The deportation of the Jews started in the smaller cities in Hungary first. The capital city, Budapest Jewry were forced into closed ghetto only after the Arrow Cross Nazi takeover in November 1944 and from then on the deportations started in earnest. (Before the Arrow Cross takeover Jews had to move to "designated houses" marked by Yellow Stars.) Luckily the Nazis had only less than 3 month to finish off the Jews because by January 17 the Soviet Army liberated Budapest. I was only 4 years old at that time. My father was taken in Jewish forced work battalion to the Russian front at Voronezh near the bend ot the river Don. He died there. Other family members were deported early on, others died of typhoid and starvation in the ghetto. My grandfather was beaten to death by Hungarian neighbors while they were searching for "hidden Jewish treasures" in his bedroom. It was winter time January, 1945. My mom found a dining table on the snow covered streets, turned it upside down, placed her deceased father on the table and we pushed this make shift sled with the dead in search for an open place to bury him.