Worn out men's shoes, elegant women's shoes, tiny children's shoes... From a distance, they look like real ones. But as soon as you come closer, you realize that you stand in front of not just someone's carelessly left shoes but a sad and heart-piercing memorial.

The Shoes on the Danube Bank is a young but world-famous memorial that commemorates the victims of the Holocaust. It is located on the river bank near the Hungarian Parliament. The grand opening of the monument took place in 2005, on the eve of the sixtieth anniversary of the victory over Nazism.

The history of the memorial dates back to the end of the Second World War when Hungary was ruled for several months by the Arrow Cross Party. Actually, the party members were Fascists and followers of Hitler. During this period, Jews were massively captured and brought to the Danube Embankment, where a barge was waiting for them. Before loading, the prisoners were forced to leave their shoes on the bank as Fascists used them themselves or resold them to others. The barge was taking people away to the death by firing squad. To save bullets and not dig up graves, Fascists tied the poor people with a single chain and shot one of them, who fell into the water and dragged everyone else to the river bottom. We will never know how many victims of the Holocaust were carried away by the current of the Danube.

The idea of ​​the memorial was conceived by Hungarian actor Can Togay and realized by the sculptor Gyula Pauer.
The monument consists of sixty cast-iron pairs of very different shoes based on the images of authentic models of the forties. There is also a stone bench with memorial iron plaques in several languages. The inscription on them is as follows: “In memory of the victims shot on the Danube by the Arrow Cross militia in 1944-45. Installed on April 16, 2005." The length of the shoe row and the bench is 40 meters.
Fresh flowers and gifts are regularly brought to the Shoes on the Danube Bank, and lamps between the shoes are always lit.