Budapest —The Occupation Begins
Over 80 years ago, on 19 March 1944, on an early spring Sunday, without a single shot being fired, a surprised Hungary woke up to a total occupation of the country by Germany’s Nazi Wehrmacht.
This last large community of European Jews was their target.
Sunday, 19 March 1944
17 Kossuth Lajos Street,
Our home is across the street from the Astoria Hotel
The famous Astoria Hotel became a residence for German officers.
From our apartment across narrow little Magyar Street, we could see into the hotel, into some of the rooms.
Their threatening presence invaded our home.
What we didn’t know:
Ferenc Wilde’s reports:
After lunch Ilonka [1] came over and announced, horrified: Germans occupied Budapest. Then she told us that in front of her apartment, on Kossuth Lajos Street, whole German regiments had marched in. We went down to look around: in front of the Astoria and the Savoy [hotels] we saw a large number of German military automobiles. Theater and cinema performances were banned in the evening.
The occupiers came prepared with lists of people to be arrested and immediately deported. Maybe to Dachau, the first concentration camp established in March 1933 by the Nazi government. Probably to Auschwitz, where preparations have been made for Hungarian Jews.
The same day Adolf Eichmann arrives in Budapest with almost 120 members of SS dedicated to the “final solution of the Jewish Question.”
We are panicking. My mother, ever the practical one, promptly closes all windows and draws all the curtains. There are urgent telephone calls to and from family in Budapest, in Alsóság, in Sárvár, in Szombathely. Our relatives beg us to leave the dangers of the city for the relative peace of the country; would this be discussed? Questions fly from one person to the other without answers:
Should we try and move?
How can we leave the building without coming face-to-face with Germans?
How can my father, Tibor, go to work at the Weiss-Manfréd Works in Csepel? We need my father’s income, but how safe would he be?
We know that aunt Lily’s dressmaking business will likely die: the mainly Jewish clientele would not be interested in new clothes.
How safe is any one of us?
We have no news. Nothing on the radio, and there are no newspapers.
The Remainder of March 1944
The day after the occupation, on Monday, most of us with bank accounts and safe deposit boxes rush to our bank to remove our deposits and valuables. We discover that bank withdrawals are now limited to 1,000 Pengõs per day per person, and all safe deposit boxes are sealed.
On Wednesday, the 22nd, the new Sztójay government is announced. On Thursday the 23rd, the newly created Central Jewish Council issues a Nazi-censored issue of the community’s newspaper (A Magyar Zsidók Lapja) to ensure that its readers remain calm and cooperative. New laws are announced almost daily.
A Jew may not leave the territory of Budapest without permission.
It is forbidden to change residence without permission.
A Jew may not come to Budapest from the countryside.
A Jew who has recently arrived to Budapest from the countryside must register immediately.
Applications for travel and change of address must be submitted through the Central Jewish Council.
On Wednesday the 29th, the Budapesti Közlöny: Hivatalos Lap [The Gazette of Budapest: Official Journal] begins an avalanche of 107 anti-Jewish decrees [2]. These include:
Requiring data from Jewish telephone subscribers.
Terminating Jews' membership in the press, theatre, film, and legal chambers.
Banning Jews from holding public office.
Banning Jews from employing non-Jews in Jewish households.
Requiring the registration of Jewish-owned motor vehicles (including bicycles)
Requiring the wearing of the yellow star from April 5.
The last day of March is snowy and cold. We still have our radio, and most of the foreign news are about the Russians closing in on our borders. We worry about friends who have been arrested.
What we didn’t know:
3,364 Jews had been arrested in the thirteen days since the Occupation [3].
At the end of March 1944, Interior Ministry Secretary of State, László Endre and Eichmann had agreed to the forced ghettoization and deportation of every Jew in Hungary [4].
April, 1944
On the first Sunday of the month, at 11 am, the air raid siren alerts us. My mother grabs her satchel and we rush to the cellar and stay until 1 pm. This is the first bombing of Budapest by the Americans [5].
