If you walk along the river wall of the Danube Promenade on the Pest side of the river in Budapest towards the old Hungarian Parliament building, you will take in the visage of old buildings, new hotels, restaurants and shops. You will eventually come across a strange site – a sculpture in iron of 60 pairs of period shoes placed along the top of the river wall. Cast iron signs on a bench describe the sculpture thus: “To the memory of the victims shot into the Danube by Arrow Cross militiamen in 1944–45. Erected 16 April 2005.”
The sculpture by Gyula Pauer was the idea of the film director Can Togay. It was erected in honor of the people who were killed by Arrow Cross militiamen in Budapest during World War II. The victims were ordered to take off their shoes before they were shot at the river’s edge so that their bodies would then drop into the river and taken away. The sculpture is a memorial to the 3,500 people, 800 of them Jews, who were shot into the Danube. It is a striking and poignant reminder of human cruelty.
The Arrow Cross party was a far right party led by Ferenc Szalasi who formed the Hungarian government from October 15, 1944 to March 28, 1945. The Arrow Cross movement subscribed to the Nazi ideology of “master races.”
This monument was a reminder to me that there will always be groups among us who see themselves ordained more superior and justified than others. The more extreme of these groups take their beliefs as a license to minimize, dehumanize and even destroy those that do not “belong.”
Educhirp 