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Germany and Hungary Mark 80th Anniversary of Expulsion of Hungarndeutsche

Leaders cast the commemoration as a pledge to remembrance centered on reconciliation.

Overview

  • German President Frank‑Walter Steinmeier and Hungarian President Tamás Sulyok jointly honored victims of the post‑war expulsions of ethnic Germans from Hungary.
  • In Pirna, Saxony’s Minister‑President Michael Kretschmer and President Sulyok laid a wreath at the former intake site for arrivals from Hungary, with Kretschmer urging that the history be kept alive.
  • Sulyok condemned the expulsions as a wrong against humanity, while survivors at the ceremony recounted forced removals and hardship during resettlement in Germany.
  • Historians and official accounts cite about 220,000 people expelled from Hungary beginning with the first transport that reached Bavaria on January 19, 1946.
  • Between 30,000 and 60,000 Hungarendeutsche were deported for forced labor to the Soviet Union, where many perished, and roughly 50,000 later arrived in Saxony across 33 train transports.