Shoes on the Danube Promenade; Budapest, Hungary
Where in the World are You?
On the second longest river on one of the world’s seven continents one will find this ambiguous memorial to one of history’s most tragic episodes. Shoes? Yes, but they’re more than that really, meant to symbolize the depravity of man and the perceived worthlessness of life unworthy of life. You see, these shoes are set to memorialize those that died here; shot on the banks of this grand river to save the hassle of burial.
Why shoes? Unfortunately it’s quite simple: they were seen as having more value than those that wore them and removed from their feet before they were shot , falling into the river and lost forever. It may be difficult to swallow, or maybe not if one is familiar with the specific, that shoe were considered more valuable than human life, but this episode was being repeated all over the continent at that particular period in time; more than unfortunate.
Alright, so where would one find this understated memorial, so understated that it isn’t even advertised at the museum dedicated to this period in history in this city? It has been described as a “lovely city with a grim history” and has been occupied by most major tribes, hoards, empires, fascist regimes, and socialist republics (Grossman, 2012).
Considering the events that surrounded this city and region at the time, it is easy for one to blame the purveyors of genocide from further west, but the events that unfolded on the banks of this river so long ago were carried out by the victims fellow citizens; collaborators as it were. What in these “peoples’” psyche could possible convince them that what they were doing was somehow acceptable behavior for even the lowliest of humans? That is probably one question that will continue frustrate, and perhaps haunt, historians and civilization in general for many years to come.
Where in the World are You?
Shoes on the Danube Promenade; Budapest, Hungary
By 1945, for all intents and purposes World War Two in Europe was in its final chapter, with the Red Army closing in from the east and the western Allies having thwarted Hitler’s final push during the Battle of the Bulge. It was during these final days that those responsible for the murder of those “unworthy of life” began to ramp up their murderous activities.
One such group was the Arrow Cross Brigade of Budapest, Hungary; an execution brigade of local Hungarians who felt it was their calling to murder their fellow Hungarians for simply being Jewish. Obviously, being in bed with Germany’s Nazis and seeing the end of Nazi rule of Europe coming to an end, the Arrow Cross brigade ramped up their killing.
Far from being as efficient as their Nazi brethren from the west, the Arrow Cross used practices employed by the SS Einsatzgruppen, the forerunners of mass murder during the Holocaust. The Arrow Cross brigades would round up their victims, line them up along the banks of the Danube River, remove their shoes and anything else of value and shoot them; letting their bodies fall into the river so that there was no need to dispose of the bodies.
The Shoes on the Danube Promenade is a memorial to the thousands of victims murdered by the Arrow Cross brigades. It was created by Gyula Pauer and Can Togay and represents the shoes of those victims that were removed before they were killed because; well because the shoes were determined to be more valuable than the lives of those that wore them.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoes_on_the_Danube_Promenade
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrow_Cross_Party
Grossman, J. (2012). “Tragedy, memory, history”. Perspectives on History, 50(7), p. 7.
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