The Sixth Labor Battalion (VI Prapor) at a Slovak Labor Camp

The National Defense Law 20/1940 exempted Jews from military service in the new Slovak state but required them instead to do manual labour at military work camps.

Group portrait of Jewish members of the Sixth Labor Battalion (VI Prapor) 

Such Jews, who were called "Robotnik Zid" [work Jews], wore distinctive blue uniforms and berets. They were assigned to the Sixth Labor Battalion which consisted of five companies, three of which were exclusively made up of Jews. New Jewish recruits were assembled in Cemerne (Vranov district) in eastern Slovakia, where they underwent basic military training using shovels instead of rifles. After their training the Jewish labor companies were assigned to forced labor in various parts of the country.

Two Jewish members of the Sixth Labor Battalion (VI Prapor) dig out the foundation of a barracks at a Slovak labor camp.

In the spring of 1942, most of the Jewish labor units were concentrated at three labor camps in the Bratislava district in western Slovakia: Sv. Jur, Lab and Zohor, where they were put to work on drainage projects. 

Prisoners holding pick axes and other tools, work along a roadside at a Slovak labor camp

When the mass deportation of Slovak Jewry began in the spring of 1942 the position of the "work Jews" improved vis a vis the civilian Jewish population. The Jewish labor companies fell under the authority of the Ministry of Defense which was often in conflict with the Ministry for Internal Affairs that was responsible for the deportation actions. As a result, the Defense Ministry sometimes refused to comply with requests from Internal Affairs to discharge "work Jews" from the military labor service.

Group portrait of Jewish members of the Sixth Labor, Slovakia 1940

On May 31, 1943, the military labor camps for Jews were formally disbanded and the remaining "work Jews" were moved to civilian concentration camps or centers.