Labour service in Hungary during World War II

The badly fed and poorly clothed units were initially assigned to perform heavy construction work within Hungary.

With Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union, Hungary officials sent most of these units into Ukraine for additional forced labour work.

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.

At Siegendorf, as the war came to an end, the guns of the advancing Soviet forces could be heard by the Nyilas (Hungarian Arrow Cross troops who guarded the Jewish slaves).

Suspecting an attempt to murder the prisoners before the Soviets could liberate them, Farkas and a few other men scattered underneath the barracks as they heard their friends being marched away.

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.