In this final chapter of his book Childhood in Times of War, Andrew Salamon answers when was Hungary liberated in WW2.
While the Red Army was closing in on us and the field guns of our liberators grew louder, the Germans were determined to defend Budapest at all costs.
The military had received direct orders from Hitler to defend the city to the death.
4. Part 2 “THE FINAL SOLUTION” | 6. Epilogue
Chapter 5: Liberation and Beyond
When was Hungary liberated in WW2?
The Fascists’ Last Stand
The Hungarians decided to make their last desperate stand right in the middle of our lumberyard. They rolled a large cannon into the yard, along with a platoon of soldiers.
When the cannon started firing, the earth shook around us in our underground pit. The sensation was terrifying.
As the cannon created an obstacle between us and the communal hall we visited every night, we stayed put in our bunkers.
We lost count of the days and dates. Even New Year’s day went by unnoticed by us.
With tanks rolling by on the street, shells pouring over our lumberyard, and the crazy Hungarian cannon shooting away?
There was absolutely no respite from the battlefield noises and ruckus around us.
After long deliberation and two long days of starvation, our family decided to take the risk and sneak over to the warehouse building.
The soldiers were taking cover most of the time, and keeping their eyes fixed on the eastern horizon.
That’s where they expected the Russians to appear momentarily, so it was quite easy to sneak out.
It turned out that the men in the yard were only soldiers; there was not a single Nazi armband in sight.
Those rats had disappeared, shedding their uniforms as they fled.
When we got to the warehouse, we discovered that others had all made the same decision the night before. We were the last ones to join the group.
Cooking was not allowed, matches and candles remained unlit. All conversation was kept to a whisper.
Although most of the time we wouldn’t have heard each other even if we had shouted because of the din outside.
We were not allowed to move unless it was to go to the washroom or to distribute food. The intense cold in the unheated warehouse forced us to stay in our bunks, covered as much as possible.
Families and lovers sat huddled together. Hours, days and nights passed this way.
We had no idea what was happening outside and no one dared to look.
At one point, even though the exchange of shells overhead continued, the big gun in the yard stopped firing. The world around us fell silent.
The soldiers in our yard had retreated, leaving behind their guns and ammunition. We were now in the most dangerous zone: the no-man’s land between the two armies.
Both sides could now shell us with the knowledge that their own soldiers wouldn’t be hit.
Liberation! (When was Hungary liberated in WW2)
The shelling continued for some time, then suddenly stopped. The only explosions we could hear now came from farther away.
An ominous silence descended over the yard and the street next to us. Then we heard machine gun fire and a cry in a strange language: “Igyi Suda!”
The voice came from just outside the door. The Polish boy stood up, and with a huge smile on his face, said: “A Russian soldier!”
The door flew open and a wild and scary-looking, submachine gun-toting creature appeared.
We all climbed out of our beds and stood, glued to the floor, frightened and hopeful at the same time. He yelled and motioned for us to move to the middle of the room.
It looked like he was ready to turn his weapon on us at any moment. We tried to explain that we were Jewish.
But he interrupted us with a bloodcurdling yell and a menacing wave of his gun.
We shut up and moved, crowded, to the middle of the room.
When was Hungary liberated in WW 2?
The day was January 5, 1945. Our liberators had arrived.
Our liberation did not happen Hollywood-style. There were no hugs and kisses for the liberators, no feast spread out to celebrate the end of the war, at least not for us.
The band didn’t play, nor did the blue and white flag of Zion wave in the spring air.
The Soviet units entering our area were fierce fighters, mad as hell for the great losses they had suffered in the battle for Budapest. They hadn’t come to party.
The Russians knew that they were in enemy territory, among people who had destroyed their homes.
People who had murdered their families and left total destruction in their once beautiful country.
This army was here to defeat the fascist enemy and get revenge. To these soldiers, who had gone through living hell in the last four years, we were the Hungarian enemy.
And that was that.
To make matters worse, all our attempts to communicate with them failed. The Russian soldiers left to continue their battle with the retreating Hungarians, while one soldier stayed behind to guard us as prisoners.
We sat close to each other in a corner and chewed on what tasted to us like some of the finest cake, but in retrospect were hard and gummy chunks of bread.
Spent our first night of freedom in the corridor, lying on the cold floor, without cover, shivering. We had no food, no place to sleep…What kind of liberation was this?
It certainly was not the liberation we had dreamt of.
The next day things started to get sorted out. One of the soldiers must have understood the word Yevrei (Jew), because suddenly a well dressed young captain appeared and spoke in broken Yiddish to us.
It was amazing: here was a Russian Jew who also spoke Yiddish! He was sympathetic to our plight but explained that as far as the Russian occupying forces were concerned, we were Hungarian enemies, Jewish or not.
They didn’t discriminate between victims and victimizers. In any case, he said, Jews were not great favourites with the Red Army.
There were many anti-semites among the soldiers.
Our Jewish captain gave us a document which he said would perhaps provide some protection from the army units to follow. He also brought us food, bread and a few other basic staples.
The document he gave us did not provide much protection. Nobody threatened to shoot us anymore.
The next night, soldiers came and tried to drag one of the women away with them to entertain the officers.
Only our hysterical cries and shouts managed to change their minds.
