The Siege of Budapest: 100 Days in World War II [Hardcover]

Krisztian Ungvary (Author), Ladislaus Lob (Translator), John Lukacs (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 11, 2005

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, Krisztián Ungváry 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.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“This book provides the first acceptable assessment and analysis of the siege of Budapest, a monumental confrontation during the Second World War. Krisztián Ungváry makes use of a wealth of fresh historical evidence locked until recently in the secret archives of Russia and eastern Germany. He draws on the diaries and personal recollection of survivors, both civilian and soldiers . . . most of whom have never got over their experience. The result is excellent scholarship and gripping reading. . . . [It] deserves to be widely read.”—Thomas Land, Times Literary Supplement

“The Siege of Budapest is an important and exciting contribution to World War II history. The siege was a crucial event in the final year of the war. No other European capital--apart from Berlin and Warsaw--suffered a similar fate. It is a source of endless horror as well as fascination to read about how more than 800,000 civilians, including well over 100,000 Jews in a ghetto or in hiding, coped while German and Red Army soldiers engaged in hand-to-hand combat in the very buildings they inhabited.”--István Deák, Columbia University

“Excellent scholarship and [a] gripping read.”

(Thomas Orsz�g-Land The Jerusalem Report )

Book Description

This definitive history of one of the fiercest battles of World War II describes the siege of Budapest in unprecedented detail. Both Stalin and Hitler demanded victory at all costs, and the cost was extreme: 80,000 Soviet troops, 38,000 German and Hungarian soldiers, and 38,000 Hungarian civilians perished. The book provides the first full account of this shocking battle.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 512 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press; 1ST edition (April 11, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300104685
• ISBN-13: 978-0300104684
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #999,730 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Revisionist Review, October 31, 2005

By 

Hans Dieter Wulf (Corsicana, Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Siege of Budapest: 100 Days in World War II (Hardcover)

For years, I have known about the Battle of Budapest and the SS last stand on Castle Hill, but because of the communist dictatorship in Hungary, was unable to obtain little information on the subject. Now thanks to the dilligent and factual research by Mr. Ungvary, the story can finally be told. His approach is objective, fact filled and very believable. He tells the story-good, bad and sometimes very ugly from the Hungarian, Russian and German points of view. It is unfortunate that the truth about this battle, that matched the ferocity of Stalingrad, had to wait until the collaspe of the Soviet Union to be told. My next trip to Europe will be to Budapest. This book belongs in every WWII library. In short it is a masterpiece.

36 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Forgotten No More, June 21, 2005

By 

Michael Samerdyke (Big Stone Gap, VA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Siege of Budapest: 100 Days in World War II (Hardcover)

Typically, books on World War II say that the Battle of Budapest was one of the biggest on the Eastern Front and then skip on to another topic. "The Siege of Budapest" finally sheds some light on this forgotten battle. (One reason for the neglect of this battle, as the book shows, is that none of the Soviet or German generals was especially famous or that talented.)

My response to the book is mixed. It is betrayed by its maps, which I found too cluttered to be useful. Thus when I read that the Soviets had advanced from Hungarian town X to town Z, I really had trouble placing this in any context, as the maps weren't that helpful.

However, the strength of the book is in showing the Hungarian perspective on the war. The Hungarian army was not thrilled about being allied to the Germans, but they feared Communist rule. Tragically, their resistance against the Soviets permitted the Arrow Cross fascists to massacre the Jewish population of Budapest. The eyewitness accounts included in this book on the combat, the massacres, and the struggle to live a normal life during modern urban combat, is invaluable.

The Soviet perspective is slighted, which weakens things. Until the last chapter, I had the impression that the battle pretty much went as the Soviets wished. They kept squeezing the Germans and Hungarians into a smaller and smaller quadrant. Then in the last chapter, the author revealed that the Soviets had intended to capture Budapest FOUR times before they actually took the city. Yet this wasn't apparent from what he presented earlier.

So "The Siege of Budapest" is a flawed book, but it is essential for anyone seriously interested in the Eastern Front.

33 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent account of the siege of Budapest, March 2, 2005

By 

1. "John Henninger" (Littleton, CO United States) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Siege of Budapest: 100 Days in World War II (Hardcover)

Ungvary has written an tragic account of the Hungarian people during the siege of Budapest. The Hungarian army suffered tremendous losses in trying to defend the city and the failed breakout attempt. While Hungatian civilians were victims of starvation and the atrocities committed by the Red army. Ungvary is also critical of his fellow Hungarians in the Arrow Cross party for murdering thousands of Jews in Budapest. Ungvary also has a critical perspective on the German commnader of the city for not breaking out sooner or surrendering earlier thereby saving his soldiers lives. The only weakness of this book is that Ungvary leaves out the Russian side of the battle, but otherwise this an excellent account the Battle for Budapest.