In late November 1944, the Soviet army intensified its heavy military attack against Budapest. At this point in history, the German army and the Hungarian Nationalists ruled Hungary. Our family was hiding under false names, hoping to survive by avoiding discovery, identification, and execution by the men of the Arrow Cross.
At the same time, we and everyone else in Budapest were being exposed to the Soviet attack against the city. By Christmas 1944, the bombing and shelling was going on day and night. The battle for Pest ended three weeks later, with the arrival of the advancing Russian troops.
On January 17, 1945, the Hungarian and German armies collapsed, and in Pest, the Russians took over. (The battle for Buda lasted another four weeks.) At this point, my parents, my brother, and I were hiding in the bunker of a so-called White Cross Hospital, together with some eighty Jews. We survived. On this day of liberation, around 10 a.m., the shelling and bombing stopped. After a while, twelve Russian soldiers arrived in the shelters, searching for ammunition. While they didn’t find the arms they were looking for, they started to chase after people for their watches. “We are Jews, we are Jews,” several tried to tell them. But this statement made no great impression on the newly arrived soldiers, who took whatever they could from the Jews who had been hiding there. After robbing them all, they opened the doors of the bunker, which had been closed for some six weeks.
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