Budapest Jewish Quarter and WWII Ghetto (Budapest)

The area of the former ghetto consisted of several blocks of the old Jewish quarter. The Nazi occupation of Budapest took place in March 1944, and the ghetto was established in December 2, 1944. It lasted for 47 days, until January 17, 1945, the liberation of Budapest by the Soviet Army.
As with other ghettos that had been set up in other parts of Nazi-occupied Europe the area was completely cut off from the outside world. It was surrounded by a high fence and stone wall that was guarded. No food was allowed in, rubbish and waste were not collected, the dead lay or piled up on the streets (primarily on Klazuál square). The buildings were overcrowded.
From occupation to liberation the Jewish population of Budapest was reduced from 200,000 to 70,000 in the ghetto, and about 20,000 housed in specially marked houses outside the ghetto having been granted diplomatic protection by neutral politicians, including Raoul Wallenberg, who issued Protective Passports on behalf of the Swedish Legation, and Carl Lutz, who did the same via the Swiss Government. Of those that were deported (most of them to a concentration camp on the Austrian border), the vast majority were liberated by the advancing Red Army.

Categories: ghetto, quarter (urban subdivision), interesting place, invisible, jews