The 1848–1849 massacres in Transylvania were committed in the Hungarian Revolution of 1848. According to Hungarian historian Ákos Egyed, 14,000 to 15,000 people were massacred in Transylvania in this period. The victims comprised 7,500–8,500 Hungarians, 4,400–6,000 Romanians, and about 500 Transylvanian Saxons, Armenians, Jews and members of other groups.Egyed Ákos: Erdély 1848–1849 (Transylvania in 1848–1849). Pallas Akadémia Könyvkiadó, Csíkszereda 2010. p. 517 (Hungarian)"Végeredményben úgy látjuk, hogy a háborúskodások során és a polgárháborúban Erdély polgári népességéből körülbelül 14 000–15 000 személy pusztulhatott el; nemzetiségük szerint: mintegy 7500–8500 magyar, 4400–6000 román, s körülbelül 500 lehetett a szász, zsidó, örmény lakosság vesztesége."
Massacres of Hungarians
On 18 October 1848, Romanians attacked and murdered inhabitants of the village of Kisenyed (now Sângătin), located near Nagyszeben (Hermannstadt, now Sibiu). Another important event of the 1848–1849 conflict was the massacre at Nagyenyed (today Aiud) [8–9 January 1849]. During the event, Romanians massacred around 600–1,000 people in the town. Additionally, the troops of Transylvanian Romanians organized by Avram Iancu, who were supporting the Emperor of Austria, fought the organized Hungarian forces from Zalatna (today Zlatna) and Körösbánya (Baia de Criș).
During the fight of Zalatna in October 1848, about 640 citizens of the town were killed including teachers, priests, doctors, and merchants. Thirteen thousand gold and twenty thousand silver coins were robbed from the town's treasury. The massacre was incited and led by local Romanian lawyer Petru Dobra. Thirty Hungarians were killed in Boklya. About 200 Hungarians were killed in Gerendkeresztúr (Grindeni) and some 90 beaten to death near Marosújvár (Ocna Mureș).
Timeline of massacres of Hungarians Massacres with recorded, mostly civilian, Hungarian victims occurred in the following places:
Massacre Date Location County Now named Victims Notes Algyógy massacre October 1848 Algyógy Hunyad CountyGeoagiu 85Gracza György, History of the 1848-49 Hungarian War of Independence, Budapest, 1894, Volume II, pp. 424. Mostly civilians Borosbocsárd massacre Borosbocsárd Alsó-Fehér County part of Ighiu 73 Mostly civilians Diód massacre Diód Stremț 25 Local noble familiesVerzeichniss der, während der jüngsten Revolution im Kronlande Siebenbürgen auf verschiedene Weise gefallenes Menschenopfer. Wien, 1851, 24–25. o. Gyulafehérvár massacre Gyulafehérvár Alba Iulia 42 Mass torture, arson, and civilians massacred Gerendkeresztúr massacre Gerendkeresztúr Torda County part of Chețani 200 Civilians Székelykocsárd massacre Székelykocsárd Aranyos Seat Lunca Mureșului 60 Hátszeg massacre Hátszeg Hunyad County Hațeg 15 Civilians massacred on the order of the Romanian Eastern Orthodox priest. Marosújvár massacre Marosújvár Alsó-Fehér County Ocna Mureș 90 Civilians living in the townDomokos Pál Péter: Rendületlenül, Eötvös Kiadó-Szent Gellért Egyházi Kiadó, 1989, 33.-34. old. Mikeszásza massacre Mikeszásza Micăsasa 150 All locals except for one family were massacredJakab Elek, The War of Independence, Budapest, 1894, Volume II, pp. 385. Kisenyed massacre 14 October 1848 Kisenyed Sângătin 140–175 Civilians Zalatna massacre 22–24 October 1848 Zalatna Zlatna 700(Hungarian, German)Dr Ignatz Reinbold, Memories of Dr Ignatz Reinbold Chamber Doctor of the Town of Zlatna Accessed: 18 June 2020 All the Hungarian civilians fled from the town, but were raided near the village Presaca Ampoiului and were all massacred. The town was completely destroyedJancsó Benedek, History and Current State of Romanian Irredentist Movements, Budapest, 1896, Volume II, pp. 682.Horváth Mihály, History of the War of Independence of Hungary, Budapest, 1894, Volume II, pp. 405. Magyarigen massacre 29 October 1848 Magyarigen Ighiu 200 The entire Hungarian population of the village, except for the Hungarian priest, was massacred.Mátyás Vilmos: Utazások Erdélyben, Panoráma, 1977, 56. old.Gracza György, History