On the banks of the Pest embankment in Budapest, near the parliamentary residence, thousands of victims of the Holocaust in Hungary are immortalised by a moving sculpture. Lemurov.net reports on the shoes abandoned on the shore.
Six dozen pairs of shoes, boots, children’s sandals and clogs, made of metal and stone, were installed on 16 April 2005. They are so skilfully crafted that only closer inspection will reveal that this is an artistic installation. Director Janos Jan Togay’s idea was realised by his friend, the sculptor Gyula Power.
They didn’t waste bullets either, they killed one and the others, the people connected to him, fell into the icy water and drowned quickly. He was particularly cynical that sometimes, instead of ropes, they tied the hands of the condemned with their own shoelaces.
Under his reign, a ghetto was organised in Budapest, from where Jews were transported to the concentration camps. In 1945, when Soviet troops liberated Budapest, they encountered fierce resistance from the ghetto guards.