From the turn of the twentieth century, the Jewish community in Budapest was enormous, around 25% of the population. The war decimated the Jews living in Budapest, and now a very small percentage still live in the city. The seventh district of Budapest (Erzsébetváros) is still known as the Jewish Quarter. There are memorials all over the city commemorating all the lives lost in the Holocaust.
At 15 Király Street, you can find the last remaining piece of the Budapest Ghetto. It’s located in a courtyard of a private apartment building, and may not always be accessible. Please be respectful for those still living there.
There are several beautiful synagogues in the city that are worth mentioning. The Dohány Synagogue is the largest synagogue in Europe and the second largest in the world. Behind it is the Emanuel Tree, with the names of 30,000 Holocaust victims engraved on the leaves. The Rumbach Street Synagogue is close by, and also is of Moorish Revival architectural style. These two synagogues have so many stories to tell, so much they’ve seen over the years.
The Shoes on the Danube is a simply moving art piece along the Danube in between the Parliament Building and the Széchenyi Chain Bridge. During WWII, over 3,500 people were shot and killed at the riverside, 800 being Jews. The iron shoe sculptures were meant to represent those who were forced to remove their shoes before being shot, and their bodies being carried away by the river.
At the southern end of the Liberty Square, there’s a monument to the victims of Hungary’s German occupation during the war, but has met with a lot of criticism since it was built. Many claim that the monument “cleans the hands” of the Hungarian government at the time for sending almost half a million Jews to their deaths, that they were the victims and weren’t actively cooperating with the Germans. A protest monument was set up across from it, with photos and personal belongings of those who perished.
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International Itinerary 