The satchel looks like a doctor’s bag with two woven leather handles and contains all our documents. My mother always has it by her side, the first thing to be grabbed whenever we rush to the cellar. When she leaves the building, my grandmother becames its guardian.
The next day we are back in the cellar from 10 pm until 2 am while English aircrafts drop their deadly loads. The targets are the railyards of Pest (railroad stations, in residential areas), the armament works at Csepel (where Tibor, my father, works), and the Tökök armaments factory. The St. László hospital is hit, killing 120: doctors, nurses and children.
After the air raids are over, the “authorities” require 500 Jewish apartments for the Christian victims of the bombing. Soon after that, another 1,000 apartments are required. This is supposed to be compensation for the Christian air raid victims [6].
What we didn’t know:
On April 4th the details of the “Final Solution” program are worked out among German and Hungarian officials. The ten official gendarmerie districts of Hungary and the newly regained territories are redistricted to form a ghettoization and deportation master plan. The zones indicate the order in which the plan will be implemented.
Zone I: Gendarmerie district VIII - Kassa
Zone II: Gendarmerie districts IX and X - Kolozsvár, Marosvásárhely
Zone III: Gendarmerie districts II and VII - Székesfehérvár, Miskolc
Zone IV: Gendarmerie districts V and VI - Szeged, Debrecen
Zone V: Gendarmerie districts III and IV - Szombathely, Pécs
Zone VI: Gendarmerie district I - Budapest
Unquestionably, the civil service played a crucial role in assisting the police and the gendarmerie in the implementation of the Final Solution[7].
As of April 5, all Jews over the age of six must wear a Yellow Star of David. We are now easily identifiable targets. With German officers and soldiers in the streets next to our building, it is almost impossible to sneak out without being seen. Shopping for food becomes a hazardous undertaking. There is increasing food scarcity, and prices are going up. We buy what we can and keep perishables on the window sill when the temperature is cold enough. We increasingly depend on the kindness and generosity of non-Jewish neighbors and the superintendent.
My grandmother Regina, with her snow-white hair, arrogant bearing, and fluent German, can pass for a non-Jew if she hides her tell-tale star. She might be the least recognizable, but does my mother or my aunt allow her to take such risks? Does my blond, blue-eyed, fluent German-speaking father take on some shopping duties? Almost a month after the occupation, does he still work at the Weiss-Manfréd Works in Csepel, despite Csepel being a frequently bombed target?
Lots of questions, no answers.
What we didn’t know:
Christian leaders protested that Christians of Jewish origin would also have to wear the star. As a result, those converted Jews who lived in non-Jewish households were awarded an exemption [8].
Swedish newspapers report that Hungarian authorities have already started removing telephones from Jewish homes [9].
On the eve of the large-scale ghettoization, the authorities use data collected at their request to supplement the lists that were already prepared [10].
On Sunday, April 16, 1944, the last day of Passover, the roundup and ghettoization of Jews begins in zones I and II, centering on Kassa. Deportation takes place between May 15 and June 7; the trains destined for Auschwitz carry about 189,357 people [11].
We are prohibited from traveling on railroads, ships, and busses unless we have “written consent from the authorities.”
Planes fly over the city almost daily, and air raid sirens sound even if Budapest is not the target. We keep running up and down the rear staircase to the cellar each time for an unpredictable length of time. My mother keeps verifying that her precious satchel contains all our relevant documents; always within reach, it is still the first thing she grabs when we rush to the cellar.
On April 21, the Budapesti Közlöny announces another decree: all stock and equipment in stores owned by Jews is requisitioned. This edict further limits our source of supplies: some of these store owners knew my grandmother and might have put aside a little something for her.
On April 23, a new decree in the Budapesti Közlöny announces our reduced food rations:
Our sugar ration is reduced to 30 grams (1 oz) per month per person.
We are allowed 300 grams (10 oz) of vegetable oil per month, and not allowed to buy solid fats.
We are allowed 100 grams of beef or horsemeat per week, and not allowed pork or veal.
We are only allowed 2 hrs each day for shopping and necessities, the actual period to be determined by local authorities.
