The Fall of Budapest

The horrors of the fall of Berlin in April and May 1945 have been depicted in films and documentaries such as Oliver Hirschbeigel’s Downfall (2004). That Hitler spent his final days in a bunker and died by his own hand are facts that are widely understood and the mental image of a besieged and dying regime holding out ’til the end occupy a place in our darkest imaginings. The fate of Budapest in the same year is far less well known, but in many ways the two cities were in
timately connected in the horror of the war and the onslaught of the Red Army. Hitler ominously stated that Budapest, capital of his erstwhile ally Hungary, sould hold out and be devastated by the Red Army in order to buy Berlin time to prepare for the Nazi Regime’s last stand. Here’s a recent video I’ve created on the fate of Budapest: