Nationalist groups remembered the Hungarian-German breakout attempt from the encircled Budapest

Nationalist groups from all over Europe remembered the 68-year anniversary of the Hungarian-German breakout attempt from Budapest encircled by the Red Army.

This year’s celebrations took place in two locations on Saturday afternoon – at “Normafa” park and “Vérmező” park in Budapest.  Read More Here

(On February 11, 1945 the siege of Budapest entered into its final phase. On this day, the defenders of the city had been forced back to a small area, the Buda Castle district. The Red Army encircled more than forty thousand – 23,900 German (of which 9,600 wounded) and 20,000 Hungarian (of which 2,000 wounded) – troops. The entrapped troops had two options left, surrender or breakout. The unconditional surrender would have meant certain death either by being captured or killed, which were unacceptable to either of the Hungarian or the German commanders. Once it became clear that German forces couldn’t break the Red army siege from the outside, the commanders decided to break out of the Soviet encirclement through the hills of Buda trying to reach the German lines that have been positioned at the Zsámbék – Tinnye region about 30-35 km west of the hills.

According to historians, the Hungarian-German breakout attempt was one of the most hopeless undertakings of the Second World War. Only 785 soldiers reached the German lines, the rest have been killed, taken prisoners, or simply disappeared. The fate of about four thousand soldiers is still unknown.)