Memorial sites
Not too long ago Ayngelina from Bacon is Magic wrote a post about visiting the 9/11 memorial in NYC. She did not understand how some people could visit such a meaningful place and take photos of each other smiling for the camera. What followed was a discussion on her Facebook page about whether or not it’s appropriate.
The Shoes on the Danube
We understand why she was conflicted. Earlier this summer we were at The Shoes on the Danube Promenade in Budapest, it honours the Jews who were shot by Arrow Cross militiamen. They were ordered to remove their shoes and were shot into the Danube.
The memorial is beautiful and sombre, all sizes of men’s, women’s and children’s bronze shoes scattered on the edge of the river. It’s a place for reflection but as we sat, thinking about what happened here, people would walk up, take their own shoes off and try and put their bare feet into the bronze shoes. The first time it happened we figured people just didn’t know what it was all about but more and more people came and it seemed like at least one person from each group tried to fit their barefoot into one of these shoes.
A foot in the shoe
And then came the smiling picture taking and then the smiling picture taking with a foot in the shoe. We couldn’t take it any more, we got up to leave when a group of twenty-somethings came along. They sat by the water, amongst the shoes, and one of them started looking for a shoe that fit. She was smiling and laughing and thought it was great. As we were leaving, we passed her and asked whether she knew what the shoes represented. She said no. We guessed she hadn’t seen the plaque that explained it very well, in several different languages. After telling her, she walked back to her group of friends, not smiling anymore, most likely thinking about whether or not it was appropriate to act the way she had.
These memorials for people who died tragic deaths attract great numbers from all over the world every year. They are places to reflect, pay our respects and hope that these devastating acts of war, hate and destruction will someday stop.
We are of the opinion that it’s appropriate to take a picture of the memorial itself but to smile and pose for the camera is disrespectful to the people who lost their lives. What do you think, appropriate or not?
I think that if you are interacting with this memorial, then the memory of the people lives on. I agree that in our culture it is more appropriate to show reverence when faced with a monument to tragedy and suffering. However if you hadn’t been upset by the experience I might never have known about this memorial. If a friend showed me this image with them trying on bronze shoes at the river bank, I would have researched, the image is too enigmatic. It is saying something, I would have wanted to hear. I might too have wanted to imagine my humanity in all its complexity of chance, and so placed my foot in the shoe. There for the grace of god go I… I can accept both encounters because of my belief in humanity. The cigarette butt owner needs a smacked butt!
Thank you for your well written point of view and I do agree about the cigarette butt owner.
Yes, the cigarette butt owner is a disrespectful jerk. I learned about this memorial after touring the museum at the Dohány Street Synagogue several years ago and subsequently visit the memorial every time I am in Budapest. I am drawn to how powerful an image flanks the river. It has never occurred to me to “try on a shoe” but I am sure if I did it would be a powerful and moving experience placing me just that much closer to what happened there. Budapest if full of memorials that strike deep and perhaps they are intended for physical interaction. However trying on the shoes in a frolic for a photo opportunity just feels irreverent. The image you captured, without anyone in it, just the shoes, speaks volumes if you know the story and the history!
You’re right, you can also get that same feeling just standing amongst the shoes. I can’t look at that photo without thinking of the history.
p.s. You didn’t mention the stones. Jews mark the visit to the grave of a loved one by placing a small rock at the top of the headstone, fulfilling a biblical passage as interpreted by the Talmud. So the stones in those shoes were probably placed by visitors who know they lost a family member or loved on shore of the river.
You’re absolutely right, I should have mentioned it. Thank you for adding it here in the comments.
Oh my gawd, I would have been horrified to find out that I had put my foot in the shoe and smiled.
Was there any signage to tell people why there were shoes around?
Yes there was signage in several languages but I didn’t see anybody read it.
Hi Nat.
Completely on the same page with you & the others here that agree with you.
We visited Auschwitz-Birkenau this weekend which was obviously going to be an emotional, yet highly education, place to visit given it’s history.
One moment that I saw & just can’t shake is when we were walking through one of the former buildings where prisoners were held. On the walls there are rows of photos of just a fraction of the people who entered the camp & never left; numbering in the hundreds.
What shocked me more than that was seeing people standing in front of these tragic pictures, openly smiling from ear to ear posing for a photo.
Unbelievably disrespectful. It actually angers me to think about it.
It is upsetting isn’t it.
100% agree. I thought the exact same thing at memorial sites all over Europe when I was traveling. Its about respect and remembering the bad things that have happened in history, and to prevent them from ever happening again. It’s not always a photo op, right? Great post, thanks!
It definitely is not always a photo op.
I think people should do what they wish. People have been dying tragic deaths for millennia, and memorializing it is just a waste of time and money. Humans will be killing each other in disgusting ways until the species ends. Our lives are too short to worry about, or memorialize people already dead.
We’re all allowed our opinions. Mine is that the less we respect the sacrifices people made for us to enjoy the freedoms that we do; the less hope we have for things to change for the better.
Perhaps. Although this one is just a memorial for noncombatant victims that did nothing for our or anyone’s freedom.
I don’t think we’ll ever change as a species, and doubt that a memorial like this one is ever going to stop people from shooting the people they think of as inferior.
Just look at the ISIS freaks and their evil. Or any of the current evil in the name of the Christian mythology – a good example being the anti-gay laws in Africa shepherded into place by American evangelicals. Never mind black gangs in the USA who roam the streets attacking whites…
I’d much rather remember the people who were killed than the Arrow Cross, Nazis, ISIS and gangs.
I suppose. Or just forget them all. This is the first I’d heard of the killings in Budapest or the arrow people. They didn’t exist before I read the blog entry, and they don’t exist now because they’re all dead.
I feel like life is too short to worry about, or memorialize, things that happened before I was born to people I’d never have known anyway. Kind of like worrying about the 50 generations ago relative killed by …. whatever.
“Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
Remembering the fallen includes trying to recognize what still needs to be done in their memory. Remember the fallen? What would they like you to act upon? That’s the point, to me, of these memorials.
Make the world a better place. Acknowledge the horrible ways we can be and fight, always fight.
Thank you for your wonderful input.