On this day in 1944 the German army launched a brutal occupation of Hungary and wiped out the last relatively safe haven for Jews in central Europe. Most 21st century Americans either do not know or have forgotten that for most of the war Hungary was unoccupied and that Germany was on the run when Hitler decided to crush his unwilling ally. Budapest, until that day untouched, would become one of the most damaged cities in Europe.
Think of how late in the war this was: three years after the occupation of Yugoslavia, four and a half years after Poland, five and a half years after the annexation of Sudetenland, and six years after the annexation of Austria. The Wehrmacht was already being chased out of Russia, about to be driven from Italy, and three months later the Allies would land in Normandy.
But because Hitler did not trust Hungary—and with good reason; it had been bullied into the alliance and wanted out—Hungary would become one of the last and most bitterly fought over battlegrounds on the continent.
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| Budapest, 1945 |
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