The Last Day of Budapest

Spies, Nazis, Rescuers and Resistance, Adam LeBor

Adam LeBor

Budapest, autumn 1943. Four years into the war, Hungary is allied with Nazi Germany and the Hungarian capital is the Casablanca of central Europe. The city swirls with intrigue and betrayal, home to spies and agents of every kind. But Budapest remains at peace, an oasis in the midst of war where Allied POWs, and Polish and Jewish refugees find sanctuary. The riverside cafes are crowded and the city's famed cultural life still thrives. All that comes to an end in March 1944 when the Nazis invade.

Extracting information from diaries, archival material and interviews with some of the last survivors of the war, Adam LeBor brilliantly recreates life and death in this wartime city, the catastrophic fate of half of its Jewish population and the destruction of the siege. Told through the eyes of a multitude of vivid, gripping characters, including glamorous aristocrats, spies, smugglers and SS Officers, this is the story of how Budapest slowly dies as the war destroys the city

Published by:: Apollo, Bloomsbury Publishing

See more from the 2025 prize year

What the judges said
“Set in The Second World War and the period immediately before and afterwards Adam LeBor's book skilfully brings to life a large cast of vivid characters. It tells us so much about what happens when you have a city, a culture destroyed by warfare, and the pretty awful things that come up through the cracks in the pavement.”

About the author

Adam LeBor is the author of nine non-fiction books, including Hitler's Secret Bankers which was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize, and City of Oranges which was shortlisted for the Jewish Quarterly Wingate Prize