of the 1848-49 Hungarian War of Independence, Budapest, 1894, Volume II, pp. 420. Boklya massacre 30 October 1848 Boklya Bihar County Bochia 30 Mostly civilians Felvinc massacre 13 November 1848 Felvinc Aranyos Seat Unirea 200 The whole village was destroyed and most civilians massacred Köpec massacre 9 December 1848 Köpec Háromszék County Căpeni 51 After the imperial victory of Hídvég over the Székelys from the Háromszék county, the Austrians sent the Romanian and Saxon insurgents, who were supporting them in the battle, to pillage the village. The insurgents burned down the village, killing 51 people, among them even a retired k.u.k. officer, who was living there.Demeter Lajos: Háromszék 1848-ban, önvédelmi harca november 12. - 1849. január 5. között (kronológia) Acta2006. Határvidék 1762–1918 (2. rész), pp. 237 Hétfalu massacre 23 December 1848 Hétfalu Brassó County Șapte Sate 55 On 23 December 1848 a huge Romanian insurgent force arrived, burned, and pillaged the localities, killing 55 Hungarian Csángó inhabitants.Veres Emese Gyöngyvér: A hétfalusi csángók 1848-49-es emlékhelyei Honismeret, 1999 (27. évfolyam) 3. sz., pp. 24-26 Nagyenyed massacre 8–17 January 1849 Nagyenyed Alsó-Fehér County Aiud 600–1,000 Mostly civilians. The whole city with the ancient Bethlen College was burned and destroyed.Gerő, Patterson (1995), p. 102 Mass rape and torture.Kemény Gábor, Nagy-Enyednek és vidékének veszedelme 1848-49-ben : történeti vázlat, Pest, 1863, pp. 347-348. Alsójára massacre 15 January 1849 Alsójára Torda County Iara 150 CiviliansGracza György, History of the 1848-49 Hungarian War of Independence, Budapest, 1894, Volume III, pp. 433. Borosbenedek massacre January 1849 Borosbenedek Alsó-Fehér County Benic 400 By the order of the Romanian Greek Catholic priest, the entire Hungarian population was wiped out Hari massacre Hari Heria 18 Abrudbánya massacre 9 and 17 May 1849 Abrudbánya Abrud 1,100–1,200 Mass torture and rape. Victims were mostly local miners and town officers and their whole families. Bucsesd massacre 9 May 1849 Bucsesd Hunyad County Buceș 200
This table contains only the recorded victims, however, the exact number of deceased civilians is hard to determine. There are several dozens of villages all over Transylvania where the number of massacred locals (predominantly Hungarians) is unknown. Furthermore, these numbers might not include those who did not perish in the massacres per se but during their imprisonment, fleeing, disappearance, or forced resettlement to Naszód, Hátszeg or Monorfalva by the Romanians.Szilágyi Farkas: Alsó Fehér vármegye 1848-49-ben. In. Alsó Fehér vármegye monmográfiája III. 1. rész, Nagyenyed 1898
Soon after the war, in 1850, the Habsburg court conducted a census of the victims. However, the authenticity of this census has been questioned and heavily criticized over time, as the authorities only conducted the census in Romanian and Saxon-populated areas and ignored even mentioning some of the largest massacres against Hungarian civilians in Transylvania, such as Nagyenyed, Abrudbánya or Zalatna.Egyed Ákos: Erdély 1848–1849 (Transylvania in 1848–1849). Pallas Akadémia Könyvkiadó, Csíkszereda 2010. p. 507-509
Among the victims of the Romanian massacres, important Hungarian personalities or their relatives were to be found. Mária, the sister of the Hungarian dramatist Imre Madách was caught together with her husband and her son, being all killed by the Romanian insurgents,Palágyi Menyhért, / Madách Imre élete és költészete, Athenaeum 1900, p. 75. and thrown in front of pigs to be eaten./ Madách Imre a szabadságharcban, A Nógrád Megyei Levéltár történeti blogja Africa's first female researcher, Florence Baker's (her original, Hungarian, name was Flóra Sass) parents and brothers and sisters were killed by the Romanian militia, led by Ioan Axente Sever in Nagyenyed (now Aiud) during the massacre of the Hungarian population of the town at 8 January 1849.Komáromi Csaba, / Magyarok a fekete földrészen, Belvedere Meridionale 2010/XXII. 1–2., p. 55.
