Accusing Shoes, Empty Shoes

"In the memory of the victims shot into the Danube by Arrow Cross Militiamen 1944-45"

Reading the text on this memorial plaque, one would think the text was written by AP. Perhaps the English was difficult to translate from the Hungarian, so I'll translate it for you now.

This plaque stands on the bank of the Danube river in Budapest, where the Nazis shot thousands and thousands of Jews, tossing them into the river over the course of 2 years during the Holocaust.

As a memorial, dozens of pairs of shoes have been positioned along the bank -- where Jews of all ages were shot dead at that very location.

I stood there last night.


I've driven past locations in Israel where Jews have been killed by terror attacks. I've been to battlefields in Israel where IDF soldiers lost their lives defending our country. I'd never been before at the site where thousands of Jews were murdered.

The bank of the Danube river is very peaceful at night. It's very quiet and the lights of the bridges and castles gently illuminate the backdrop of the shoe memorial.

Over and over I've heard tour guides say the past few days, "everyone knew the Holocaust was coming...but people stayed...the anti semitism was apparent for years...it wasn't a surprise."

I stare at this pair of a toddler's shoes.


How many children were shot, murdered, and thrown into this river?


The deceptive, peaceful quiet of Europe...the beauty of Hungary and Budapest, is just an illusion.

Europe is soaked in the blood of Jews.

And though today is no longer Yom HaShoah, I still hear the air-raid siren (from Israel) in my head as I look out over the Danube.

And the shoes continue to accuse.






Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael

Yom Hashoah in Budapest

The sirens didn't wail here in Budapest like they did in Israel this morning. Traffic didn't come to a standstill, people didn't stop working or talking. Life goes on as usual here in Budapest on Yom Hashoah.

This morning I visited the great synagogue of Budapest. This massive structure is over 200 years old, and was initially part of the Neolog "stream" of Judaism...similar to Reform. The Chatam Sofer put a "cherem" on this shul, and I therefore did not enter the building, but took pictures of the outside and visited the areas surrounding the building.



If you click on the picture above, you'll notice dots on top of some of the letters of the pasuk "ועשו לי מקדש ושכנתי בתוכה" -- and I haven't figured out why.

During the Holocaust the shul was used as a concentration camp. Adolf Eichman had an office behind the rose window in the women's balcony, and the Germans used it as a radio tower. In the courtyard of the synagogue, there are mass graves of thousands of Jews from the ghettos in Budapest.

(picture of mass grave)

Raoul Wallenberg who came to Budapest as secretary of the Swedish Foreign Ministry in July 1944 with instructions to save as many Jews as possible. He issued thousands of Swedish identity documents to Jews to protect them from Nazi deportation and is credited with ultimately saving as many as 100,000 people. He worked with the Swiss consul Charles Lutz, as well as Portuguese and Spanish legations to create "protected" houses and a "protected" ghetto to house the Jews with international identity papers. Wallenberg was last seen leaving the city on January 17, 1945, right after the Soviet army liberated the city.

Wallenberg and other righteous gentiles are memorialized in the shul's courtyard.

In the holocaust museum next door, there were all sorts of objects I had never seen before in real life from the Holocaust.

This dress was made out of tallit -- to degrade and defile it.

Torah scrolls were cut up and used as parts of drums.

The following was rather interesting:

Here is a "Haftorah Scroll"...if you click on it, you'll see that although it's a scroll, there's nikud and simanei kriya written in as well (makes reading it rather easy)


Anti-semitic sentiment in Hungary during the Holocaust...

The Jewish ghetto in Budapest.

This visitor seemed a bit out of place in the museum.


A Chevra Kadisha tzedakka box in the museum...I thought it was rather morbid.


Yet, of everything I saw this morning I found this the most surprising. Outside the museum was the following "souvenir" coin machine...which would engrave on coins different "mementos."

I found the sign on it rather...offensive?

Will write more later.

--Jameel.

Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael