.
(April 28, 1948)
124/1948
Concerning nationalization of restaurants and hotels.
(April 28, 1948)
125/1948
Concerning nationalization of spas.
(April 28, 1948)
126/1948
Concerning nationalization of certain seed improvement enterprises.
(April 28, 1948)
138/1948
Concerning landlord/tenant proceedings. This allowed for the cancellation of agreements with tenants regarded as disloyal from a state security standpoint. By May 1948, the implementation of this law in Pressburg (Bratislava) alone resulted in over four hundred Hungarian families receiving notices to vacate their premises with two to five hours' notice. Similar expulsions also occurred in the countryside.
(April 28, 1948)

 

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III. Government Decrees (Prague)

048/1945
Concerning Provisional National Assembly elections. This decree disenfranchised Czechoslovak citizens of Hungarian descent until 1949.
(August 25, 1945)
216/1946
Concerning the enforcement of the provisions of decree 104/1945, enacted on August 23, 1945 by the Slovak National Council, regarding factory councils, excluding ethnic Hungarians from those councils.
(November 5, 1946)
030/1948
Concerning the administration and distribution of property, belonging to Hungarians who were transferred to Hungary, among patriotic Czechoslovak citizenry.
(March 19, 1948)

 

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IV. Decrees of the Slovak National Council (Bratislava)

006/1944
Concerning Hungarian school closings as well as the banning, in many places, of Catholic and Protestant religious services conducted in Hungarian. This decree was issued during the first Slovak Republic (1939-1945) by the then illegitimate Slovak National Council in exile.
(September 6, 1944)
004/1945
Concerning the confiscation and accelerated distribution of immovable landed property belonging to Germans, Hungarians, traitors and enemies of the Slovak nation.
(February 27, 1945)
008/1945
Concerning the restriction on service in the armed forces to Czech, Slovak or Ukrainian nationals.
(March 6, 1945)
016/1945
Concerning freezing bank deposits of Hungarian nationals.
(March 23, 1945)
020/1945
Concerning granting authority to local industrial boards to review and cancel trade licenses to individuals considered to hold questionable political loyalty. (March 29, 1945)
026/1945
Concerning the prohibition of organizing administrative councils, called People's Councils (Narodny Vybor), in Hungarian populated villages, towns and districts. In these places, local government was executed by centrally appointed non-Hungarians organized as Administrative Commissions (Spravna Komisia) whose members were reliable Slovak communists who received their instructions directly from the Communist Party of Slovakia.
(April 7, 1945)
033/1945
Criminalizing any political, economic and cultural activity having any connection with Hungarian government administration of former southern Slovakia subsequent to the September 1938 Munich Agreement. This decree also regulated procedures of the People's Courts in Slovakia.
(May 15, 1945)
043/1945
Concerning rules for membership renewal for attorneys to the Bar of Slovakia. The Bar Association of Pressburg (Bratislava), then the only one in Slovakia, refused membership applications from Hungarian lawyers, referring to the Yalta Conference resolutions.
(May 25, 1945)
044/1945
Concerning civil servant employment and the dismissal of all Hungarian civil servants, with immediate effect or no later than July 31, 1945, without any claims or compensation, including the loss of retirement benefits.
(May 25, 1945)
050/1945
Concerning the National (State) Administration to be established on properties owned by Hungarians, regarded collectively as politically unreliable from the point of view of the Czechoslovak state and the people's democracy. The resultant damage caused by the government-appointed Slovak or Czech administrators was enormous: at least 6120 administrators were imposed to oversee Hungarian properties, resulting in an estimated financial loss between 1945-1948 of 600 million Czech crowns.
(June 5, 1945)
051/1945
Concerning the dissolution of Hungarian clubs and cultural, social and sports associations in Slovakia as well as the confiscation and transfer of Hungarian-owned property to the state and the destruction of Hungarian libraries.
(May 25, 1945)
 
This decree was identical in content with Presidential edict 081/1945 of September 25, 1945.
052/1945
Concerning the nullification of all property transactions through which a Hungarian acquired property after September 28, 1938.
(June 6, 1945).
 