The reduction in rations doesn’t mean much when there is next to nothing to be had. The bombings discourage most farmers from coming to Budapest to sell their goods at the train stations despite ever-increasing black-market prices.
Tuesday, 25 April, 1944 to Sunday, 30 April, 1944
There are new decrees in the Budapesti Közlöny:
The hiring and employing of Jews in white-collar positions is terminated.
Persons considered as Jews, from the point of view of food supplies, must submit personal data by May 1st.
We are restricted on the purchase and ownership of firearms, ammunition, and explosive material.
Hungarian intellectual life is being protected from the literary works of Jewish authors.
May, 1944
What we didn’t know:
The Neue Zuricher Zeitung, a Swiss newspaper, today [7 May, 1944] reports that while Jews have been deported from Budapest, the number of Jews in the city is constantly growing since thousands are fleeing from frontier districts to Budapest. At present, Jews constitute probably more than fifty percent of the entire population of Budapest since non-Jews are leaving the city because of Allied air raids, the paper states [14].
Friedrich Born, the temporary delegate of the International Red Cross (IRC) and leader of its Budapest office, arrives on 9 May 1944.
The 57 Jews of Alsoság [my grandmother’s family home] are rounded up and taken first to the ghetto of Jánosháza on May 10, 1944, and then to the concentration and entrainment center of Sárvár, whence they were deported early in July [15].
On May 17th, the ownership of the Weiss-Manfréd Works in Csepel [where my father, Tibor worked] and all related factories are signed over to the SS in exchange for the Weiss and relations family group being smuggled out of Hungary.
In accordance with one of Himmler's conditions for approving the agreement, nine members of the group were retained in Vienna, as hostages to assure the good behavior of the others in the free world. [16]
The identification and registration of Jewish-inhabited apartments and buildings were completed in late May or early June on the basis of data supplied by the National Statistical Office. Using the accumulated data, the Jews of Budapest are to be relocated into Yellow-Star buildings (sárga-csillagos házak) [17].
June 1944
What we didn’t know:
Zone III ghettoization occurs between June 5 - 10, and deportations between June 11 - 16. Trains carry 50,805 people.
Hungarian intellectual life is being protected from the literary works of Jewish authors. The pulping of books commences on June 15, and almost half a million volumes are destroyed. On June 24, a supplementary list is issued [13].
Rumors are circulating about our possible relocation. Finally, a decree is published on June 17th. For each of Budapest’s 14 districts, Yellow-Star buildings are identified by street and number. The Jewish population of Budapest, about 200,000 people, is to move into these buildings.
Everyone tries to move in with family or friends. Our home, at number 17 Kossuth Lajos Street, is not identified as a Yellow-Star building, but the adjacent building at number 15 is on the list [for our move, see Yellow-Star Buildings].
Although we are allowed to take most of our belongings, the five of us will have to share one room. How much can we pack into one room? We take all our food, some bedding, and some clothes. By the end of June, we should have warm summer days, and we will not need winter clothes.
How long will this war last?
How long will we be in this apartment, with so little space?
Where are the Allies?
Following regulations, we stack everything we don’t take into a single room of our apartment before we leave. This room is supposed to be locked and sealed. [14]
It is my understanding that our building at number 17 was eventually occupied by German staff, and a tunnel under Magyar Street connected it to the Astoria Hotel.
The deadline for our relocation is Saturday, June 24. Modified regulations, posted the next day, on the 25th, further limit our movements:
We can leave the building only between 2 pm and 5 pm for medical treatment, cleaning, and shopping.
We can not have guests nor speak to others “across the street and through windows.”
In air-raid shelters [the cellars of the buildings], a specific section is assigned to non-Jewish residents; these residents have priority on shelter space.
We can only travel in the last car of streetcars.
We may not go to parks or promenades.
Superintendents have new authority and responsibilities: they become our de facto wardens. Depending on their personal view of Jews, they can either help or harm [15].
Within a few days, a new decree allows us to leave our buildings between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. This helps, but most of the available food would have been bought at ever-increasing prices by the time we could go shopping.
