The immediate result of the German occupation was that the Germans had the power to confiscate everything and anything they wanted or needed.
The farmers were their first targets. The silos became empty, the farm products went to the German army first, then to the Hungarian army, and after most of the goods were taken, the people got a little leftover morsel.
The big cities' stores and warehouses were emptied in a very short time. We learned to buy what we could if we were lucky enough to get to a store at the exact moment they had something to sell. Food stamps and other similar rations were not working, we had nothing much to ration...
Every household had a little stock of all sorts of things, canned goods were the most valuable. It was amazing to experience, how quickly people realize how to prepare for an upcoming siege. But meanwhile we had to live on our precious goods. After a few months, we had very little storage, and there were long lines for all kinds of merchandise. We were at war.
The news from the Russian front was distorted, claiming German victories, misleading the whole population. The huge casualties suffered by the Hungarian army never reached the newspapers, or radio. There was never one word about the concentration camps. The death of millions came as a shock to everybody after the war. The true happenings were hermetically sealed and only by listening nightly to the Radio Free Europe broadcast, did we get a glimpse into the reality.
By the end of the summer in 1944, Budapest suffered lost lives, collapsed buildings, factories were bombed and rendered useless. Railroads and roads were constant targets, but our beautiful bridges were intact, still standing, the Allied Forces sparing them from distraction.
By early September our city was totally surrounded by Russian forces. The German army was running, blowing up everything behind them. There was not one bridge standing to help the Russians cross rivers. The countryside was in flames, with people hiding in wine cellars, basements, and make-shift shelters trying to stay alive.
At first, when the bombs hit our houses, we did not know what they were. We did not hear airplanes, and the familiar whistling sounds of falling bombs before they hit their targets. We learned quickly, however, to be aware of the huge cannons surrounding the city, and waited helplessly for the next hit.
The siege had begun in full blast! The Germans had no way out, they started to fight for their lives. The door-to-door battle started in Pest in October and lasted until the beginning of the New Year. Every street, every corner, every house was involved. It was a difficult and slow advance by the Russian army, sometimes taking back areas by the Germans, causing never ending suffering for the people there.
It was a very cold, snowy severe winter, starting with a big snowstorm in November. This came as a blessing for us, since we had no water in the whole city. The Water Works were destroyed very early by the precise aiming of those cannons. The clean, fresh snow was our water supply.
We were staying with my parents during the whole siege. When the news came in September that we were surrounded by the Russians, we packed our little leftover food supply, and most of our heavy winter clothes, blankets, etc. Andy brought the army truck he had been driving for years, we said good-buy to our home, closed the shutters, closed the doors and drove to my parents' house. Andy took the truck back to the army depot and never looked back. Like everyone else, he deserted the Hungarian army. In the total chaos every person tried to stay alive somehow...
It was a good decision to go to my parents’ house. They felt protected by us being there and combining our food supply - as little as it was - made a difference. They had a well-built cellar giving us some protection from the air raids and everything else to come. We had beds and a small wood burning stove down there. We slept in the cellar for months and were also able to cook some hot food on the little stove.
By October we had no water, gas or electricity. Andy was the only person, who ventured out bravely to look for some food. One day he came back with two heavy sacks he found in the supply room of one of the burned out factories. It was 25 kilo of split pea and 25 kilo of Farina. It saved all of us from starvation. It was a feast when he came back one day with a big piece of horsemeat. He found that dead army horse and with a few other men they carved up that poor casualty of war, a valuable finding under the circumstances. I can still taste the miserable , sweet taste of that horsemeat! I also promised to myself that I will never ever eat split peas in my life.
The fierce fighting continued all through December, people living in their basements, shelters, hoping that it willsomehow end. Constant shelling by the cannons, firing the guns, machine guns, throwing those "Molotov Cocktails" - we knew all the different sounds and hoped that we will be saved somehow from a hit.
We had a tiny window in the cellar so we could look outside. One morning, early January, it was unusually quiet, no guns, no tanks, an eerie silence outside. We noticed a soldier slowly walking by - an unfamiliar 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
