The surrealists were not physically harmed during the Bucharest pogrom, but were exposed during those years to the antisemitic restrictions: Luca was conscripted into a forced labor detachment, while Trost was employed as a schoolteacher for the segregated Jewish schools. After Romania's involvement in the anti-Soviet war, Păun's services as a physician were requisitioned, and he was sent over to provide healthcare services in POW camps. Naum, an ethnic Romanian, saw action on the front, and was discharged in 1941 with posttraumatic stress disorder. They were still in contact with communist affiliates such as the old-time friend, poet Stephan Roll, and, according to some interpretations, still adhered to Marxist ideology.