What we didn’t know:
Zone IV ghettoization occurs between June 16 - 20, and deportations between June 25 and 28. Trains carry 41,499 people.
We are aware of what has happened in other occupied countries: identification, concentration, ghettoization, followed by deportation.
For identification, we must wear the yellow-star on our coats.
The concentration phase takes place as we move into the Yellow-Star buildings.
We hear rumors of our imminent deportation beginning on July 10th, a little over two weeks after our move.
What can we do?
Our anxiety grows to unbearable levels as we await our fate. The number of suicides is increasing.
We also have to deal with continuous, almost daily air raids and bombings. During each bombing raid, we listen for the sound of the bombs dropping and their explosion. We listen because if we can hear the explosion, we were probably not hit.
We are ready to move to 15 Kossuth Lajos Street on Saturday, June 24.
We don’t have any news from our extended family in Vas County.
Notes and References
Please see the Bibliography for full details
[1] “Ilonka” refers to Kiliánné Szõke Ilona. She was a teacher who taught Latin at Veres Pálné Gymnázium until 1944. She was Lily Ebenspanger’s (aunt Lily’s) classroom teacher throughout her studies at Veres Pálné.
[2] The Major anti-Jewish Decrees between March 29 and December 6, 1944, are detailed in Braham 2016, v2, pp. 1661 - 1674.
[3] Braham, 2013, v1, pli
[4] https://www.yellowstarhouses.org/
[5] Following the German occupation of Hungary and the installation of a pro-German government, the Allies removed restrictions on bombing targets in Hungary. On 3 April the Fifteenth bombed the main Budapest marshaling yards and a components plant … The psychological component of these raids, which reminded the Hungarians that the Western Allies could punish them even before the Red Army arrived, may have outweighed the actual damage inflicted.
Source: Davis, 2019, Kindle edition
[6] Braham, 2016, v2, p. 584
[7] Braham, 2016, v1, p. 494
[8] Starting on April 5, every Jewish person over six years of age must wear a 10 x 10 cm(3.8 x 3.8") canary yellow six-pointed star made of cloth, silk, or velvet firmly sewn on the left chest side of the outer garment.
Source: Braham, 2016, v1, p591
It is estimated that about 3 million stars will be required. The wearing of the yellow star, an obvious identifier of Jews, started the hunt for Jews. Many Jews were arrested and interned on the excuse that the color of the star was not the right canary yellow, or it was not of the prescribed size or was not sewn on the garment property.
[11] In terms of the Allies’ bomber offensive, Hungary was now considered as part of the Balkans. In April, the No. 205 Group began its most significant task in the war—the aerial mining of the Danube River. [The No. 205 (Heavy Bomber) Group was a long-range, heavy bomber group of the Royal Air Force (RAF).] During WWII, the Danube served as a vital link in the German southeastern transportation system, allowing them to transport an estimated 8,000,000 tons of goods into Germany from 1942 to 1944. The mining began on the night of 8 April in the Yugoslavian Danube and it continued until the night of 10 September, by which time the group’s Wellingtons and Liberators had dropped a total of 1,315 mines in Hungarian, Yugoslav, and Rumanian waters.
Source: Davis, 2019, Kindle edition
The RAF No. 205 bombers pursued missions with 53 bombers on 12 April and 64 bombers on the night of 16 April on the Budapest rail yards. (p321). The American planes returned on the 13th, 10 days after their first bombing of Budapest, attacking airfields and fighter component plants in Budapest with 336 bombers.
Source: Davis, 2019, Kindle edition
[12] Braham, 2016, vol 1 p775 table 19.1
[13] Braham, 2016, vol 1 p 627
[14] I remember that before we left Hungary in December 1948, this apartment was nicely furnished. Was the locked room respected? If not, from where did our furniture (including a piano) come?
[15] Excellent paper by Máté Rigó, accessed 31-3-2025; source: https://www.academia.edu/4478111/Ordinary_Women_and_Men_Superintendents_and_Jews_in_the_Budapest_Yellow_star_Houses_in_1944_1945