Bartha Ákos - Véres city

"On March 19, 1944, Hungary was invaded by the German armed forces. Although most of the anti-Nazi intellectuals were arrested or deported, there were plenty of small and large groups and organizations, which sometimes conspired with each other and sometimes went their separate ways, trying to save what could be saved: to persuade the governor to to confront the Germans, and then, after the unsuccessful escape attempt on October 15th - in defiance of the ever-increasing dangers - to fight with their own means against the Nazis and the Arrows, to protect the national wealth and, above all, to provide shelter to the persecuted.

Ákos Bartha relies on a huge source material and reveals the connections with the power to illuminate the stories of the armed resistance in Budapest, which are very rich in twists and turns. His book reveals that during World War II, the anti-German and anti-Nazi forces operating in the Hungarian capital had a bewildering variety of ideological backgrounds and motivations: they included conservatives, legitimists, communists, liberal democrats, Zionists, and even radical right-wingers. In addition to the more well-known examples, the author talks in detail about the officer organizations working on the preparations for the jump, the anti-German nationalist-racialist groups, the Zionist armed resistance centered around Teleki Square, and the auxiliary armed forces that played an important role in rescuing people. Adventurers, traitors, provocateurs, communist action guards appear, there is talk of the dark sides of armed resistance - and, of course, that many were able to act bravely and humanely even in the darkest hours.