Eighty years on from the end of the Second World War our understanding of it ought to be sophisticated enough by now to appreciate that all was not necessarily as it seemed.

As tempting as it is, one should avoid viewing the events in Europe in 1939-1945 in simplistic terms of one side being at war with another.

For some countries in Europe during this dreadful period, life was far more complicated than that, which is especially true of those countries which whilst not strictly under Nazi occupation for the total duration of the war, nonetheless came within the German sphere of influence. The extent of that influence and control shifted during the war, like a changing wind. Italy, for example, began the war as a full member of the Axis, but by 1945 had thrown out Mussolini and only the northern part of the country remained under Nazi control. Denmark was another country which although technically occupied by the Nazis retained a degree of independence and resilience which meant it was a most unusual occupation. And Bulgaria was a member of the Axis yet managed to protect most of its Jewish population and eventually turned against Germany.

But perhaps the most remarkable example of this is Hungary, the subject of Adam LeBor’s important new book. Under the leadership of Admiral Miklós Horthy, Hungary tried hard to remain neutral, but his leadership – his actual title was Regent – was too weak. In the event, Hungary under Horthy was a little bit neutral, with all the consequences of such ambivalence. He attempted to please both the Axis and the Allies and perhaps inevitably, failed with both.

In June 1941 Hungary declared war on the Soviet Union, a move which ended in disaster in January 1943 when the Hungarian Second Army – regarded as its best-equipped force – was annihilated by the Red Army in battle of Voronezh: over 100,000 of it’s 200,000 troops were killed with a further 60,000 taken prisoner. ‘Within one week’, says Adam LeBor, ‘almost the entire Second Army had been almost wiped out’.

But the focus of this book is on Budapest. It is hard to conceive of a city in Europe during the Second World War more wrapped in intrigue and drama, as each side played with the country’s neutrality and sought to exploit alliances with Germany and the Allies.

LeBor skilfully sets out how politics and espionage were used to lean first in one direction and then another. Life in Budapest had been difficult for the city’s large Jewish population under Horthy, but it was immeasurably better than it was for Jews elsewhere in occupied Europe. But all that changed in March 1944 when the country came under full Nazi occupation. Horthy sat on his hands and did nothing to resist the invasion, while the violent extreme right Arrow Cross – ‘feral teenage psychopaths’ as LeBor calls them – were let loose.

The book uses a series of first-hand accounts to describe the Hungarian Holocaust, the resistance, the collaboration and the victory of the Red Army in the Battle for Budapest. Special mention must be made of the heroism of the neutral diplomats in the city, including the Swed Raoul Wallenberg.

This is an immaculately researched book, written in a fluent and engaging style and an important addition to library of Second World War histories.

Adam LeBor is a journalist and author of The Last Days of Budapest: Spies, Nazis, Rescuers and Resistance, 1940–1945.

Alex Gerlis is the author of Every Spy a Traitor and eleven other espionage novels all published by Canelo. His next novel, The Second Traitor, is to be published in August 2025.