Labour service (Hungary)

Labour service (Hungarian: munkaszolgálat) arose in Hungary during World War II as the required military substitution for Jewish men, who were no longer permitted to serve in the regular armed forces since the passing of the Hungarian anti-Jewish laws. In Germany, Jewish men were also prohibited from serving in the armed forces any longer but, coupled with the negligible proportion of Jews in Germany (less than one-half of one percent by the beginning of the German attack on Poland), and the persecution and eventual extermination-program of the Jews in Germany, the effect of the Jews' absence produced a virtually insignificant effect on the German war machine; and there was no consequent necessity to create an alternative for Jewish military service. In Hungary, however, Jews comprised over eight percent of the population, and consequently an alternative-military service was required. Labour service was forced labour, performed by labour battalions conscripted by the German-allied Hungarian regime primarily from Hungarian Jewish men during World War II. These units were an outgrowth of World War I units, when Jews served in the Hungarian armed forces along with Christians, as in Germany and other European countries. The Fascist, Nazi-allied Regime commanders treated these Jewish units with extreme cruelty, abuse, and brutality. Men who worked in mine quarries were frequently pushed off the man-made cliffs and embankments to their deaths. These units were stationed all over Hungary, including the Eastern Front in Ukraine—where most of the men died. The Gendarmes and Army men who guarded these "slaves" were mostly members of the Nyilas fascist anti-Semitic political party.

Initially, these badly fed and poorly clothed units were assigned to perform heavy construction work within Hungary. With the attack on Russia, most of these units were sent into Ukraine for additional forced labour work, where they were subjected to atrocities such as marching into mine fields to clear the area so that the regular troops could advance, and death by torture of prominent servicemen. Some Munkaszolgálat units were entirely wiped out; others had as few as 5% of their members survive the war.

The famous poet Miklós Radnóti and writer Antal Szerb also died during labour service. Ordinary people such as Miklos Farkas born in Turcz in 1909, in the Northern Transylvanian county of Szatmar were among the few survivors of their units. This particular one was last based in Siegendorf, Austria, having previously been detailed to a stone quarry for most of the war where many of the men, al Jews, were intentionally pushed off the steep cliffs in these quarries to their deaths. At Siegendorf, as the war came to an end, the guns of the advancing Russian forces could be heard by the Nyilas (Hungarian Arrow Cross troops who "guarded these Jewish slaves") decided to march most of the men out of the camp. Miklos and a few of the men suspected this was an attempt to murder them before the Russians could free them. They scattered underneath the barracks while they heard their friends being marched away. They heard volleys of gunshots not too far away a short time later. Several hours later, in the night, they emerged from hiding and sneaked eastward towards the Hungarian-Austrian border where they met Russian forces. Most of these young men had typhus and had to be hospitalized for several weeks until they recovered, then took one-way train trips home. Miklos went home most of the way as a stowaway on top of a train car to the small city of Halmin, now called Halmeu in Northern Romania. Most of these men were never compensated by Hungary—certainly no survivors were ever compensated by the Austrians since they claim to be victims of the very conspiracy they joined—the Hungarians claiming that there were no records to prove their service, since they kept them under lock and key. Almost none of the Nyilas responsible for murdering many Jewish men were ever convicted and sentenced to long prison terms. The few who were caught and tried were merely given light symbolic sentences.

Memoirs and diaries of Hungarian labour brigades

A richly detailed narrative of a young man's experience in a Hungarian labour brigade was published in 2010 by the estate of George F. Eber. Entitled "Pinball Games," it was written by Eber prior to his death in 1995. The memoir is highly accessible, providing invaluable insight into many aspects, and dangers, of brigade life, as well as the Holocaust in Hungary. What's more, it illuminates an aspect of the labour brigades about which very little has been written: Eber was conscripted into a "white-armband" brigade, consisting of "Christian-Jews," that is men raised in a Christian tradition, but considered Jewish by the Nuremberg Laws. The Hungarian army created what Eber termed a "caste system" by separating them from Jews, who wore yellow armbands. By virtue of its topic, the chronicle is unique and profoundly revealing.

The standard work on the munkaszolgálat is Randolph L. Braham, "The Hungarian Labor Service System: 1939-1945," (Eastern European Monographs, 1977), and the relevant chapters in the same author's "The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary," (Columbia Univ. Press, 1981, rev. ed. Eastern European Monographs, 1994)