As we wandered through the city of Budapest I was stuck by the number of Holocaust memorials. One of the most well known are the shoes on a bridge overlooking the Danube. On the path just below the Parliament, you will see sixty pairs of shoes, cast in bronze. lined up along the river.
The shoes, men’s women’s and children’s look as if the owners simply stepped out of them and left them there. That is exactly what happened as hundreds of Jew’s were led to the edge of the bridge, told to remove shoes and valuables and shot in the back so they would fall into the water and their bodies would be washed away by the river, eliminating the need for the Hungarian Nazis to bury the bodies.
Standing there, staring across the river at the large church on the hill, you wonder how it could have happened.