ABSTRACT
It would seem that on 4 April, the Jewish Council was ordered to provide 500 “Jewish” apartments in Budapest for use by “non-Jewish” bomb victims within twenty-four hours.3 This order came after two nights of back-to-back Allied bombing raids. Previously untouched by aerial bombardment, Hungary had in many ways got off lightly in experiencing the destruction of war. Although casualties had been extremely heavy during the ill-fated battle on the Don, civilian Hungary had been little affected by a war fought away from Hungarian territory. In Budapest, in particular, life went on almost as normal prior to the air raids of April 1944. The impact
of the destruction wrought upon Budapest was therefore considerable, coming as it did after years of relative normality.4 Whilst the bombing was focused particularly upon strategic sites, such as the marshaling yards of Pest and the aircraft and armaments works in Csepel and Horthy Liget, residential areas were not entirely spared. In particular the heavy bombing on the night of 3 April resulted in bomb damage to a large number of domestic properties and, according to the official state news agency, in 1,073 deaths and 526 injuries.5
