The Story of Munkács
A Jewish Community in the Carpathian Mountains

The Labor Service System set up under the Hungarian military, included scores of thousands of men deemed to be “unreliable” and unworthy of carrying weapons. Since Jews as a group came to be considered “unreliable,” the Labor Service became a vehicle for dealing with the so-called “Jewish Question,” and Jews became the largest and most prominent group in the system. Elements of the Labor Service began to be put in place as early as 1939 but it only coalesced into a full fledged system in spring 1942, when the Hungarian Second Army was sent to the Eastern Front. Eventually some 200,000 Hungarian military personnel found themselves in the war zone, including more than 40,000 Jewish labor servicemen. Over 80% of the Jewish forced laborers never returned home, falling victim to brutality, horrible conditions, cruel harassment, sickness, Soviet captivity and outright murder.

Tens of thousands more Jews were drafted into the Labor Service and were deployed on Hungarian soil. Late in 1944 many were sent to build fortifications on the Austrian border. The terrible conditions and brutal treatment led a high death rate. In the first months of 1945, most of the survivors were then taken to Nazi camps, primarily in the Austrian interior. Some were shot along the way, and many more died in the camps.