Shoes on the Danube

Evocative and deeply touching, this memorial has, I think, broken my heart.... Around 20,000 jews were shot dead on the banks of the Danube in Budapest by the Hungarian Arrow Cross party between December 1944 and January 1945. This memorial of iron shoes was erected to them on the Pest side of the river near the parliament buildings in 2005:

Shoes on the Danube Promenade, from Wikipedia 

The plaque.

The Shoes on the Danube Promenade is a memorial created by Gyula Pauer and Can Togay on the bank of the Danube River in Budapest. It honors the Jews who fell victim to fascist Arrow Cross militiamen in Budapest and depicts their shoes left behind on the bank when they fell into the river after having been shot during World War II.

The memorial.

It is located on the Pest side of the Danube Promenade at the end of Szechenyi Street, about 300 metres (980 ft) south of the Hungarian Parliament and near the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.

• "A Cipők a Duna-parton elnevezésű kompozíció a nyilasterror idején Dunába lőtt embereknek állít emléket. a szobrászművész hatvan pár korhű lábbelit formált meg vasból. A parti szegély terméskövére erősített cipok mögött negyven méter hosszúságú, hetven centiméter magas kőpad húzódik. Az emlékhely három pontján öntöttvas táblákon magyarul, angolul és héberül olvasható a felirat: "A nyilaskeresztes fegyveresek által Dunába lőtt áldozatok emlékére állíttatott 2005. április 16-án". forrás: MTI 2005. április 16., szombat

Translation: "The composition entitled 'Shoes on the Danube Bank' gives remembrance to the people shot into the Danube during the time of the Arrow Cross terror. The sculptor created sixty pairs of period-appropriate shoes out of iron. The shoes are attached to the stone embankment, and behind them lies a 40 meter long, 70 cm high stone bench. At three points are cast iron signs, with the following text in Hungarian, English, and Hebrew: "To the memory of the victims shot into the Danube by Arrow Cross militiamen in 1944–45. Erected 16 April 2005." (Source: MTI, Saturday, April 16, 2005.)

• Népszabadság Online, 2005. április 15. 14:25 "Holokauszt-emlékművet avatnak szombaton, a holokauszt áldozatainak emléknapján Budapesten. A hatvan pár, öntöttvasból mintázott korhű cipő a nyilasterror idején Dunába lőtt embereknek állít emléket a Roosevelt tér és a Kossuth tér közötti szakaszon."

Translation: "A holocaust memorial will be dedicated on Saturday, the holocaust victim memorial day, in Budapest. Sixty pairs of cast iron shoes, cast in the styles of the 40's, stand in remembrance of the people shot into the Danube during the Arrow Cross terror. The memorial lies on the riverbank between Roosevelt square and Kossuth square." (source: Népszabadság Online, April 15, 2005.)

January 1945

During World War II, Raoul Wallenberg and 250 co-workers were working around the clock to save the Jewish population from being sent to Nazi concentration camps; this figure later rose to approximately 400. Lars and Edith Ernster, Jacob Steiner, and many others were housed at the Swedish Embassy in Budapest on Üllői Street 2-4 and 32 other buildings throughout the city that Wallenberg had rented and then declared as extraterritorial to try to safeguard the residents.

On the night of January 8, 1945, all of the inhabitants of the building on Üllöi Street were rounded up and dragged away to the banks of the Danube by an Arrow Cross execution brigade. At midnight, Karoly Szabo and 20 policemen with drawn bayonets broke into the Arrow Cross house and rescued everyone there (see also front page of 1947 newspaper below). Among those saved were Lars Ernster, who fled to Sweden and became a member of the board of the Nobel Foundation from 1977 to 1988, and Jacob Steiner, who fled to Israel and became a professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Steiner's father had been shot dead by Arrow Cross militiamen on December 25, 1944, falling into the Danube. His father had been an officer in World War I and spent four years as a prisoner of war in Russia.

Dr. Erwin K. Koranyi, psychiatrist in Ottawa, wrote about the night of January 8, 1945 in his Dreams and Tears: Chronicle of a Life in 2006, "in our group, I saw Lajos Stoeckler" and "The police holding their guns at the Arowwcross cutthroats. One of the high-ranking police officers was Pal Szalai, with whom Raoul Wallenberg used to deal. Another police officer in his leather coat was Karoly Szabo."

Pal Szalai was honored as Righteous among the Nations on April 7, 2009.

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[GrayMoonGallery]

Belgian artist Jan Theuninck wrote a poem about the Jews who were shot dead on the banks of the Danube in Budapest by the Hungarian fascist Arrow Cross militiamen.

Red River

the train was too late
by foot it was too far
the river too nearby
the hatred too strong
bullets through your head
river of blood
red Danube
dead Budapest

© by Jan Theuninck