Day of Honour
On the night of 11 February 1945, around 40-45,000 German and Hungarian regular and Nazi paramilitary troops surrounded in the Buda Castle tried to break through the Soviet siege to reach the German lines west of Budapest. The poorly organised breakout crossed mountainous, wooded terrain under heavy fire, and most soldiers were killed or captured.
On 15 February 1997, the Hungarian National Front (Magyar Nemzeti Arcvonal) and Hungaria Skins organised the first commemoration, marching from Clark Ádám Square to Buda Castle with about 150 people.
Since then, the commemoration has been held almost annually, attracting growing international attendance and becoming a major European extreme-right event. While the commemoration has been effectively banned by the authorities since 2022, an independent “Outbreak Tour” has been organised near 11 February since 2006, promoting the same message that the participants of the brekout were heroes defending Europe from the Soviets.
“The German army and Hungary’s puppet Arrow-Cross regime solely defended the interests of Nazi Germany.”
A quote from the renowned historian Krisztián Ungváry’s website, kitoresnapja.hu, which debunks far-right myths about the Outbreak