Preparations Under Way for Uncovering Hungarian War Graves in Belarus

According to the major, all graves can be identified with precision, but many of them cannot be uncovered because the environment has changed a lot – for example, houses were built in the area of the graves. For this reason, it is certain that the mortal remains of all Hungarian soldiers fallen in Belarus cannot be exhumed, so around 600-800 can be identified of the 2500-3000 soldier heroes, he added.

We would like to rebury, in a central military cemetery, those Hungarian soldiers that we find in these uncovered graves, and to erect a memorial to commemorate all other fallen soldiers of ours at the same place" – Roland Maruzs told us, adding that the site is yet to be chosen.

There isn’t any agreement on war grave care between Hungary and Belarus, so the uncovering work will be carried out by the 52nd independent special battlefield archeology battalion of the armed forces of Belarus, with the participation of Hungarian experts, the major added.

Roland Maruzs told us that most army units stationed in Belarus were occupying forces, and that the fallen also include soldiers killed in action during partisan attacks in the region of River Don. Additionally, the 1st cavalry division also suffered losses there in the summer of 1944. The area of Belarus was not the main theatre of war for Hungary, unlike the area of present-day Russia, where two military cemeteries have already been set up. 19,000 Hungarian soldiers are buried in Rudkino and 8,000 in Boldirevka. Besides, the year 1944 saw heavy fighting in the Galician areas of Ukraine too.

“Tens of thousands of Hungarian soldiers may be buried there, so we are trying to find their graves in Ukraine too, where we would like to set up another central military cemetery", he said.

The major told us that it would be difficult to estimate the number of Hungarian troops who fell in World War II, but presumably many more of them died as prisoners of war in the Soviet Union than in the theatres of war. The database received from the Russian partners includes the personal details of around 68,000 Hungarian soldiers who lost their lives as POWs in the Soviet Union.

Roland Maruzs noted that their actual number is possibly much higher, because people were not registered while on the move and staying in the temporary concentration camps, yet a lot of them lost their life in those places.

The number of Hungarian soldiers killed in action is estimated to be 150-180,000. Recently the mortal remains of soldiers were uncovered outside the Parliament building in Budapest, during the reconstruction of “Kossuth Lajos" Square. One of them was a German soldier who was successfully identified, but four Hungarian soldiers had no dog tags on them, so they were buried as unknown ones in the German–Hungarian military cemetery of Budaörs.

Roland Maruzs also noted that the mortal remains of soldiers and pieces of WWII military equipment may be uncovered in large numbers during the planned reconstruction of “Széll Kálmán" Square in Budapest.

The major also told us that they continue working to expand the database available on the homepage of the MoD Public Relations and War Memorial Service Department (www.hadisir.hu), which already includes the personal details and place of burial of around 78,000 soldiers who fell in World War II.

Photo: Noémi Bruzák (MTI)