the area consisted of several blocks of the old jewish quarter which included the two main synagogues of the city, the neolog dohány street synagogue and orthodox kazinczy street synagogue. the ghetto was created on november 29, 1944, by a decree of the royal hungarian government. it was surrounded by a high fence reinforced with planks that was guarded so that contraband could not be sneaked in, and people could not get out. the nazi occupation of budapest (operation margarethe) started on march 19, 1944. the ghetto was established in november 1944, and lasted for less than two months, until the liberation of budapest on january 17, 1945 by the soviet army during the battle of budapest.