The next day, a German-speaking Russian officer, entered.
He appreciated that we were Jewish refugees. Then he directed us to the army kitchen where there was a pail of bean stew and whole loaves of bread.
Finally, after more than a week, we had our first filling, warm meal! In return, the men and boys among us went to the kitchen and cut wood for their fire.
We managed to develop an almost cordial relationship with the soldiers.
The officer helped us in many ways. He even arranged a ride into the city for Father and David, so they could visit our apartment.
They found it standing, undamaged but empty; all the furniture, clothing, dishes, everything had been taken. They came back empty-handed.
With nothing to rush home to, we were better off staying in the village a few days longer. So we continued to work around the kitchen, in exchange for food.
Once large parts of the city core were liberated , the rest of the group decided to get going. Our family stayed behind.
We exchanged addresses and phone numbers, just like in normal peace time, and hugged each other goodbye.
(When was Hungary liberated in WW2 – liberation was completed in April 1945).
Surviving together, we knew that we would never forget each other or what we had endured.
Freed at Last! When Hungary was liberated in WW2
That is how liberty reached us, after more than five years of struggling for survival. One grandfather, one uncle, several aunts, nieces and nephews were dead.
Others who survived had yet to send us signs of life, but our little family was alive. We even had a home to which we could return.
My family were at home, alive and together. What a miracle!
We threw ourselves into rebuilding our lives. The apartment needed cleaning, painting and new furniture.
Of course food and money was needed to pay for it. Our store had been left intact, but with no merchandise.
A thousand and one mundane tasks needed doing just to restore some semblance of normalcy to our lives.
Feeling very isolated and uncomfortable in our old surroundings, we moved from the suburb to the city. Into a large apartment right next door to our store.
It took another month for the entire city to be liberated, for all the fighting, bombing and shelling to cease. When Hungary was liberated in WW2, the streets filled up with people again.
Pale and frightened at first, they soon set about the enormous task of cleaning up the ruined city and slowly rebuilding their homes and their lives.
The Communist party became active and organized food distribution for the needy population. The Russians brought in truckloads of potatoes and bread from their bakeries.
Dead bodies were removed from the public parks and gardens, and buried in huge mass graves.
The entire fascist government, with Szálasi at its head, was captured and shipped back to Hungary. An open session of the new People’s Court found all of them guilty of war crimes.
They were hung side by side in a public execution. The last chapter of an ugly period was written. Now we could move on.
While counting the survivors, we gradually received news of all those who didn’t survive. But the Jewish community as a whole survived and resumed Jewish life.
Synagogue services started up again and the procedure whereby a boy is initiated and accepted into the world of adult responsibility resumed.
That year, 1945, was the year of my thirteenth birthday. It was my Bar Mitzvah year.
Now the nerve-wracking wait for news of our family members began. The concentration camps were being liberated in Poland, Austria and Germany.
The Red Cross and the Joint or Jewish Agency began publishing lists of known survivors and the known dead. Every day, I made a sad pilgrimage to the city centre, where these lists were posted.
A few weeks later, when the trains started arriving from the west, more lists.
Those expected to arrive on the next day’s train were posted at the train station. The station was crowded with people holding up signs that read:
“Looking for my wife” or brother or sister.
Pictures and names were attached. We were all waiting for someone to show up and for news.
Israel to Canada
The post-war period brought major changes to my life. Our family became more involved with the remaining Jewish community.
I attended a Hebrew high school that taught Hebrew and Jewish history in addition to the usual academic subjects. And I joined a socialist-Zionist organization called HashomerHatzair.
After graduating from school in May 1949, my Zionist group went on a three-month odyssey around war-torn Europe, and then to Israel.
In Israel, we joined a kibbutz, and thus began the best years of my life. We did agricultural work, and studied the language and culture of the land.
We shared everything, even our clothes. For 3 years, I lived in a truly ideal and idealistic society.
I spent the next 3 years serving in the Israeli air force, fulfilling compulsory military service. Upon being discharged from the army, I joined my parents in Acco.
That is where I met and married a lovely girl of Sephardic background named Ruth, whose family was from Tunisia. A year later, Ruth gave birth to twin boys who we named Nimrod and Elan.
Our life in Israel was poor and harsh, but also friendly. Living a fairly low standard of life, under constant threat from enemies, brought people close together.
The simple life meant simple, open relationships and easy friendships.
In 1961, we moved to Canada. The alien land, language and climate didn’t deter us from settling into a new life.
We both began studying and working: Ruth became a teacher and I, a computer system analyst.
We progressed professionally, bought our first home and became full-fledged Canadian citizens.
Szálasi, Ferenc (1897-1946):
The leader of the Hungarian fascist Arrow Cross party. On October 15th, 1944, he replaced Horthy as head of state with the help of the Germans.
Szálasi’s brutal and murderous regime lasted until the end of the war.
When the war ended, he was captured by the Americans and extradited to Hungary. Found guilty of war crimes and crimes against the people, he was executed on March 12, 1946.
The following is from Chapter 5 of the book, the entire book is here:
Book Chapters
1. Before the War | 2. War in Europe
3. Darkening Skies | 4. The “Final Solution”
4. Part 2 “THE FINAL SOLUTION” | 5. Liberation & Beyond
