Friday, July 27, 2012

Unsung Hungarian Heroes



The First World War was supposed to be the war that was to end all wars. It was one of the most devastating wars in human history next to the Second World War. Hungary was apart of the Austro-Hungarian Empire at the time. Essentially since Hungary wasn't running the show, Hungarians didn't have a choice in going to war as it was Austria which was in control. The Central Powers (Germany, Austro-Hungary, Bulgaria and Turkey), lost the war in 1918. Out of all the Central Power countries, Hungary was punished the most by the victors at the end of the war.

Due to the Treaty of Trianon after the war in 1920, Hungary lost two-thirds of her territory and also lost millions of her citizens, many of which were ethnic Hungarians. It is estimated that up to three million Hungarians were trapped in foreign countries after the Treaty of Trianon, many of which still exist outside the borders of Hungary today.

The First World War had devastating political and economic consequences for the nation. Austria-Hungary lost 1,000,000 soldiers and had over 3,500,000 wounded. Nearly 500,000 civilians of the Austro-Hungarian lost their lives to do the war. The total of Hungarian losses were 385,000 killed and of this 270,000 were military losses. This YouTube video shows some of the unsung Hungarian heroes from this forgotten war. These Hungarian soldiers are long dead but I decided to post this to honour the memory of these brave men.

István