In Budapest, Hungary, we were hunted
They walked us, every single Jew found
All made to walk along the Danube river
The Arrow Cross gathered us in a line
Removed our shoes, tied us with rope
Then shot us so that we'd fall in order
One after another, pulled by momentum
We drowned there, or bled from bullets
For our faith, or our ethnicity and ideals
But we live in memory
Am Israel Chai
.jpg)
The Shoes on the Danube is a memorial on the bank of the Danube River in Budapest. It honors the Jews who were killed by fascist Arrow Cross militiamen in Budapest during World War II. They were ordered to take off their shoes, and were shot at the edge of the water so that their bodies fell into the river and were carried away. It represents their shoes left behind on the bank.
The sculptor created sixty pairs of period-appropriate shoes out of iron.
Between
20% and 40% of Greater Budapest's 250,000 Jewish inhabitants died
through Nazi and Arrow Cross Party genocide during 1944 and early 1945.
Photographer © Dennis Jarvis
