Roth revisited this stance in early 1940, when he was undergoing surgery in Budapest. He witnessed there the arrival of a large number of Hungarians from Romania, all of whom expected to return to their homes alongside an invading "Honvédség". The prospect, he argued, was "crazy". In July 1940, Greater Romania began to crumble as the Soviet Union annexed Bessarabia. This led to a panic among the Romanian Jews, who feared that they would be subjected to retaliation; at the time, Roth resumed his political collaboration with Argetoianu, helping to establish contacts with the Communist Party. His son Roland Robert also recalled that during 1940 he had his first contacts with the Union of Communist Youth (UTC).