The siege of Budapest ends in surrender after 50 days
Arrow Cross death squads and Red Army encirclement bring Hungary's capital to ruin
Quick facts
- Location
- Budapest, Hungary
- Siege dates
- December 26, 1944 to February 13, 1945
- Civilian deaths
- About 38,000
- Jews killed by Arrow Cross
- Up to 20,000, shot on the Danube bank
- Result
- Unconditional German/Hungarian surrender
What happened
Germany installed a fascist Arrow Cross government in Hungary in October 1944 after the previous regime tried to negotiate an armistice with the Soviets. The Arrow Cross began a campaign of terror against Budapest's remaining Jewish population, forcing them into a closed ghetto in November 1944, and between December 1944 and the end of January 1945, Arrow Cross militia took as many as 20,000 Jews from the ghetto, shot them along the banks of the Danube, and threw their bodies into the river. On December 26, 1944, the Red Army and Romanian forces completed the encirclement of Budapest, trapping German and Hungarian troops along with hundreds of thousands of civilians inside. Soviet and Romanian troops fought street by street through the city for close to two months before the garrison surrendered unconditionally on February 13, 1945.
Why it matters
Roughly 38,000 civilians died in the siege from starvation, combat, and mass execution, and the killings along the Danube remain one of the starkest examples of the Holocaust's final, chaotic phase carried out under direct German occupation rather than deportation. The siege also opened the road for the Red Army's final push into Austria.
How we know
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum documents the Arrow Cross killings from survivor testimony and postwar investigation records tied to the ghetto and the Danube executions.
Sources
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia. Budapest · Reputable sourceencyclopedia.ushmm.org · The domain "encyclopedia.ushmm.org" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
- Imperial War Museums. The Battle of Budapest, December 1944-February 1945 · Reputable sourceiwm.org.uk · The domain "iwm.org.uk" is on our Reputable source registry.
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