Metadata and title updated to omit the mention of Jews. The film itself and other records do not indicate the race, ethnicity, or religion of the forced laborers. While Hungary did use Jewish forced labor, other groups (politically unreliable ie Romani, socialists, political dissidents) were subject to forced labor as well. The following Illumin request provided information on four total films. 179211 USHMM Collections Search Feedback Submitted 04/08/2023 03:40:47 [Historical Film]
Magyar Híradó 816. Intertitle: “MÁTÉSZALKA. A VIII. közérdekíí munkaszolgálatos zászlóalj út-építési munkálatai. M.F.I.-KISS E.” Forced labor battalions constructing roads. Men dig shovels and pickaxes into the dirt. Others unload materials from wagons alongside a pile of large rocks next to train tracks. WS of the labor battalions working in a field. Some move wheelbarrows full of rocks and others keep digging in the dirt. Others in the battalion work on breaking up the large rocks into smaller ones using sledgehammers. Behind them, officers survey their work. Men kneel down and hammer away at smaller sized rocks to continue breaking them into tinier pieces. Men smooth over soil behind a farming machine that officers stand on. Steamrollers in the BG. On the side of a dirt hill, men use shovels to smooth down the dirt. One man surveys their work. At the base of the hill, forced laborers march along the road, followed by laborers carrying wheelbarrows. Workers digging a ditch alongside a road. MS, legs of the battalion men as they march. The soldiers march from the front, with an officer riding a bike behind them.
Conscripts forced to labor in Hungary