A large part of the execution of the anti-Jewish activity in the Carpathians was entrusted to the Hungarian gendarmerie (csendőrség).
According to the administrative division of the Hungarian gendarmerie, Carpatho-Rus was part of the Košice gendarmerie district (Kerületi csendőrség) No. 8. In Munkács, the headquarters of the notorious Gendarmerie Investigations Department were established in the Castle of Kohner, previously owned by a wealthy and highly respected Jewish family. The castle served as a prison during the war years, as well as a headquarters for the shocking interrogations that many Jews of the city and the area went through there – due to a certain suspicion, or in order to extract information about their money and property.
Another organization, whose members were also active in the anti-Jewish activities in Carpatho-Rus, was the Katonai Kémeleháritás, a military organization of counter-espionage. The civilian apparatus was also a full partner in the anti-Jewish activity in the city.
The Hungarian occupiers quickly began to dispossess the Jews of their businesses and steal their property. Every Jewish institution was hurt, and every Jewish activity was in danger. Jewish life, too, had been abandoned since the early days of the occupation, and attacks on Jews on the street quickly became routine. Religious Jews with beards, and such were most Jewish men in Carpatho-Rus, suffered from public abuse. The Hungarian gendarmes were especially conspicuous. In addition, many Jewish men were recruited to the Munkaszolgálatos – military labor battalions in the labor camps (munkatáborokban), where they were often killed by the Hungarians or the Germans, or died otherwise. The JDC did its utmost to alleviate the plight of the Carpathian Jews, provided milk and meals to children, set up soup kitchens throughout the region, provided cash to Jewish refugees, organized workshops to teach needed professions in order to improve the employment options of the Jews, and even helped transfer funds for the yeshiva in Munkács.
With the final disintegration of Czechoslovakia by Germany in March 1939, and then with the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939, Carpatho-Rus was flooded with Jewish refugees from the former Czech provinces of Bohemia, Moravia and Slovakia – and also from Poland. In many cases, the official leadership of the Jewish communities in Carpatho-Rus failed to cope with the rapid changes and their significance, and sometimes the communities even found themselves without leadership, after it was dispersed by the Hungarians. This created the need for alternative leadership, and this need was met, at least in part, by members of the Zionist movements in the region, especially by members of the youth movements. Indeed, the Zionist activists were involved in the urgent aid to the many Jewish refugees in Carpatho-Rus – hiding them, forging Hungarian identity documents for them, or transferring them to Budapest, where it was easier for the refugees to hide. The Hungarians severely restricted Zionist activity in the Carpathians, and from the summer of 1940 they completely prohibited the activities of the various Zionist movements. Therefore, the activities of the youth movements had to be kept underground from that time on.
Another factor that also harmed Zionist activity during this period laid in the escape from the area of many leaders of the Zionist movements immediately, or very soon, after the Hungarian occupation. In many cases, this was almost inevitable, as in the case of Dr. Chaim Kugel, since there was a great danger to the Zionist leaders, but there were cases where these leaders could remain, even at the cost of going underground, yet they chose to take advantage of their status and receive certificates for immigration to Palestine. This is exemplified in the correspondence between Zionist youth leaders in the region and the leadership in Palestine. Regardless of the degree of criticism it may arouse, there is no doubt that this matter left the Zionist movements in the Carpathians without part of its leadership, precisely when it was most needed. In addition, the many differences and disagreements between the Zionist movements in Carpatho-Rus and their centers in Budapest, and even among themselves, made it very difficult for them to collaborate. A particularly bitter struggle within the HeChaluts movement existed between members of HaShomer HaTsair youth movement in Budapest and members of HeChaluts HaTsair in Carpatho-Rus.