Dark Skies over Budapest

Budapest in the autumn of 1944 was a city full of terror. The Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg became an important part of the networks desperately trying to save the Jewish population in Hungary. is a true story of resistance and rescue and of one of the greatest humanitarian efforts of the Second World War.

Budapest in the autumn of 1944 was a city full of terror, tension and conspiracies. Members of the SS and the Hungarian Arrow Cross movement roamed the streets looking for Jews and other opponents. The German and Hungarian Nazis planned to exterminate the last surviving large Jewish population in Nazi-occupied Europe. Ranged against them was a loosely knit network of neutral diplomats, lower-level church activists and a fragile but growing resistance movement. In an inferno of intrigue, a low-key civil war was taking shape between pro- and anti-Nazi Hungarians. Meanwhile, the Soviet army was approaching the city and the biggest urban battle since Stalingrad was imminent. That summer, a young Swedish diplomat named Raoul Wallenberg had arrived in the Hungarian capital, throwing himself into the dramas and intrigues raging in Hungary under the German occupation. Wallenberg soon became an important part of the networks desperately scrambling to save the Jewish population in Budapest. Through Wallenberg's story, the reader follows the dramatic events that took place between the summer of 1944 and the beginning of 1945 and meets the many individuals and groups that were crucial to this unique and ultimately largely successful action. Dark Skies over Budapest is a true story of resistance and rescue and of one of the greatest humanitarian efforts of the Second World War. Casting new light on Raoul Wallenberg's work, the book also tells the story of hitherto unknown but important people who in many cases never received any recognition for their endeavours and of actions that have remained undiscovered for many years. This book offers a comprehensive account of what really happened in Budapest in 19441945.

Auteur

Gellert Hardi-Kovacs was born in Budapest, Hungary but moved to Stockholm, Sweden in 1982. He studied at Stockholm and Glasgow Universities and began working as a teacher in 2001. Since 2008 he has also been active as a researcher about Raoul Wallenberg, which led to the Swedish edition of this book in 2013. Since then, he has released a number of books about the Holocaust, military intelligence and political humour.

Contenu

Contents: Hungary and the Jewish people: A story of love, hate and ambivalence - A pact with the devil - 1944: The year of darkness - Humanity slowly awakens - Raoul Wallenberg before his posting to Hungary in 1944 - The first period in Hungary - Wallenberg's first actions - Drama in August - The situation temporarily stabilises - The planned uprising against the Germans - Taurus and the Swedish courier - The two camps plan for a showdown - Operation Mickey Mouse and Panzerfaust - What did Wallenberg do during the coup? - An enemy with many faces - The persecution resumes - The neutral envoys - The Schützling Protocol Group - The typewriter repairman and the Arrow Cross - The resistance rises again - KISKA - The secret army - Zugló and Angyalföld - Wallenberg and the resistance - The Accountability Unit strikes - The action at Józsefváros railway station - The siege begins - The two ghettos - The rescuers work day and night - Total terror - The bloody Christmas - The battle for the protected buildings - The Nazi serpent's final bite - The massacre in the main ghetto - myth or truth? - Epilogue: A story without a happy ending.