Paper short abstract:

Up to 200000 ethnic germans from Hungary had been expelled to occupied Germany after WW II, of whom about 10000 actually remigrated. Based on narrative interviews with the "hazatértek" it is argued that returning is a processual development, that has not finished with the moment of physical arrival.

Paper long abstract:

Between 1946 and 1948 up to 200,000 people belonging to the German minority in Hungary had been forced to leave their hometowns. The 'svábok' got expelled by the Hungarian administration at the behest of the Allied powers and were sent to occupied Germany. In addition to material losses the displaced had suffered and the experience of structural violence in the course of the expulsion, the loss of what is referred to as "Heimat" obviously was the greatest burden for them. The personal relationships, networks and social structures, which withstood in their original homeland, were entirely broken. Many families were dismembered. In some towns and communities, more than half the population had been displaced. Efforts to return were penalized by the Allied forces and the Hungarian state until the early 1950s. Nevertheless, most of the expelled expressed a desire to return home; ultimately, however, only a small proportion actually did. Hungarian historian Ágnes Tóth estimates that up to 10,000 people moved back to Hungary despite the penalties, prohibitions and other risks they had to face. After their return the returnees developed various strategies of finding back into the now altered society.

Based on field research and narrative interviews with surviving witnesses the contribution seeks to expand the understanding of the historical circumstances surrounding the expulsion, the integration of the expellees in occupied Germany, the actual remigration and especially the process of reintegration of the "hazatérték" into the now socialist Hungarian state.