Shoes Memorial

Shoes Memorial along the Danube river

The online version of the magazine Architecture Digest has chosen the Holocaust memorial of Budapest as the second most important public sculpture on a list of 13.

Check the list here.

Find the story of the shoes here.

Liberty bridge after WW2

70 year ago on this day the beautiful Liberty bridge of Budapest was distroyed by the army of Hitler to stop the crossing of the Allies on the Danube.

This is what the bridge looked before the war (pictures from photo gallery of Fortepan):

After the war:

And today…

Ghetto Memorial

This year Budapest commemorates the 70th year of the formation of its ghetto.

Péter Sugár and the Szövetség ’39 Group’s installation makes you stop for a moment and think about those dark times.

Ghetto Memorial Budapest

On the steel wall the text appears in Hungarian, English and Hebrew to bring the story of life and death, the cronicle of the holocaust and the revival of Jewish life in the neighbourhood closer to everyone.

Ghetto Memorial Budapest

On the map imprinted into the concrete the ghetto’s street structure can be seen, marking on it some of the important institutions of the area. If one goes closer pictures from the past can be seen through the peek holes, carrying the today’s passer-by into the gone-by past.

Ghetto Memorial Budapest

Holocaust Remembrance Day

68 years ago the on January 27, 1945 the Auschwitz–Birkenau death camp was eliberated.

Here you find some stories of survivors, commemorations around the world:

President of Hungary, János Áder addresses a letter to the Jewish Community, saying that the act of commemorating the victims of the death camps meant recognizing that ‘any of us could have been among the innocent victims.’
Find the letter here.

Laló – documentary by István Jávor about a Jewish man who survived Auschwitz. Learn about old Marosvásárhely (today Targu Mures in Romania), where he is from; about the fate of Transylvanian Hungarian Jews; about the war and the Holocaust through this man’s eyes. In Hungarian, no subtitles.
Laló is Lajos Erdélyi, famous photographer from Marosvásárhely. His memoires have been published in a book also, introduced to the public on January 31 at 6pm in the Balint House (Budapest, Révay street 16.).
The event on FB here.
Fragment from the book here.

International Roma Holocaust Remembrance Day

The first Romas were sent to Auschwitz in 1941. In February 1943, a Gypsies’ camp was set up in the Birkenau camp which imprisoned Roma people from 14 countries.

April 8th was the day when the first international Roma congress, with 23 delegates from 10 countries, was organized to commemorate the Gypsy victims of the Holocaust in Oprington, next to London in 1971. On the initiative of the representatives of India April 8th was chosen to be the Day of the Roma Nation, to remember all the Gypsies who have left the homeland and have been wandering since for over 1000 years. The Gypsy flag and the hymn were chosen and the language became officially recognized. Since then April 8th is the day of different anti – racism, discrimination and war campaigns.

In 1990, on the 4th world congress in Serock, next to Warsaw April 8th, the day of the first congress was recognized as a Roma holiday.
Many Gypsies in numerous countries celebrate the wandering on festivals, throwing flowers and candles into the river where they live and follow their way until they can.

Go GREEN

Tonight Budapest organizes the Earth Hour from 8.30p.m.-9.30p.m. switching the decorative illumination of the city off. Find out more about the world-wide movement at: www.earthhour.org.

Programs:
– STARS tour: meeting at 5:30p.m. in front of Fenyőgyöngye (Budapest, II. district Szépvölgyi út 155.). You can get there with bus 65 from Kolosy tér, the last stop of the bus. Route: Fenyőgyöngye – Hármashatárhegy – Árpád lookout tower – Fenyőgyöngye, 7 kilometers and the view from the tower is splendid.

Photo and more info: hirek.csillagaszat.hu

– Budapest Chain bridge, Pest end, WWF’s program : from 9p.m. Juli Fábián and Zoohacker concert
More: wwf.hu

David Arquette in Budapest

American actor David Arquette and his friend Mike McGuiness are in Budapest now to shoot an adventure trip for Travel Channel. The Mile High show will be on every week. The first destination of their venture is Budapest.


Find out more here.

Another commercial shot in Budapest

In a previous post we’ve shown you some commercials presenting our beautiful capital while advertising various products. Here is another one. A Chinese girl dreams about the perfect city to be in. And that is Budapest. This video is without voice. Here you can watch the original in Chinese.