Haapalah / Aliyah Bet

Before 1 AD, the Celts built the first settlement on the site of Budapest,
The site, later named Aquincum, was occupied by the Romans.

Budapest arose from two Bulgarian military frontier fortresses, Buda and Pest, on the two banks of Danube., established after the peace treaty of 829, which ceded Pannonia to Bulgaria, after the victory of Bulgarian army of Omurtag over Holy Roman Empire of Louis the Pious.

At the end of the 9th century, Hungarians led by Árpád settled in the territory, and a century later officially founded the Kingdom of Hungary Magyar Királyság.

In 1526, the Ottomans pillaged Buda, besieged it in 1529, and finally occupied it in 1541.
Under Ottoman rule most Christians left the city, and it became a Muslim town, while the unoccupied western part of the country became part of the Habsburg Empire as Royal Hungary.

In the late 1930s and early 1940s, Budapest was a safe haven for Jewish refugees.
Before the war some 5,000 refugees, mainly from Germany and Austria, fled ton Budapest.
In March 1942, the deportations of Jews from Slovakia began, and, up to 8,000 Slovak Jewish refugees also settled in Budapest.

On March 19, 1944, the Nazis occupied Budapest.
The Nazis established a Jewish council in Budapest, and restricted Jewish life.
Apartments occupied by Jews were confiscated, and Jews were rounded up and interned in the Kistarcsa Transit Camp (originally established by Hungarian authorities).
The Arrow Cross collaborated with the Nazis in murdering Jews.
Less than half of Budapest's 119,000 Jews, survived the next 11 months.

In November 8, 1944, more than 70,000 Jews--men, women, and children were crowded into the Ujlaki brickyards in Obuda,
From there, they were forced to march to camps in Austria.
Thousands were shot and thousands more died as a result of starvation or exposure to the cold.
In late December, 1944, those who survived the death march reached Austria, and the Nazies transported them to Dachau, Mauthausen and to Wien, where they were forced to build fortifications around the city.

In November, 1944, the Arrow Cross forced remaining Jews in Budapest into the ghetto.
Between December, 1944 and the end of January, 1945, the Arrow Cross took as many as 20,000 Jews from the ghetto, shot them, and threw their bodies into the Danube.

On February 13, 1945, Soviet forces liberated Budapest.