Shoes by the Danube

Along the banks of the Danube in Budapest is this very moving memorial to the Jews of the city who were killed on this spot.  "Shoes on the Danube Bank" remembers the people who were shot into the Danube during WWII.  The sculptor created sixty pairs of period-appropriate shoes out of iron. 

The victims  were ordered to take off their shoes, and were shot at the edge of the water so that their bodies fell into the river and were carried away. The shoes are placed as if they had been flung off in the panic.

Iron signs in Hungarian, English and Hebrew read: "To the memory of the victims shot into the Danube by Arrow Cross militiamen in 1944-1945". I learned that Arrow Cross was a fascist Hungarian unit and that this massacre happened shortly before the city was liberated by the Russians.

The head of the Swedish Red Cross in Budapest and also the diplomat Raoul Wallenberg along with many others were working around the clock to save the Jews from being sent to the Nazi concentration camps. Thousands were saved.  This memorial helps us remember those who were not.