On the Situation of Workers of German and Hungarian Nationality in Czechoslovakia in the Period Immediate after World War II on the Background of Restrictive Legislative Measures (1945–1946)

Abstract

The goal of the study is to summarize shortly the complicated situation of persons of German and Hungarian nationality in Czechoslovakia after World War II on the background of their legislatively set general work obligation. An overwhelming majority of Czechoslovak Germans and Hungarians lost their citizenship due to government measures, losing all their civil, property, social and national rights by it. The study summarizes the basic legislative measures of the Czechoslovak government from 1945 and 1946 concerning persons without citizenship, in this case members of the German and Hungarian minorities who were markedly restricted also in labour-law area. It outlines the issue of forced work obligation of such persons, paying attention particularly to the mass transfer of Hungarians from Slovakia to Bohemia in the capacity as farm workers. The source base of the study consists of legislative documents from the Collection of Acts and Decrees and selected documents from the General Archive of the Czech and Moravian Confederation Trade Unions. The restrictive measures in labour-law area had stronger impact on the Czechoslovak Hungarians whose destiny had not been decided in 1945 and 1946 yet, while most Germans concerned by the restrictive measures in labour-law area were gradually displaced in 1945 and particularly in 1946, so that the Germans had to deal with the burden of the labour-law restriction and forced labour according to the needs of the state only temporarily. In connection with the transfer of the Germans, Czechoslovakia had to deal with growing absence of labour in the labour market, trying to solve it also by acquiring labour from abroad, for example by unsuccessful recruitment of Italian workers.