Genrykh Zinger began a tailor apprenticeship at the age of 14 in his hometown Velykyi Bereznyi, then in Czechoslovakia. His father worked as tombstone carver, glazier and frame builder. He was drafted into the Czechoslovak army in 1936 and served for three years. During World War II, he was a forced laborer for the Hungarian army from 1940 to 1943. After the Red Army defeated the Hungarian army, Zinger was captured along with other POWs and sent to a gulag in Voronezh, Russia, where he worked as tailor. He returned to his hometown in 1946, but joined his sister in Uzhhorod soon after.
Other Interviews:
Carving TombstonesCommunal Matzo Baking
From Hungarian to Russian Forced Labor
Uzhhorod, Ukraine
Genrykh Zinger describes in this clip how he endured the harsh conditions of Hungarian forced labor (munkaszolgálat or Munka Tábor) during the winter of 1942. He specifically describes a forced march, fleeing the front and searching for food. It was during this winter when the Red Army prevailed at the battle of Stalingrad, when the Germans were unprepared to fight in those conditions.
Although Zinger was a forced laborer, the Red Army did not make any distinctions regarding ethnicity and treated him, like Hungarian soldiers, as a Prisoner of War. He was therefore sent to a gulag in faraway Russia, from which he returned not before 1946. Genrykh returned to his hometown Velykyi Bereznyi, which became part of the Ukrainian Soviet Republic mid-1945, and found all the borders to neighboring countries cut off. Genrykh was born in the first year of World War I in a region that was under Czechoslovak rule until 1938. Upon his return, Genrykh was confronted with a new Soviet reality.
Grenrykh points out that it is general knowledge to grasp war realities. It is, however, difficult to imagine to cook rotten food remains from compost over a bonfire during a forced labor march in freezing cold.