Labour service (Hungary)
헝가리 노동봉사제
The Hungarian system (munkaszolgálat) that conscripted Jewish men and others deemed “unreliable” into unarmed labour units instead of the army in 1939–1945. From 1941 Jews were segregated, made to wear armbands and sent near the Eastern Front; 25,000–42,000 died before March 1944 alone.
In depth
It was introduced by the Teleki government under the 1939 defence act and a decree of May that year. At first short unarmed service for young men judged unfit for the army, amid the Jewish laws and the war it grew into an institution for excluding and humiliating Jews, national minorities and left-wing opponents.
Some 17,000 Jewish labour servicemen accompanied the Second Army to the Don. Driven to clear mines and do heavy labour, many died of hunger and the violence of their guards, with especially heavy losses in the rout of January 1943. The poet Miklós Radnóti and the writer Antal Szerb died in labour service.