State-led persecution and mobilization
In August 1944, the Ministry of Defense officially ordered the establishment of special “Gypsy” labor battalions. According to the decree, 10,000 to 12,000 “vagrants” were to be mobilized, but in reality, only a fraction of this was achieved. One of the anomalies of the regulation was that it failed to legally define the concept of “vagrant Gypsies,” allowing the gendarmerie to act arbitrarily: even settled day laborers without written contracts were frequently labeled as “work-shy” and rounded up.
The conscripted Roma worked in their own civilian clothes, marked with national tricolor armbands. Although some counties had already begun to use their own authority to force entire families into labor, only a few official state units were ultimately formed. This remains the least documented chapter in the history of Hungary’s Roma community; the last official records mention these units in March 1945.
“The Horthy era was primarily characterized by problem-oriented approaches and hostile writings rife with prejudice. The underlying premise was that the Gypsy population was parasitic, harmful, prone to criminality, and detrimental to society in every respect. Only musicians were regarded as ‘working Gypsies.”
Attila Jakab, historian
Further Reading / Sources
Lágerek népe – névtelen romák holokausztja
Márfi Attila (szerk.) (2014). Pécs: Pécs M. J. Város Önkormányzata, Janus Pannonius Múzeum.
Cigány katonai munkaszázadok Magyarországon 1944–1945-ben
Karsai László (1991). Hadtörténelmi Közlemények, 104. évf. 2. sz. 157–166. O.
Tények, adatok a cigányok háborús üldöztetésének (1939–1945) tanintézeti feldolgozásához
Szita Szabolcs (szerk.) (2000). Budapest: k. n.
A munkaszolgálat Magyarországon, 1939–1945
Szita Szabolcs (2004). Hadtörténelmi Közlemények, 117. évf. 3. sz. 817–858. O.