Day 3 Continued

 We moved on to the Memorial Garden after the mass grave site. 

The garden is named after Raoul Wallenberg. It holds the Memorial of the Hungarian Jewish Martyrs, this is also known as the Holocaust Tree of Life Memorial. At least 400,000 Hungarian Jews were murdered by the Nazis. It was made by Imre Varga and resembles a weeping willow whose leaves bear the inscriptions of the names of the victims. This ensures that those who lost their lives will never be forgotten. There is also a memorial to Wallenberg and other Righteous Among the Nations. 

The Tree of Life was commissioned in 1989 and unveiled in 1991. A notable contribution to it's funding was from actor Tony Curtis, whose Hungarian Jewish parents had fled Budapest. 

So many diplomats tried to save as many as they possibly could. Carlos Sampaio Garrido, the Portuguese Ambassador who resisted the Hungarian political police who raided his home arresting his guests, and even though also arrested, managed to have his guests released by invoking the extraterritorial legal rights of diplomatic legations. The Italian Prelate Bishop and Apostolic Nuncio in Budapest issued protective passports to Jews in Budapest, also gave misrepresentations of baptism and Vatican passports to thousands of Jews in Budapest saved ten's of thousands of Hungarian Jews. So many others also gave passports to thousands. 

Around the outside of the garden against the walls are the names of all the Hungarian Jewish actors, actresses, scientists, doctors and other notable figures.

The granite plaques hidden in the trees give the names of all those who tried to save as many as they could.

This is where my camera started to act up (it was 40C most of the time we were journeying) and after this I could only take a few pictures at a time and had to turn off the phone in between so that it would cool down.

If you make the photo bigger you will see some bronze shoes by the Danube. This is just down from the Hungarian Parliament and was one of the few days the bus could travel past this memorial. 

The Hungarian branch of the Nazis (I believe it is the Red Arrow, though I could be wrong) would take Jewish people down here. The prisoners would be tied together and shot in the head. The victims would then fall into the water and be carried away. Our guide said in some cases the Nazis would only shoot the first person in line and when they fell in the water, would drag the remaining in after them still alive. It did not matter the sex or age of the victims, there are many small children's shoes in the lineup. 

This is as close as we could get to the palace. It has been undergoing repairs for a very long time.

The monument in front of the flag in the distance is the only Soviet monument still outside in Budapest. It was erected when the Soviet Union "freed" Hungary from the Nazi occupation. Mind you the Communists stayed so how "free" was the country. Now the younger generation calls this the giant bottle opener.

While so much of our day was spent reflecting on the horrors of what had happened, most of us on the excursion looked at each other and came out with the same conclusion. That was we have learned nothing as we are still persecuting people who we think are different. We can say "Never Again", but do we really mean that.

So ends our third day of excursions.

Everybody have a wonderful evening. 

God bless.