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World War II: Siege of BudapestMHQ | Single Page | 7 comments | Print This Post | Email This Post
By dawn on the twelfth, thousands of Germans and Hungarians were swarming through the wooded hills north and northwest of Budapest, even outnumbering the Soviets in some areas. In a desperate race against time, the exhausted survivors slogged through the snow, forest, hills, and finally into the exposed plains toward German lines, receiving occasional Luftwaffe support as the Soviets intensified their efforts to round them up. Within a day the Soviets managed to seal off most escape routes and set up an extensive manhunt. Trucks patrolled the edge of the Buda hills, offering safe conduct to those who surrendered.
Many did, and hundreds of them, mostly Germans, were summarily executed and dumped later into mass graves. Arpad Goncz, the current president of Hungary and a Cold War-era dissident and poet, composed 'The Mass Grave,' capturing his memories of this frightful slaughter's aftermath: 'They dug two graves: In one they threw the Hungarians, in the other the Germans and the dead horses. The Germans and Hungarians were usually barefooted: in those days they paid due reverence to soled footwear.'
One Hungarian lieutenant led a group of eleven Hungarian and four Waffen SS soldiers out of the cauldron along a railway up and over Schwabian Hill. This was the same general route used by the largest group of German survivors, several hundred Feldherrnhalle troopers led by Oberstleutnant (Lt. Col.) Helmut Wolff, who managed to reach German lines on the 14th. The lieutenant's group, however, was not as lucky. Concealed Soviet infantry ambushed and captured the small group. The four SS soldiers were immediately stripped naked and shot, while the Hungarians barely escaped with their lives by promising to help the Soviets with the roundup.
By February 14, the siege and breakout was over. Of the approximately thirty thousand souls participating in the breakout only 785 German and Hungarian soldiers managed to evade the relentless Soviet pursuit and reach German lines. Pfeffer-Wildenbruch and his command group never made it; they were surrounded and captured in a Buda villa after emerging from a sewer main a kilometer behind Soviet lines. Malinovsky reportedly told the German commander, 'If I didn't have a direct order from Stalin himself, I'd hang you in the main square of Buda castle for all the trouble you caused us.'
Haupsturmführer Kurt Portugall, commander of the German battle group that defended Eagle Hill, also failed to escape the cauldron. Captured on Rose Hill, he expected immediate execution when his winter smock was torn open, revealing his SS runes and combat decorations. As he could speak some Russian he was taken to a tall, distinguished major who told him:
I have a lot of respect for the combat soldiers of the Waffen SS. You will shortly be transported behind our lines. In our rear area there are as many swine as in your rear area. I'm telling you, leave your SS runes and your decorations here; it will be better for your future health. I will not keep your decorations nor will any of my soldiers because we are Guards soldiers, the Russian Waffen SS!
A brief orgy of horror and violence ensued in Buda after its capture. An estimated two thousand wounded were burned or suffocated to death in fires that broke out in the catacombs under the Royal Palace. Soviet soldiers plundered, looted, and raped the populace. Occupation troops rounded up all able-bodied Hungarian men and youth and sent them down to the Danube to build pontoon bridges across the river. For weeks afterward, especially after the spring thaw, bloated bodies piled up against these same pontoons and bridge pylons.
The fate of Raoul Wallenberg remains unknown. Picked up by the Soviets after Pest's capture, ostensibly to meet Marshal Malinovsky in Debrecen, he forever disappeared. His fate remains one of the great mysteries of World War II. Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14Help HistoryNet by bookmarking to
            Tags: 20th - 21st Century, Historical Conflicts, World War II
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7 Comments to “World War II: Siege of Budapest”
This comment is for Peter B. Zwack who originally published the article Siege of Budapest.
Dear Peter: I am not a publisher, but I am considering writing a book and it is a work in progress. I need information about the siege of Budapest and I came across your article. Do I have to pay to use your article from this internet site? Or do I only need your permission?
Thanks,
Kathalin Horvath
By Kathalin Horvath on Jul 24, 2008 at 10:01 am
Dear Karhalin, I have no problem about your using my article for your work. All I ask is to see your final result (out of interest and not for oversight!) I only now found your comment from July – please excuse my late response.
With best regards, Peter Z
PS I am planning to write a military and social history of Hungary during the last war but won't begin for several years. What theme is your work about?
