Miklos was negotiating through Tito (from Yugoslavia) with the Russians. It turned out that the Admiral was very much under the influence of his son Miklos Horthy. Skorzeny flew to Budapast and scouted out the situation. A pro-German government was installed in Hungary and fought with Germany until that country was overrun by the Red Army. Skorzeny, in another daring "snatch" operation, kidnapped Horthy's son Nicolas and forced his father to abdicate as Regent. This surrender would have cut off a million German troops fighting in the Balkan peninsula. In October 1944, Hitler sent Skorzeny to Hungary when he received word that the country's Regent, Miklós Horthy was secretly negotiating his country's surrender to the Red Army. An Austrian trained as an engineer, Skorzeny's first big operation was the rescue of Benito Mussolini. 'The Most Dangerous Man in Europe': Otto Skorzeny was the most successful commando of World War II. This exhibition commemorates these human destinies. Nevertheless, this does not diminish the tragedy of the thousands who perished in the midst of those destroyed buildings. When planning this exhibition, we worked from materials that were at posterity's disposal, therefore, it is primarily buildings that feature in the photographs. The street battles, the atrocities or the anti-Fascist resistance cannot be revisited either. For this very reason, there is virtually no evidence of several significant events and important people. Therefore this exhibition primarily presents materials of the Soviet war correspondents and civilians, as well as the pictures taken after the siege. Almost all pictures taken by the defenders were destroyed. During the siege, very few took the risk of taking photographs. To chose meant to wager between the lesser of two evils: persistence only prolonged the bloody war initiated for the wrong cause, capitulation did not ensure true liberation. Many felt that it was their duty to fight even when the outcome was obvious, others capitulated right away citing Horthy Miklós' order of cease-fire. Regardless of his allegiance, the Hungarian soldier was but a spectator of the destruction of his country. However, this was the most inane sacrifice of all three. In terms of numbers, Hungarian losses did not surpass that of the Germans and were a far cry from the Soviet casualties. Between Novemand February 16, 1945, there were about 40,000 dead and 62,000 wounded (including victims of the attempt to break out of the blockade). The entire German-Hungarian loss of life amounted to about 60% of Red Army losses. The casualties of the Red Army were 80,026 dead and 240,056 wounded during the military operations in Budapest and its vicinity, and for each Soviet soldier killed elsewhere in Hungary, two lost their lives in the capital city. At the same time, more than 800,000 people were eyewitnesses to the bloody conflict that contemporaries compared to Stalingrad in its ferocity. Stalingrad was a combat zone for 4 months, but most of the civilian population was evacuated prior to the struggle. The stifling of the Warsaw uprising took 63 days, the blockade of Leningrad lasted almost 3 years but no battles were fought on the streets. Budapest has been one of the most besieged capital cities in Europe, which bares witness to its strategic importance: there have been 15 different major battles fought here throughout history, yet not one of them comes close to the siege of 1944-1945 in the scope of its destruction. Petersburg), Stalingrad (Volgograd) and Warsaw. The fierceness of the battle of Budapest can be compared only to the sieges of Leningrad (St. Even those German units that persevered the longest, like Königsberg (Kaliningrad) and Breslau (Wroclaw), resisted the attackers for 77 and 82 days respectively. In comparison, Berlin and Vienna fell after 2 weeks and 6 days respectively, while no other European city, with the exception of Warsaw, was the scene of a major battle. Between the appearance of the first Soviet tank and the final capture of Buda Castle, 102 days were to pass. The Siege of Budapest was one of the longest and bloodiest battles of WWII. February 1945: The last siege of castle Buda
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