12 January
Memorial Day for the Victims of the Don River Disaster

12 January 1943
The Don River Disaster

On 12 January 1943, the Soviet Red Army launched its offensive in the Don Bend region. As a result, more than 100,000 soldiers of Hungary’s Second Army, numbering 207,000, lost their lives.

The battles fought at the Don Bend are among the most tragic chapters in Hungarian military history. Thousands of Hungarian troops, poorly equipped and inadequately armed, were sent on an impossible mission and perished in the brutal Russian winter, where temperatures dropped as low as -40°C. The High Command and the country's leadership had virtually no room left to prevent the catastrophe.

The Don disaster was not only a military defeat but also a social and political tragedy for Hungary. The enormous loss of life and the near-total destruction of the army significantly weakened Hungary's military capability and left a deep scar on the collective memory of the Hungarian people. Survivors and families of the fallen carried the trauma of these events for decades.

During the Communist era, discussion of the Don disaster was a taboo, as the regime disapproved of commemorating the so-called “Horthy army.” After the political changes of 1989, however, the Don catastrophe was gradually restored to its rightful place in Hungarian historical awareness and is today recognised as one of the most tragic episodes of Hungary’s Second World War experience.

Honour to the Heroes!