Anniversary: The End of the Siege of Budapest — February 13, 1945

On 13 February 1945, after a seven-week siege, the last German and Hungarian troops holding out in Buda Castle surrendered to the Red Army. Budapest was liberated, but the city on the hill above it lay in ruins: an estimated 37,000 to 38,000 civilians died during the siege months alone.

Beneath those same ruins, in the caves cut into the Castle hill, the Hospital in the Rock kept working until the last day. Ninety-four official beds ended up treating far more than that: patients three to a bed meant for two, stretchers in the corridors, cave chambers with no medical function turned into wards by necessity alone. Food arrived, when it arrived, from another hospital across the city; outside, among civilians, survival depended mostly on barter.

The Hospital in the Rock entry tells how the same museum, known today mainly for the Cold War nuclear bunker never put to use, still holds the record of the week when there was no room anywhere, and no time to make any.