Acts of escape of the Poles to Hungary in 1939: In September 1939, especially after the Soviet aggression on Poland on 17th September, refugees started coming to Hungary: both the organized military units and civilians. The Hungarian authorities, although they were in an alliance with Germany, accepted the refugees. Military men were detained in camps and then their redeploy to France was expedited. In France, under the supervision of the Polish government-in-exile, the Polish army was formed (the Polish Armed Forces in the West). Since this operation was top-secret, it is not known how many people went through Hungary heading West.

It is estimated that one hundred to one hundred fifty thousand Poles stayed in Hungary in 1939-1944. Part of civilians, fifteen-twenty thousand, remained there until the end of the war. They inhabited places indicated by the government, and the largest Polish population was located in Balatonboglar. The refugees also received benefits from the government. Already in October 1939 the Council for the Aid of Polish Refugees in Hungary was founded, which was a sort of a Polish self-government. A new school, newspaper, youth and cultural organizations were founded.

Polish refugees owed a lot particularly to the Minister of Internal Affairs, dr Jozef Antall. The case of defections of Polish Jews to Hungary in the subsequent years of the occupation is little-known: it is estimated that three thousand Jews came to Slovakia, and part of them were accepted by Hungary. When in March 1944 the German army entered Hungary they dissolved the Council and shot the leaders of the Polish emigration.