Today is the 77th anniversary of the liberation of the Budapest ghetto

The United Hungarian Jewish Community (EMIH) on Monday held a commemoration at the The Shoes on the Danube Bank Holocaust memorial on the occasion of the 77th anniversary of the liberation of the Budapest ghetto.

Slomó Köves, EMIH’s chief rabbi, said they were commemorating the hundreds of thousands of Hungarian victims who died during the Holocaust “for what they were, not for what they did”.

He said remembrance must be turned into action. Jewish teaching, he added, held that accepting love without rationalising it was the surest way to vanquish meaningless, unreasonable hatred.

Oberlander Baruch, head of the Orthodox Rabbinate of Budapest, recalled that his father — who had survived the period of deportations in Budapest thanks to hiding and fake papers — was then forced to watch as Jewish children, women and men were shot into the Danube. Though he had escaped, this terrible memory stayed with him for the rest of his life, he said.

At the www.emlekezes77.hu website, videos of interviews with Holocaust survivors and their rescuers can be watched every hour for 77 hours.