This was identical to Law 128/1946.
062/1945
Concerning the freezing of bank deposits of Hungarians and the prohibition against withdrawals, even for personal expenses.
(July 3, 1945)
 
Identical to Presidential edict 091/1945 of October 19, 1945.
067/1945
Concerning reporting of war damages.
(July 3, 1945)
069/1945
Concerning the dismissal of all employees of Hungarian origin with immediate effect, without notice and without claim to compensation.
(July 3, 1945)
082/1945
Concerning restricting legal and notarial professional practice to Slovaks.
(July 25, 1945)
097/1945
Concerning the prohibition against compensation to Hungarians for war damages. (August 23, 1945)
099/1945
Concerning the dismissal of Hungarian civil servants. Only a very small percentage of discharged Hungarians received social relief of 1,000 Czech crowns, roughly twenty dollars.
(August 23, 1945)
104/1945
Concerning the confiscation and accelerated distribution of immovable Hungarian-owned property without compensation.
The objective was to insure that the confiscated property, including cultivated land, forests, livestock, farms and farm implements, would devolve to those considered to be politically reliable. These confiscation commissions, were involved in 4538 such cases between 1945 and 1948.
(August 23, 1945)
105/1945
Concerning the establishment of labor camps for those considered to be unreliable. Enforcement responsibility was delegated to national committees at the local and county levels.
(August 23, 1945)
107/1945
Concerning the provision of benefits to elderly, disabled and poor Czechoslovak citizens. Hungarians and stateless individuals were ineligible for consideration to receive social benefits.
(August 23, 1945)
130/1945
Concerning compensation for war damages. See also decrees 67/1945 and 97/1945. Hungarians were ineligible to receive compensation, even though the destruction due to military action in southern Slovakia during 1944-1945 occurred in districts which were populated mainly by Hungarians.
(November 15, 1945)
054/1946
Concerning the termination of agreements between Hungarians and landlords. See also laws 163/1946 and 138/1948.
(April 23, 1946)
062/1946
Concerning the removal from office of all notaries public of Hungarian origin. (May 10, 1946)
064/1946
Concerning the modification of the confiscation and accelerated distribution of agricultural properties of Germans, Hungarians, traitors and enemies of the Slovak nation.
(May 14, 1946)
065/1946
Concerning mortgaging of immovable property.
(May 14, 1946)
069/1946
Addenda to decrees concerning the confiscation and accelerated distribution of Hungarian-owned property.
(December 19, 1946)
005/1948
Concerning the recognition of bar examinations for judges and attorneys completed in Hungary for individuals not of Hungarian descent.
(March 15, 1948)

 

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V. Ministerial Decrees (Prague)

043/1945
Concerning the force of Presidential edict 004/1944 (in exile in London) on the National Councils and Provisional National Assembly.
(August 3, 1945)
045/1945
Concerning the official powers and elections of the National Councils. Minister of the Interior.
(August 24, 1945)
2139/1946
Concerning the partial release of frozen bank deposits. Minister of Finance. (December 6, 1946)
077/1948
Concerning the deadline for changes regarding eligibility to Czechoslovak citizenship. Minister of the Interior.
(April 16, 1948)

 

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VI. Decrees of the Slovak Commissioners (Bratislava) and the Presidium of the Board of Commissioners (Provincial Government)

082/1948
Concerning compensation to employees who were terminated as a result of decrees of the Slovak National Council 104/1945 and 64/1946.
(May 31, 1946)
109/1946
Concerning the discontinuation of compensation to retired miners who had their citizenship revoked on grounds of disloyalty to the state.
(September 10, 1946)
 

Commissioner of the Interior
253/1945
Concerning the regulation of the status of the Lutheran Church in Slovakia. (September 10, 1945)
287/1945
Concerning the regulation of Czechoslovak citizenship in accordance with Presidential edict 033/1945 dated August 2, 1945.
(October 22, 1945)
297/1945
Concerning the issuance to any Hungarian of the certificate of political reliability. This certificate was required to seek employment in post-World War II Czechoslovakia.
(November 12, 1945)
20000/
Concerning the forced slovakization of Hungarians in Slovakia, 1946 referred to as reslovakization. In addition to dispersion, expulsion and transfer, a segment of the Hungarian population was forced to solemnly declare itself as Slovak. This was the reason for the establishment of so-called Reslovakization Commissions throughout southern Slovakia by the Commissioner of the interior.
(June 17, 1946)
126/1948
Concerning a nationality requirement for inclusion in the permanent voters list. (January 23, 1948)
A-311/18-II/ 3-1948
Contains a long list of places whose names had been "slavified."
(June 11, 1948)
 

Commissioner of Industry and Commerce
1104/
Concerning the establishment of a national governmental 1946 agency overseeing patent and intellectual property rights and protections for Hungarians, considered by the regime to be people of questionable reliability. See also Presidential edict 005/1945 and Slovak National Council decree 050/1945.
(May 8, 1946)
 
Commissioner of Social Welfare
751/1946

Concerning the ineligibility to receive social benefits of disabled war veterans, war widows and orphans of Hungarian descent due to the collective revocation of their Czechoslovak citizenship (see Presidential edict 033/1945).
(March 13, 1946)

 

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