Shoes on the Danube Bank

Look at the shoes at your feet. There are work boots, men's lace-ups, women's heels and a few tiny pairs for children. They are empty, facing the river. There are sixty pairs, cast in iron, and they recall one of the darkest chapters in the city's history.

1The winter of 1944

In October 1944 the fascist Arrow Cross party seized power in Hungary with the backing of Nazi Germany. Over the following months, as the Red Army closed in on Budapest, its militiamen dragged thousands of people, the great majority of them Jews, from their homes and from the ghetto. Many were marched to the Danube, made to take off their shoes, which were valuable in wartime, and shot at the water's edge so that the current would carry the bodies away. Most of these killings took place between December 1944 and January 1945.

Some people risked their lives for others. On the night of 8 January 1945, police officer Károly Szabó and around twenty of his men rescued the residents of a building on Vadász Street who had already been taken to the riverbank.

2A memorial without words

The idea came from film director Can Togay, who created it with sculptor Gyula Pauer. It was unveiled on 16 April 2005, Hungary's Holocaust Remembrance Day. There are no names or numbers on the shoes: the absence speaks for itself.

"To the memory of the victims shot into the Danube by Arrow Cross militiamen in 1944–45."

3What to look for

• The different kinds of shoes: each stands for a different person, of every age and walk of life.
• The three plaques on the stone bench, in Hungarian, English and Hebrew.
• The candles, flowers and small stones left by visitors, following Jewish custom.