After the First World War, the vicotrious Entente decided to reward expanding Romania for her wartime military alliance by awarding her Transylvania (Erdely), a long-standing  province of neighboring Hungary. Resurgent Germany, joined with Italy, decided to avert a clash by dividing the region, but also planning to use the volatile issue for baiting both sides into fighting on the Axis side. Here an old Szekely town, Csikszerda, celebrates the Hungarian return in 1940. 

Honved Unit Welcomed by Old Magyar Town, 1940

A possible war for the possession of the large, maily mountaneous  province of Erdely (Transylvania) was avoided when Germany and Italy decided to divide the region with a demarcation line running from NW to SE. Here a Hungarian town celebrates the reannexation of NE Erdely.

Return of  Hungarian Town in Transylvania, 1940

The specific source of this originally black and white photo is not known to me, but it is obviously the work of a professional photographer from the WW2 era. I have colored gently, and am posting it  in the memory of all those young men who had given their lives in that senseless conflict, whether they had been Hungarians or not, and whether they had served in Axis or Allied ranks.