Veterans shared their memories on the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Budapest

Hungary is home to one of Europe's largest burial grounds for Soviet soldiers, but it is still unknown how many people died in the organized Jewish ghetto.

The city of Székesvéhérvár is the first capital of Hungary and a city with an unforgettable history. During the war years it changed hands. In December 1944 it was liberated from the Nazis by the Soviet troops, and then during a counterattack they were knocked out by the Germans, but for a short time. In 1945 the city was almost completely destroyed.

Anatoly Medved, a veteran of the Great Patriotic War, shared his memories of those events. At that time, the 17-year-old young man served as a mortar man. He said that the liberation of the city was strategically necessary - it was the key to Budapest, and further to Vienna and Berlin.

"We were trained to go through the German battle orders and cut the two roads of German retreat," Medved said.

Also reminiscent of these events is one of the largest burials of Soviet soldiers in Europe. In the ground rest more than 4 thousand Red Army soldiers.

"This is a major railroad junction. When the Soviet units entered the city, it was the first point, which for the German command stood as a point to be repulsed," - said the researcher of military burials Andrei Ogolyuk.

Even more significant was Budapest itself. The Nazis turned the capital of Hungary into a fortress. The scout Elizabeth Didenko, who went through the war from Stalingrad to Budapest and met the Victory in the Hungarian capital, said that direct attacks on the city would have led to heavy losses and destruction.

In addition, during the Budapest operation, several attempts were made to take the Hungarian capital, about a month and a half of heavy fighting continued. The Soviet soldiers forced the Danube, and later broke through the defense and came to the northern suburbs of Budapest. The Nazis threw all reserves to defend the south, but tank units of the Red Army bypassed the city from the West, and soon it was completely surrounded.

It is noted that the storming of Budapest was one of the bloodiest in the whole war. 80 thousand Soviet soldiers died, and the operation lasted 108 days.

On February 13, 1945 new war crimes of fascists took place. In the Jewish ghetto of Budapest there were 200 thousand Hungarian Jews, but only one third survived. Most went to concentration camps or were shot by the Nazis on the banks of the Danube. Several dozen men's, women's and children's cast-iron shoes stand on the embankment as a reminder of the innocent victims who were forced to take off their shoes before execution.

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Earlier, on February 13, the Russian Defense Ministry published declassified documents from the funds of the Central Archive of the Military Ministry on the course of the Budapest strategic offensive operation to mark the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Hungarian capital from Nazi invaders.