What was the málenkij robot?

Towards the end of WWII, in early 1945, every young woman between the ages of 18 and 30 and every young man between 18 and 45 who were believed to be German (everyone was declared as such if they had a German sounding name) were transported to the Soviets to do a “little work” as Hungarians called it.  The málenkij robot was a kind of forced labour (coming from the Russian words malenkaya rabota (маленькая работа) that also means “little work”) and despite its meaning it was not so little, as it often lasted for 5 years or more. Every person who had a German sounding name was forced to go, even if they have never been to Germany or didn’t speak German at all. Szeretlekmagyarorszag.hu wrote a moving personal article about the atrocities people had to suffer.

71 years ago in January 1945, young men and women “could not enjoy their Christmas presents and the new year, but were forced to get on trains going to the Soviet Union with only a change of clothes, bed sheets, and some food,” the author wrote.

The málenkij robot was a form of punisment for the German people, and was part of the “degermanization process.” There are no exact numbers, but approximately 600.000 Hungarians were captured, including 200.000 civilians.

The author’s grandmother (pictured above) was also transported to the Soviets even though not knowing one German word, just because one of her ancestors immigrated to Hungary from Germany in the 1700s, to try his luck. One of her uncles already died during the journey, and the rest travelled for 27 days in a cattle-truck. Thereafter they worked in a coal mine for 5 years eating nothing but cabbage soup and brown bread. The costs of the journey and the camps’ construction were deducted from the already shrunk wage they got.