Crowds of tourists gather along a short stretch of the Pest bank of the Danube near to the Parliament building and the famous Chain Bridge – Lanchìd in Hungarian. They are attracted to this spot by the presence of a line of different kinds of lifesize footwear made of iron. These items are very close to the edge of the bank, inches away from the steep drop down to the water.

The models of footwear commemorate a dreadful tragedy. In the last year of WW2, Hungary was taken over by the Nazi Germans, and the Hungarian fascist militia, the Arrow Cross, wreaked a reign of terror on the population. 23500 people, of whom 20,000 were Jewish, were taken to the Danube, and shot at the water’s edge, their bodies tumbled into the river.

Before they were shot, the victims had to remove their footwear because shoes etc had become scarce in Hungary. The footwear of those who were massacred was stolen and then sold by the militia. The iron footwear along the Danube is a powerfully moving monument to those who were massacred at this spot. It was created in 2005 by sculptor Gyula Pauer.

The monument has become a major tourist attraction. It attracts ‘selfie’ takers and is not treated with the respect that such a memorial deserves. Although I spotted some of the shoes and boots had flowers and candles placed beside them, many of the others were filled with rubble, and even worse, with empty soft drink cans. When I saw the footwear and thought of the horrific events that took place along the riverbank, I shuddered. And I wondered how many of the camera and ‘phone toting visitors understood that the models of footwear were not merely yet another tourist attraction, but markers recording the potential of man’s ability to treat their fellow beings in such an inhuman way.