World War II was almost over. The Nazis were running, facing total defeat on all the fronts. The Pacific front was still very active but it was truly of secondary importance for the Europeans.
As far as the Hungarian people were concerned, the war was over. Budapest came alive in no time.
It is hard to describe the feeling everybody experienced. Should we be happy? Sad? Eager to start from scratch again and again?
The city was in ruins, but still livable. Some people were luckier than others finding their homes intact - like we did - but most of the population had to work hard to make their homes, stores, businesses habitable. Every family suffered losses, every person was looking for family members, friends, who did not return from the front, from the Nazi work camps (we still knew very little about the millions and millions of Jews killed in the concentration camps). We understood the whole unbelievable horror only after the war was over everywhere and the allied troops started to discover the death camps.
A fairly large segment of the Hungarian population started to flee with the German army or shortly after the fall of Budapest. The Nyilas (Arrow Cross) Party leaders, the high ranking military people and their families, the Hungarian fascists, who enjoyed all the privileges of power, the German sympathizers - they all ran to the West, to Austria and Germany, in hopes of finding refuge there. They lived in refugee camps for years and most amazingly found their way to the Americas, mostly Argentina, Brazil and some to the U.S. or Canada.
But let's go back to the post-war Budapest.
A huge sigh of relief was felt all over the city. Nightclubs popped up in no time. We were ready to dance, sing, and forget. We had three such nightclubs in our immediate neighborhood. We were there every other day dancing the nights away. The movie theatres opened soon, showing never seen French, American, British pictures. The whole world started to open up. We had no idea how the rest of the civilized world lived.
We felt that our future was bright. We only have to work hard to make it happen. The time will soon come, when we can start working, but not just yet. People still lived on their savings - selling some gold pieces, artwork, etc. Money was practically worthless, the post-war inflation was getting out of hand. Factories were in ruins, the only available employment was in the service industry. We were - like everybody else - waiting impatiently to start our new life!
How could we know, that our faith was decided long before at the famous Yalta Conference - Hungary was sold out to the Soviets, the "line" was drawn following the Austria-Hungary border - we would become a communist satellite country, a buffer zone for the USSR for many decades.
In early summer the trains started to run. It was a big step to connect Budapest with the rest of the country.
But special hospital trains also started to bring survivors of the Nazi death camps. I volunteered at the nearby Kelenfold station to work in the soup kitchen. It was so useless to try to feed these human skeletons - they were unable to eat, only their eyes moving or looking aimlessly, telling all the horrors they lived through. The long line of stretchers left the station, going to local hospitals. And these were the lucky ones!... This lasted about two months, and was one of the worst memories of the war for me. The sight of these tortured human beings and the naked bodies floating in the Danube under the pontoon bridge often come back as nightmares, they will continue to haunt me the rest of my life.
Summer of 1945 finally brought peace to the world - or so we thought. Budapest was in full swing! Some stores survived the siege and they quickly opened, selling their old, remaining goods. Food came to the city, the streetcars (tramways) and buses were running, some taxicabs were available, people learned how to smile again. We had to sell some gold coins and jewelry to live on and to start our new little business. Andy bought a big army truck (the same type he drove for years) - and also bought a little pine forest not too far from our home. With a friend of ours he started to harvest the forest, bringing the lumber for our new little packing case factory. It was located walking distance from our home in the basement of a huge apartment house, with entrence to the street. Used and abandoned equipments were cheap and easy to come by. We started with three workers, all experienced woodworkers. I helped a little where I could - the bookkeeping was my main job, but to be there with the guys when Andy was away in the forest, was also important. We had a great time working together.
uniform - then we saw the red star on his fur-cap. The Russians took over our streets! People did not rush outside at all, we were just as cautious with the Russians as with the Germans.
But a few men - Andy among them of course - started to go outside and watched a whole squadron settling down not too far from our house in a big factory building. They set up a kitchen and Andy came back with a big pot of hot cabbage soup, loaded with fatty big pieces of meat!
This first helping hand to our starving population set the tone at the beginning of our Russian experience. The food just kept coming, Andy became friendly with the cook, helped them out with small chores and we got used to the Russian army food.
