Labour service (Hungary)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Labour service (Hungarian: munkaszolgálat) were a form of Hungarian forced labor, labor battalions conscripted by the German-allied regime primarily from young Hungarian Jewish men at the onset of and during World War II.

Initially this badly fed and poorly clothed unit was assigned to perform heavy construction work within Hungary. With the attack on Russia, most of these units were sent into the Ukraine for additional forced labor work. Atrocities such as marching labour service units into mine fields to clear the area for advance, and the death by torture of prominent servicemen were attributed to some of the Fascist Hungarian troops. Some Munkaszolgálat units were entirely wiped out; others had as few as 5% of their members survive the war.

The famous poets, Miklós Radnóti and Antal Szerb also died during labour service.