The Siege of Budapest; One Hundred Days in World War II

by Krisztián Ungváry; Translated from the Hungarian by Ladislaus Löb

• ISBN13: 9780300104684
• ISBN10: 0300104685
• Format: Trade Book
• Copyright: 2005-04-11
• Publisher: Yale University Press

Summary

In the final six months of World War II, Germany and the Soviet Union focused on Hungary: Stalin demanded victory at all costs as a key to securing his European empire; Hitler ordered an unrelenting defense of Budapest in order to prolong his grip on Vienna and preserve the route to Berlin. Consequently, the siege of Budapest was one of the longest and bloodiest battles of the entire war. Based on formerly inaccessible documents and several hundred interviews with Hungarian and German survivors, this is the first complete and unbiased account of the siege of Budapest. Street by street, day by day, Krisztian Ungvary describes the battle and its horrors in meticulous detail. One hundred and two days passed between the appearance of the first Soviet tank and the final capture of Buda Castle. More than 80,000 Soviet troops and 38,000 German and Hungarian soldiers were killed; about 38,000 Hungarian civilian lives were lost. Civilian casualties were extraordinarily high because the city's 800,000 noncombatant residents were never evacuated. This book represents a massive effort of historical reconstruction, and a major contribution to the history of World War II.

Author Biography

Ladislaus Lob is Emeritus Professor of German, University of Sussex.

Table of Contents

Foreword
Prelude	p. 1
The encirclement	p. 48
The siege, 26 December 1944-11 February 1945	p. 111
Relief attempts	p. 188
The break-out	p. 201
The siege and the population	p. 257
Epilogue	p. 374
Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved.