Reviews

First published in Hungarian in 1998, Ungvary's account of the 100-day siege of Budapest is a gripping story of horror and courage. Though the daily news coverage of the war in Iraq and the street fighting in Baghdad show us the awfulness of urban warfare, it was during World War II in Budapest that modern warfare revealed just how terrible urban fighting could be. Stalin's and Hitler's armies met at the divided cities of Buda and Pest in December 1944 and dug in for a protracted and bitter struggle that would last until mid-February of the following year. When the city finally fell to the Soviet army, nearly 120,000 Soviet and German soldiers had died, along with 38,000 Hungarian civilians. Ungv ry (research fellow, Inst. for the History of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution) has based his extraordinary tale on archival resources and hundreds of survivor interviews. This is the finest account of this most dreadful incident in a world war filled with dreadful incidents. Recommended for all collections.-Ed Goedeken, Iowa State Univ. Lib., Ames Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

"This book provides the first acceptable assessment and analysis of the siege of Budapest, a monumental confrontation during the Second World War. Krisztian Ungvary makes use of a wealth of fresh historical evidence locked until recently in the secret archives of Russia and eastern Germany. He draws on the diaries and personal recollection of survivors, both civilian and soldiers . . . most of whom have never got over their experience. The result is excellent scholarship and gripping reading. . . . [It] deserves to be widely read."--Thomas Land, "Times Literary Supplement