18 January 1945 — Liberation of the Budapest Ghetto Soviet forces liberated the Budapest Ghetto, ending months of terror under the Arrow Cross and Nazi occupation. Established in late 1944, the ghetto had confined tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews in overcrowded, unsanitary conditions. Starvation, disease, and constant violence had decimated the population. When Soviet troops arrived, they encountered a scene of unimaginable suffering: emaciated survivors, mass graves, and the ruins of homes d