Czechoslovak-Hungarian population exchange

The Czechoslovak–Hungarian population exchange was the exchange of inhabitants between Czechoslovakia and Hungary after World War II. Between 45,000 and 120,000 Hungarians were forcibly transferred from Czechoslovakia to Hungary, and their properties confiscated, while around 72,000 Slovaks voluntarily transferred from Hungary to Czechoslovakia, half of whom eventually moved back to Hungary.

In 1945, at the end of World War II, Czechoslovakia was recreated and Czechoslovak politicians aimed to completely remove the German and Hungarian minorities from their territory through ethnic cleansing. Both minorities were considered collectively as "war criminals", based on the actions of some individuals, such as Konrad Henlein, and the participation of their countries in the dismemberment of Czechoslovakia through the Munich Agreement and the First and Second Vienna Awards.

During the last years of the war, Edvard Beneš, the leader of the Czechoslovak government-in-exile, worked toward resolving the minority problem of Czechoslovakia through the transfer or assimilation of these minorities, as he considered them the biggest obstacle in the way of re-shaping postwar Czechoslovakia into a nation-state. The idea that the Hungarian minority in Slovakia must be removed dominated Czechoslovak national policy for an extended period.

Klement Gottwald, leader of the Czechoslovakian communists had set up a rival Czechoslovak government in Moscow. In April 1945 Gottwald and Beneš met in Kosice and together they created the new Czechoslovak government, the National Front – a mixture of Soviet-supported Communists and non-Communists – and announced the "Kosicky vladny program" ("Kosice Government Program"). At this time, all political groups in Czechoslovakia, including the previous government-in-exile and the new government, agreed that the country should be formed into a nation state. It was in this atmosphere that the Kosice Government Program – under the supervision of the Central Committee of the All-Soviet Communist Party – was created.

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