By Peter Zwack on Dec 1, 2008 at 7:40 am
Dear Peter
My father, George Aczel, has written a book about his experiences as a Jewish boy growing up in Hungary during both the Nazi regime and the Russian occupation.
The book has been self published and my father would dearly like to get his book noticed. I have attached a brief synopsis of the book in the hope that you might
be interested in it or know some other people or organisation that could help him.
Thanking you for your time
Charlotte White
"WOLF" synopsis
Hungary 1931. It is George’s first birthday. The celebrating relations are discussing their favourite topic, the politics of the day. Uncle Ede wonders what deadly weapons will be used in the next war. "Not in our life time!" says Sandor. "But Mussolini, Stalin? You can’t trust a dictator," argues his brother.
The boy’s father secures a good position as a chauffeur. "Two hundred and fifty pengos a month! And the Baron has some excellent cars." The family move into a spacious flat in Angyalfold.
At school the boy enjoys the patriotic history lessons, the victorious kings and the injustice of the Trianon. Soon he is informed that he can no longer attend religious classes with his form but must go upstairs where a Rabbi would instruct him in the Jewish faith. George is dumbfounded.
When the German army occupy Hungary the proclamations against the Jews intensify. George finds his mother vacantly sewing on yellow stars. Father loses his job with the Baron.
They are ordered to leave their home to live in a special Jewish house. Families are encouraged to keep together – they are easier to trace. Father is able to bring his own father and step mother to share their allocated apartment. They hardly have time to settle in when George and his grandfather are told to report for labour service. George’s father is already working in a factory in a ‘necessary’ industry.
After swearing allegiance to the country they are marched to some army barracks, a labour camp, waiting further deportation to either the Russian front or the gas chambers. As they leave the barracks on their final march towards the railway station George sees an opportunity to make a run for it. He plunges through a bus queue hearing shots behind him.
Now the family have to go into hiding. Disguise and false papers help them survive until the Russian ‘liberation’. The liberators bring in another set of rules, meanwhile the Russian soldiers loot and behave in a barbaric manner. George witnesses men held at gunpoint while their wives are raped. Factories and banks are soon nationalised by the new Communist party, a puppet government formed by Rakosi, a Hungarian who had spent time in Russia learning how to condition the population. People were randomly arrested, often on false charges. They were jailed or sent away never to be seen again.
George joins a group of boys who in exchange for food take peasant women to the markets in a homemade cart.
Mother’s joy in seeing her son providing them with fresh food suddenly turns to tragedy. On her return from visiting her parents after such a long time, she is injured by shrapnel from mortar fire. The Germans had made a last stand across the river in Buda. Two weeks later she dies of tetanus.
George is sent to the Piarist school in Vac, and when he returns to Budapest he is surprised to find that his father has a profitable business repairing cars.
He goes to high school in the city. The high spirited boys play their jazz and make fun of the regime, but not for long. Father’s garage is taken away, the authorities have tightened their grip. Some of the schoolmasters disappear creating fear amongst the staff.
Father decides they will have to leave the country, but the border has been closed down. On their first attempt to escape they are caught and are imprisoned and badly beaten by the AVO (secret police). However they survive to try again, and with the help of a guide they cut the wires and step carefully over the mines to freedom.
By Charlotte White on Jan 9, 2009 at 6:30 am
Hi Charlotte, I just came across your note and read your father's "Wolf" synopsis with interest. Let me chew on where to take this….for now i am really out of the Budapest history loop. I'm currrently in Afghanistan until July 09 and only intermittently check this page…when get back i hope to become reengaged. Take care, Peter
By Peter B. Zwack on Mar 1, 2009 at 8:36 pm
Peter
Just read Charltte White's "Wolf" synopsis.
Am also in the very early stages of writing a novel – with one chapter in WWII Budapest and one during the 1956 revolution.
Could you assist with obtaining a copy of "Wolf" (assuminig it is English)
Regards
Brian Sims
By Brian Sims on Sep 29, 2009 at 3:49 am
Peter, its monty…serving in Korea. Just came across this by chance. Encourage you to get on with the book, to this day my visit and tour of Hungary remains a highlight of my experience in the army.
By Porfirio on Feb 11, 2010 at 9:26 am