Hungary–Romania relations
During World War II, Hungary and Romania became allies and participated in the war against the Soviet Union. But after the coup on 23 August 1944 Romania switched sides and fought against Hungary. Consequently, Soviet and Romanian troops invaded Hungary, occupied Northern Transylvania by October 1944 and re-established the Romanian administration in the region in March 1945. The 1947 Treaty of Paris reaffirmed the borders between Romania and Hungary as originally defined in Treaty of Trianon 27 years earlier, thus confirming the return of Northern Transylvania to Romania.
Ion Șiugariu
His later university years coincided with Romania's participation in World War II, and Șiugariu was briefly called up twice during this period. In July 1942, he obtained a passport and crossed into Hungarian-occupied Northern Transylvania, seeing his parents for the last time in Băița. Considered undesirable by the temporary authorities due to his political stance, he had to take a 12 km walk daily to the gendarmes' post for visa purposes. He attempted a second trip later that year, but was denied approval. In January 1943, he became a reserve officer and was sent to Ploiești for training, then to an infantry regiment in Bacău, in the Moldavia region. That July, during a two-week leave, he married pharmacy student Lucia Stroescu in Râmnicu Vâlcea. In 1944, after the King Michael Coup, he participated in the Romanian Army's push into Central Europe, reaching the Czechoslovak Front. He was killed in early 1945 during the battle for the Slovak town of Brezno. The same year, he was posthumously decorated with the Order of the Crown. Devastated by the news, his 56-year-old father died of double pneumonia a month after his son. In 1956, he was reburied in the Romanian military cemetery at Zvolen.