Churches and the Jewish Quarter

So, I've been thinking about places where I want to go in Europe. I really dislike the notion of tourism. Sure, I want to see beautiful things and great places, but I think that in the end this is empty. I am more interested in history and at the moment I have an insatiable desire to go and visit churches. One of the most wonderful things I've found in Budapest is the ruins of 13th and 14th century churches on Margaret Island, in the middle of the Danube. The island has a storied past. Initially here had been convents and monastaries, then later followed by brothels and all kinds of dirtiness. Over the years of communism it was transformed into a public park -- with all the fixings of a communist-style park: bright colored swing-sets, bus lines running throughout. Remarkably, it still has a beauty, and particularly a peace, at the sites of the different churches.

Today I was wandering around the Jewish quarter. It is beautiful and very different from Andrassy út. Instead of straight, wide, tree-lined, boulevards there is a maze of cobble-stoned winding streets. It's incredible to think that these are the streets on which history was made. In the few months between June and October 1944 nearly 400,000 Hungarian Jews were gathered up; the majority sent to Auschwitz and their subsequent murder. These streets which I now walk on that have barely changed -- these streets have witnessed brutality, utter inhumanity. As I wander around I can barely comprehend what it would have been like to be alive in those days here, and yet the memory is almost tangible.

I have a long list of things to look at in the Jewish quarter, and even if I don't take the Holocaust and Memory class I am considering I would certainly like to read some of the history. Keep an eye here for some pictures and collections of my findings in this area.