concentration camp nearest to Budapest
 

We would like to visit a concentration camp and wondered what the closest one to Budapest would be?

Here's a map, I don't know if any of these are still standing and open to the public but maybe you can google it.

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/...ungarymap.html

It's the "model" camp set up by the Nazis for the Red Cross to see. It's name is Theresienstadt. It's very well worth the visit. Make sure to visit the part where the "bad" prisoners were kept. It will probably keep you awake at night.

You need to do a little research on this because your request is almost void from the query.

Here is the simple answer: There is no concentration camp near Budapest. Period.

Here is the explanation: Hungary's Nazi-philic government largely avoided participating in the Holocaust until 1944. In the late spring and summer of that year, the Hungarian government finally caved in to Nazi demands and began packing Hungarian Jews on trains headed north. This was the time that the Nazi extermination project was at its peak and it was a time that Hungary was fully cooperating with the Nazis because the Germans occupied Hungary in March 1944 to prevent it from reaching an armistice with the Soviets.

The Hungarian Jews were transited to Terezin and from there to (primarily) Auschwitz. They were not kept in concentration and extermination camps in Hungary (ghettoes, yes; labor camps, yes; Hungarian concentration camps -- no, and P_M's link verifies this). Over the course of two or so months (May and June 1944), about 440K Hungarian Jews were forced into boxcars and shipped to concentration camps, primarily in Poland. The number of Hungarian Jews killed by the Nazis in the Holocaust is around 560,000, the second-highest total of any nation (Poland = 3,000,000).

Terezin (aka Theresienstadt) is an hour outside of <b>PRAGUE</b> and therefore about 7 hours from Budapest. It was not really a concentration camp but was more of a transit camp and slave labor camp. It is worth a visit, it is harrowing, it is horrific, and it is educational. It is not in or near Hungary.

Thanks.

As a follow up to the excellant reply that BigRuss gave you I encourage you to go to the Holocaust Museum in Budapest. It is excellant, on the same lines as the Terror Museum.

Hi Barblab,
Where is the Holocaust Museum in Budapest? I would like to visit it.

Eric:
The museum on the second floor of the building attached to the Great Synagogue on Dohany Street offers primarily holocaust-related exhibits. Outstanding photos from that time frame. If Robert Turin is the docent on duty, you're in for a treat from a very likeable and knowledgeable gentleman.

stu