But there were disturbing rumors also. The soldiers were looking for women, any age, any kind. Andy hastily created a false wall from lumber he found outside (there was no shortage of debris and junk on the streets). My mother and I spent a lot of morning hours behind this wall. It was very effective, looked real and saved both of us several times from become victims.
The fighting continued to chase the German army out of Pest. They created a strong-hold in Buda, around the Castle Hill. And then came the biggest tragedy to our city. The Germans retreated, giving up Pest to the Russians. On their way to the new battleground in Buda, the Germans blew up all our famous, beautiful bridges. The Chain Bridge, the first of its kind in the world, lay on the bottom of the Danube. The gracious Elizabeth Bridge and all the other eight bridges were destroyed. The Royal Palace was burned to the ground and the sight became the new headquarters for the Germans. They were surrounded, hopeless, but fighting to the last man. The most damage to Budapest happened during these last weeks. Pest and Buda were burning. The fighting lasted until the end of February 1945, when the whole city was eventually occupied by the Russians.
Suddenly Budapest came alive. People were on the streets, getting used to the new landscape - the ruins, torn up streets, missing buildings, missing neighbors...It was a sad sight, but we were alive!!! Pest and Buda were separated by the Danube since we lost all the bridges. We were still living in my parents' house, waiting for some kind of bridge to connect Pest and Buda, so we could go home. We hoped, that our home would be waiting for us in livable condition.
We had to get used to seeing Russian soldiers wherever we turned. They roamed the streets, looking for anything to grab or bargain for. Wristwatches were at a premium. They were collecting them, having 10-12 wristwatches on their arms, and looking for more. Everyone ran out of these watches, giving them away for sugar, flour, some meat, canned goods, etc.
We started to understand, that the living standard we used to have in Hungary was so much higher than it was in the Soviet Union. Some soldiers were amazed by indoor plumbing and easily confused the bathtub with the toilette. Most of these men had been at war for many, many years. They came mostly from little villages, isolated from the rest of the world. They had no idea what the western culture could provide but they learned fast and gathered as much goods as they could. As later we learned, everything was taken away from them, before they headed home. The communist regime, as we would soon experience, was as cruel to its own as it was to the rest of the world.
The black market - which at first we had no idea what that meant - started to gain control. The burned out storefronts were used, sellers needing only a table to display whatever they had, nylon stockings, food items from the U.S. Army rations, stolen goods from burned out homes, artwork, furniture, everything. But it started to bring back some lively mood, it was a beginning.
By the end of February 1945, we hoped that the promised pontoon bridge would be up soon, so we could start heading home. It finally happened and one early morning we said a temporary good-bye to my parents and started to walk home.
The whole population was walking. There were no buses, tramways, taxis, just plain walking. The few trucks were Russian army trucks, and we had to keep away from them. The Russian soldiers had the "bad habit" of grabbing men from the street for "a little work." Most of these unfortunate men disappeared for one or two years, working somewhere in Siberia. Many never came home, and died there under miserable conditions. A dear friend of ours, Andy's childhood friend, fell victim to this type of deportation and died in one of the many labor camps.
By noon we arrived at the pontoon bridge. There was a huge crowd, slowly moving ahead. The temporary bridge was set upon big boats, so we were only a few feet above the water.
The Danube carried big chunks of ice yet and countless dead human bodies, some in clothing, but most of them naked. They piled up at the bridge, not be able to flow downstream. It was a horrifying sight, shocking and sad, representing the misery of the war. We were speechless, people crossed the river in total silence, some crying, some fainting, everybody in shock
When we set foot on the bank on the Buda side, we were only a few hours away from our home. We gathered all our strength and kept going. We got home before dark. We saw our house standing, full of bullet holes on the walls. It withstood the siege very well. We opened the door and to our amazement we found everything in place, not even a window broken. We came home, happy and sad, but home.
The war was yet not over in Europe. Heavy fighting and a lot of casualties occured on the Western front until April - but our War Years were over...
Copyright 2008 - Gabe Dalmath Foundation
