The general who saved me

'How did you survived' the man asked me. He was originally from Odessa. The mother of his daughter-in-law was from Hungary. She was six years old when she was taken to Auschwitz. Somehow she survived and is still fit and well. The man from Odessa knew that few Hungarians survived. How did I survived? Through a series of miracles, I said. What did I know about miracles? I vaguely knew that the Budapest ghetto was mined, that at the end Eichmann planned to blow it up, and send in his Arrow Cross thugs to kill anyone who might have survived.If this didn't happen it was due to the commander of the Wehrmacht forces in Hungary, Generalmajor Gerhard Schidthuber. Raul Wallenberg, the Swedish emissary and possibly CIA spy may, or may not have talked to him and threatened to hold him personally responsible if the 70,000 inhabitants of the ghetto were massacred, and would make sure that he would be hanged after the war,  but it was only Schmidthuber who could stop the slaughter. While Himmler, the architect of the Holocaust vacillated and thought of saving his skin after the war, Hitler and some of his henchmen, and notably Eichmann, were adamant that the Jews of Europe had to be finished off, whatever fate awaited Germany, Schmidthuber far outranked Eichmann and probably thought little of the arrogant SS Lieutenant Colonel SS Uberstrumbannfurher, still going against his instructions straight from Berlin was a major decision. 

Schidthuber took over the command of the 13th Panzer Division in September 1944, by which time Budapest was virtually surrounded by Soviet troops. 

He was a soldier with a distinguished carrier. He served as a junior officer in the First World War, After a stint in civilian life during the 1920s, he rejoined the army in 1933. He was a captain in an infantry regiment, then in 1939 was promoted major, and commanded an infantry battalion. He took part in the Polish campaign in 1939, in 1940 served on the Western front, and later in the Balkan campaign in Yugoslavia. From 1941 he was on the Eastern front, and was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel. In 1943 he was involved in heavy defensive fighting near Kiev. He was awarded the Knight's Cross of Iron Cross for his contribution. 

In September 1944, after taking command of the 13th Panzer Division in Budapest he was promoted to Generalmajor. [http://www.lexikon-der-wehrmacht.de/Personenregister/S/SchmidhuberG-R.htm] Who would have wanted such a job? The odds were vastly stacked against the German troops, the war was as good as lost. Yet as a soldier, he had to continue to lead his troops and fight. Perhaps being ordered to allow the slaughter of the last remaining Jews left alive was one step too much for him. Allowing the rampant rebel to slaughter civilians was something too much for his soldierly conscience. He stepped in and stopped the killing. On January 21 he was awarded Oak Leaves as the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross for his leadership,  three days after the ghetto was liberated. Three weeks later he was killed in the battle on the Buda side of the city. Perhaps he no longer wanted to live with all the burden on his conscience. Generals are seldom killed in battle, but this was a fitting end for a loyal soldier fighting for an unspeakable regime.