Tourist desecrates historical monument in Budapest

Budapest is a popular destination among tourists, as it has many attactions to offer. The sculpture group “Shoes on the Danube” is also a monument that many people visit during their stay here. However, in recent days, this monument has been desecrated by the behavior of a tourist.

A historical monument was desecrated

The Reddit video in which a tourist desecrated a monument in Budapest went viral in an instant, writes Metropol. One of Budapest’s best-known – almost world-famous – monuments is the Shoes on the Danube bank sculpture group, which commemorates the Holocaust. This is where the archers shot the Jews into the Danube, so those who want to remember this day come here.

The tourist was probably not familiar with the background and significance of the monument

It is possible that not everyone knows the background of this historically significant monument. A tourist in a black-and-white polka-dotted dress happily posed by the statues: she stepped into the shoes, posed with them and smiled, stomped on the site, and the man who came with her enthusiastically photographed her. The incident outraged many, as it seems she did not show respect for the group of statues. The news went around the world, so one of the most important English-language news portals, the DailyMail, also reported on it.

What is the meaning of “Shoes on the Danube”?

In 1944, the Nazis deposed Miklós Horthy’s government in Hungary, bringing into power the anti-Semitic and fascist leader Ferenc Szálasi. The monument establishes a permanent memorial to the Hungarian Jews who were innocently shot into the Danube by members of the Arrow Cross Party. During the executions, which were usually carried out en masse, the victims were forced to line up on the banks of the Danube, and then they were shot into the river. The location of the monument is symbolic, since Jews were shot into the Danube from almost every point of the Danube bank in Budapest, especially on the northern side of Margaret Island.

There are three separate signs in Hebrew, Hungarian and English at ‘The Shoes on the Danube’ that say: ‘To the memory of victims shot into the Danube by Arrow Cross militiamen in 1944-45.’

The Reddit video was published on THIS link; however, now, it seems it has been removed. You can check out screenshots of the video HERE.

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