I had a family member (now long deceased) who was a brand new lieutenant in the Hungarian army when the Nazis overran Hungary.
“First ve throw away all our collar brass and put on the Nazi crap. A few veeks later ve were on our vay to the eastern front. I vas wounded and sent home. Then the Russians came and things got worse.” (The family escaped in 1957.)
“I vas born a Hungarian, but I vill die as a proud American Ceetezen.” (And he did.)
My dad was from Hungary. He served, as did every man that was able. He never quite got over his belief that socialism would “provide”.
I can PM you a covert recording I made of my Pop during a holiday meal where I got him talking about his youth in Hungary. It’s a sobering picture of life during that time.
Oh, and Pop was made to work the coal mines. Both as a child and as a young man required to serve in the military. He HAD to live in a barracks. Very little food. Only clothes they had were issued to them.