The Last Days of Budapest

Adam LeBor shares a powerful story of spies, fanaticism, genocide and military disaster in wartime Budapest, marking a tragic chapter in the Hungarian capital’s history.

About the event

In autumn 1943, Budapest was the Casablanca of central Europe: an oasis for spies and agents of every kind, and a place of sanctuary for Allied prisoners of war, and Polish and Jewish refugees. A year later, the city found itself in the eye of a storm. The Nazis had invaded, and the Allies were making significant inroads across Europe.

For Stalin, the Hungarian capital was his gateway to the West. For Hitler, it was a crucial bastion where the Soviet advance had to be stopped. Squeezed between these two sides, Budapest and its inhabitants would soon pay a terrible price.

Drawing on newly uncovered accounts and interviews with the last remaining survivors, Adam LeBor tells the fascinating story of one of the least-known but most important episodes of the Second World War.

Additional information

This event is eligible for our 20% ticket bundle discount.

Book tickets to three or more different events across the festival and you can save 20%. Tickets must be purchased in the same transaction and the discount will automatically be applied within the basket.

About the speaker

Adam LeBor is a British author and journalist. He worked as a foreign correspondent from the early 1990s, covering the wars in the former Yugoslavia and the impact of the collapse of communism in Hungary. He continues to write for a number of newspapers and publications, and is the author of multiple books, including ‘Hitler’s Secret Bankers’.