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.
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.
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.
Photos of communist Budapest
The siege of Budapest in 1944-45
World Dog Show 2013 Hungary
May 16-19. Hungexpo. Website here.
Beautiful Budapest – time lapse photography
How the Japanese Minoru Koide saw Budapest last year.. Video was made using almost 5000 photos 🙂
Old Budapest
We are crazy about the pre-WW2 Budapest. No wonder, almost 70% of it was destroyed between 1944-45. So come back often for more videos.
Before WW2…
In this one we see a dangerous checking of the Chain bridge in Budapest, with the Royal Palace in the background. May 1914.
And after WW2…
The reconstruction of the Chain bridge. November 1948.
The reconstruction of the Chain bridge. March 1949. See the famous lions get back to life 🙂
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.
Photo exhibition in the Budapest History Museum 12 April – 13 May 2012
The exhibited photos were actually taken by Carl Lutz in Budapest between 1942–1945.
His office in Budapest was on the Szabadság (Liberty) square in the building of the American embassy near the Parliament house in Pest and he lived in the house of the British embassy on Werbőczi (today Mihály Táncsics) street in the castle of Buda.
He was a passionate amateur photographer, through his photos we can see Budapest in 1944 as a city far away from the war front and then Budapest during the siege, finally the results of the catastrophic destruction of the war.
The last photo of the exhibition was taken in 1949 when Carl Lutz returned to Budapest after his 1945 expulsion from Hungary, to marry Magda Csányi.
One of the photos:
Budapest castle district after the siege in 1945.
The poster of the exhibition:
More information here: Budapest History Museum