Summary
Traditions of the Hungarian and the German and Slovakian population living in Hungary can be found in the Lutheran parish of Rákoskeresztúr up to the present. In the XVIIIth century, after driving out the Turkish, the depopulated villages round Pest were settled by Hungarian- and Slovak-speaking population. The Slo¬vak settlers had come from the estate of the Podmaniczky - Osz¬troluczky family from Upper Northern Hungary and from Nógrád county and the surroundings of Aszód respectively.
In the second half of the XVIIIth century, the removal of the “heretics” seemed to solve the “Lutheran heresy” that kept spreading in Styria, Karinthia and Upper-Austria. The settlers pur¬sued owing to their faith were coming in several waves from Pürg, Tauplitz, Neuhaus of the Enns and Grimming Valley as well as from Eichtersheim of Baden-Württemberg.
These three ethnic groups had lived together in perfect union in Rákoskeresztúr during time past 200 years.
6 January 1945 - the feast of Epiphany - became another test for the German brothers and sisters of this parish, from many of them had already had Hungarian consciousness and Hungarian mother tongues. The removal by force of the late descendants of those driven away from their native land began to the Soviet work camps of Gulag. Our publication “I have surely seen the affliction of my people…” raises memory to the victims of deportations that had started 60 years ago.
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