Student demonstrations in Budapest calling for political and social reforms grow into a broad-based, nationwide popular uprising against the Soviet-backed government of the Hungarian People's Republic. Despite the movement's initial success, the revolution is brutally crushed by Soviet military intervention. Some 200,000 people flee the country in the course of the revolution.
After the US State Department orders the closure of German consulates in the United States because German diplomats are suspected of spying, Germany and Italy order all American consulates in Axis-occupied Europe to cease operation, closing the door for refugees fleeing Nazi persecution to apply for immigration to the United States.
The War Refugee Board publishes the 40-page report “German Extermination Camps – Auschwitz and Birkenau,” based on first-person testimony from four Slovakian Jewish men who had escaped from Auschwitz in spring 1944. Known as the 'Auschwitz Report,' the document contains for the first time estimates of the numbers of Jews being murdered in the camp as well as details of camp operations, including the gas chambers. One of the eyewitness accounts reported is from Irene Štaub’s second cousin, Arnost Rozin.
Hungary, part of the Axis powers since 1940, wavers in its support of Hitler after Soviet successes on the battlefield. Concerned that Hungary is preparing to leave the Axis powers and join the Allies, Hitler orders Hungary’s occupation. Hungarian Regent Miklós Horthy is sidelined and a pro-Nazi government is appointed. Up to this point, Hungary has refused to deport its Jewish population.
After vacationing in Colorado for decades, the pair finally decide to settle permanently.