Budapest ghetto
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Budapest ghetto was a ghetto where Jews were forced to live in Budapest, Hungary during the Second World War. The area consisted of several blocks of the old Jewish quarter of the city surrounding the main synagogue, and was surrounded by a high fence that was guarded so that contraband could not be sneaked in, and people could not get out. The Nazi occupation of Budapest took place in March 1944. The ghetto was established in November, 1944, and lasted for less than three months, until the liberation of the city by the Soviet Army in February 1945.
As with other ghettos that had been set up in other parts of Nazi-occupied Europe the area was completely cut off from the outside world: no food was allowed in, rubbish and waste were not collected and the buildings were overcrowded, leading to the spread of diseases such as typhoid.
More than half of those that were forced into the ghetto in 1944 were sent to concentration camps, starting almost immediately from the establishment of the ghetto. From occupation to liberation the Jewish population of Budapest was reduced from 200,000 to 70,000, most of those remaining having been granted diplomatic protection by neutral politicians, including Raoul Wallenberg, who issued Protective Passports on behalf of the Swedish Legation, and Carl Lutz, who did the same via the Swiss Government. Of those that were deported (most of them to a concentration camp on the Austrian border), the vast majority were liberated by the advancing Red Army.
[edit] External links
- A personal account of the Budapest ghetto
- Images of the ghettos (including some of Budapest)
- History of the Budapest ghetto
