Forced Labor in Bor

In 1943, the Hungarian government deployed approximately 6,000 men, primarily Jews, alongside Jehovah's Witnesses and Sabbatarians, to German-controlled copper mines in Bor, Serbia. While initially tolerable, conditions turned lethal under Lieutenant Colonel Ede Marányi, who introduced a regime of torture and summary executions. As the front collapsed in September 1944, the labourers were driven north in two waves: the first toward Germany, where nearly 1,000 were massacred by the SS at Crvenka and others shot by Hungarian guards (including famous Hungarian poet Miklós Radnóti near Abda); the second wave was rescued by Yugoslav partisans, who executed the brutal guards and integrated the former prisoners into their ranks.