German troops set fire to the Jewish ghetto in Budapest prior to retreating from that part of the city, which is now in the hands of the Russian Army, it was reported here today by a refugee who fled from Budapest less than a week ago.
“Many Jews were burned alive in the flames,” the eye-witness related. “Others succeeded in escaping. A considerable number of Jews who attempted to get out of the burning ghetto were killed by the Germans.”
At the same time they set the ghetto afire, German soldiers surrounded the houses where Jews who were holders of Swedish, Swiss and Latin American identity documents had been living “under special protection.” The Jews were dragged from their houses and machine-gunned. Their bodies were later thrown into the Danube. Many Jews held in Budapest prisons were also killed by the retreating Germans. However, a large number of Jewish prisoners were rescued by the Russian Army, the eye-witness said.
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