A Tour of Tears

Tree of Life
Ghetto wall

Inside synagogue

We went on the tour of the Dohány Synagogue. It is the 2nd largest synagogue in the world (behind New York) and seats 3000. Everything in it has meaning: the chandelier design, the window design, etc. It was built in 1859 and is very beautiful. The Jews in Budapest were given freedom of religion in 1251 so many from all over Europe flocked here and there was a very large and vibrant community. Things went along pretty well until 1941 when Hungary joined the Axis and anti-Semitic laws were passed. In 1944 Adolf Eichmann came to Budapest to implement the “Final Solution” and many Jews were transported to Auschwitz. The remaining Jews were forced into a ghetto surrounding the synagogue. The streets were walled off and they were crowded into small apartments and given not enough food to survive. Thousands died every day. As it turns out, our apartment was within the ghetto. Imagine 30-40 people living in our apartment. The ghetto was liberated on Jan. 18, 1945 by the Soviets.

Behind the synagogue is The Tree of Life, a Holocaust memorial. Names of Hungarian Jews who died are engraved on leaves and attached to the branches of the tree. Over dinner we were talking about how the world has promised that never again would we allow something like this to happen to a people, that we would never forget. Yet our memories seem to be extremely short: we allowed the Soviets to run over and slaughter much of Eastern Europe; we allowed the Chinese to slaughter the people of Tibet; we allowed the slaughter on all sides in Bosnia; we allowed the various slaughters that have raged across Africa. In all these cases we have stood back and said “it’s not our business”.