Shoes, Jews and a Memorial is giving an incredible feeling in Budapest on river Danube
- Wanderer
- May 5, 2019
- 2 min read
When you are visiting Budapest, you will visit both side of the city the Buda and Pest. While you are exploring the Pest side one of your destination will be to see the "Shoes on the Danube River" which is located on the east bank of the river just on the same way as the Hungarian Parliament Buuilding. The Shoes on the Danube, is a memorial which is made in order to honour the Jews who were killed by fascist Arrow Cross militiamen in Budapest during World War II in 1944-45.
The memorial was designed by the hungarian film director Can Togay and by sculptor Gyula Pauer in 2005.
The monument which is placed along the Danube River which consists of 60 pair shoes made of iron in the style of the 1940's as worn during the WWII. It is an important place for all people who faced the outcomes of the world wars. The memorial is visited all time of the year and you will see candles and flowers besides the shoes which were left by people who remember and pray for the victims of the shooting.
80.000 Jews were marching towards the Austrian border and about 20.000 of them were shot along the banks of the river Danube merciless and brutally. Before the shooting the victims were forced to remove their shoes and wait for the execution looking directly to their executers.
During the World Wars commodities like shoes were valuable for the soldiers especially towards the end of the World War II.
Brief information of the time of the execution.
It was 16th of the month October in 1944 when Hitler placed Frenc Szalasi by overthrewing Miklos Horthy. Right after the action Frenc Szlasi established the Arrow Cross Party. The party which followed the idelogy of Hitler was a fascist, anti-semitic organization. About 300.000 Jews were living in Hungary when the Arrow Cross government come to Power. 200.000 of them were deported to the concentration camp to Auschwitz-Birkenau and 100.000 for performing duty in military labor battalions in order to focus on repelling the advance of Sovient, Romanian and Bulgarian troops through Hungary.
The Arrow Cross government organized and tolerated the persecution of Hungarian Jews who had avoided deportation to concentration and extermination camps in Germany during the spring and summer of 1944. (the orange files)
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