Massacres of Romanians Beginning: the clash in Mihálcfalva Encouraged by the enlightened declarations of the revolutionaries of Pest about the liberation of all serfs in Hungary and the abolition of feudalism, as well as by the declarations of the Romanian national assemblies on 30 April and 15 May in the Transylvanian town of Balázsfalva (now Blaj), villagers in the southern Transylvanian Mihálcfalva (now Mihalț) illegally occupied a parcel of land belonging to the Esterházy family. On 1 June 1848, an imperial committee was appointed in Gyulafehérvár (now Alba Iulia) and sent out to Mihálcfalva to investigate the illegalities that took place in May. However, thousands of armed peasants from Obrázsa (now Obreja), Oláhcsesztve (now Cistei) and Alsókarácsonfalva (now Crăciunelu de Jos) gathered against them and refused their entry to the village. On the next day, 2 June 1848, an official regiment was sent from Gyulafehérvár by Anton von Puchner, commander in chief of the Austrian troops in Transylvania to disarm the armed peasants and guarantee the safety of the imperial committee during their investigation. However, the peasants resisted and the resulting armed clash killed 12 Romanian peasants and 1 Hungarian soldier. Other sources put the number of Romanian peasants shot dead at 14, with 50 other wounded, many of whom subsequently died. This was the first Transylvanian armed conflict in 1848.
An important strategic step of Anton von Puchner in the days leading up to the clash was his specific choice for a Székely Hungarian regiment to be sent against the armed Romanian peasants. In doing so, Anton von Puchner played a major role in the exacerbation of political-ethnic differences in the region and in the further radicalization of both Romanian and Hungarian peasants in Transylvania. As the power of Austrians weakened due to the initial successes of the Austrian, Czech, Slovak, Polish and Hungarian revolutionaries throughout the Habsburg Empire, the events in Mihálcfalva were published in the pro-imperial newspaper Der Siebenbürger Bote and were interpreted as a radical Hungarian assault against Romanian civilians, despite the fact that at the time of the conflict, the Székely frontier guards were still directly subordinate to the imperial court and to Anton von Puchner, commander in chief of the Transylvanian Austrian troops. The event, followed by the pro-imperial propaganda further boosted unrest and hostility in the region, and largely contributed to the mass-armament of Transylvanian Romanians and to the organization of the second national assembly in the town of Balászfalva in September 1848.
Further incidents In the autumn of 1848, dozens of Romanians from a village in Northern Transylvania who opposed the forced conscription into the Hungarian army were killed after the attack of a 200-man force.Freifeld p.73 On 10 September 1848, Hungarian military units from Arad killed 3 Romanians in Nadab (now part of Chișineu-Criș) after a conflict with several thousand locals armed with scythes who refused recruitment into the Hungarian Army, while other were imprisoned in Nagyvárad (now Oradea), Arad and Szeged.Ela Cosma. Cronologia anilor 1848/1849 History Institute „George Bariţiu", Cluj-Napoca. "10 septembrie 1848, Nădab – conflictul dintre câteva mii de români, înarmaţi cu coase, refuzând recrutarea în armata ungară, şi unităţile militare din Arad, ce