Day 5: Budapest

Day 5: Budapest

Day 5 began as we woke up in the very nice Sofitel Hotel in the Pest bank of the Danube.  Our  Budapest guide Anni took us first to the top of a Buda hill for the best overview of the city.

From there it was on to visit the Dohany Synagogue.  Why Dohany?  Because that is the street that it is on ... according to Anni the convention for most congregations in Budapest.  It is an absolutely magnificent structure that defies description here ... beautifully and ornately decorated AND the second largest synagogue in the world.  (Second to only Temple Emanuel in NY I believe).

There Anni told us the very sad story of Hungarian Jewry ... who remained mostly untouched until the last months of the war.  Because the Hungarians were German allies until the end of the war they were left alone (mostly because the Hungarian military was off fighting on the Russian front), and (for the most part) they left their Jews alone as well.

Even as the allies were occupying other parts of Hungary a ghetto was formed around the Dohany Synagogue and the Jewish of the city were rounded up and placed there.  In the meantime, Jews of the country side still under Hungarian/German control were also rounded off, placed in cattle cars and sent off to Auschwitz.  In fact, the last transports to Auschwitz were the Jews of Hungary and as we learned, any pictures you have seen of the Jewish victims in Auschwitz are of these Hungarian Jews. For some unknown reason, even as the Germans were losing the war and even as the SS was dismantling other camps and beginning to destroy evidence of what they had done, they allowed the documentation of these last transports to the death camp.

The Jewish community of the Hungarian countryside was virtually wiped out.  Thankfully, even though conditions in the Budapest ghetto were horrific and there were many, many brutal incidences and too many deaths and murder, the people of the ghetto were saved from final demise as the German's simply ran out of time and possibility to deport the residents of the ghetto.

As I said, this did not mean that there were not terrible times.  The courtyard of the sanctuary became a mass grave as there was no cemetery in  the ghetto It is now a memorial to all those who died in the ghetto.  

In a courtyard behind the Synagogue is another beautiful memorial to the Hungarian victims.  It is a silver tree that actually is an upside down menorah. The branches of the tree hold the names of the thousands of Hungarian victims.  The tree itself was funded by Tony Curtis (a Hungarian Jew) and by those who have bought leaves on the tree.

A good amount of time was spent browsing and purchasing lovely handmade Judaica, created by a (now) elderly woman, who as a youth had incredibly managed to survive a murder attempt by the Arrow Cross ... A Hungarian band of Nazi sympathizers who terrorized the city in the final months of the war.  (more on that below)

Leaving the synagogue we traveled to Andrassy Street.  Today, having achieved freedom this beautiful street has begun to regain some of it's pre-war and pre-communist era magnificence.  This street, in great measure, is why Budapest was considered the "Paris of the east".

Originally the street was built as an avenue leading from the Buda side of the city to the millennium exhibition, which was held in 1896 to celebrate the millennial birthday of the country.  

Lined by upscale stores the upper floors were often the apartments of the store owners.  And here's the little secret you won't learn on a normal tour of the city, most of the architects and residents of these apartments were Jewish!  Anni (her University studies in art and architecture) guided us through the buildings, noting the plaques in front of each building noting the date of construction and the (Jewish) architect and (Jewish)  residents.

The buildings are slowly being restored to their original beauty.  Having survived the war, these buildings did not survive communism.  As a symbol of the equality of all, the communist government painted the buildings, inside and out a dismal grey.  Moreover, glamorous apartments that had once been the residences of one family, were subdivided between several families.  Buildings that had once been the homes of 4 or 5 families became small apartments of 20-25.

Anni herself experienced this, watching the government order her family to share their apartment with 2 other families moved in from the countryside.  There was always the possibility that a member of one of these families might have been working for the secret police, and so, certain thongs were never discussed ... And in this way Anni's own Jewish identity was hidden from her, until in a burst of great pride following the 1967  war, her parents took her to the Dohany synagogue and revealed to her who she truly was.

Following our walk up and down the boulevard we returned to our lovely hotel to prepare for Shabbat.  

We were welcomed for Shabbat by Congregation Sim Shalom, a small Reform congregation.  The services were led by the Cantor as the rabbi was away with the youth group visiting London.  Following services we were joined for a "traditional Hungarian Jewish meal" at Rosenstein's restaurant by the Cantor, the Rabbis husband and two other members of the congregation.  The dinner was filled with lot's of calories and fascinating conversation with the members of Sim Shalom.  The Cantor, for instance is a charming young man who converted to Judaism.  He is now studying to be a Cantor with the "neolog" seminary in Budapest.  (Neolog is best described as Orthodox lite).  The rabbi's husband is an American physicist who was teaching at a university in Kentucky, when, on sabbatical he met his future wife when he attended services at Sim Shalom.  Another member of the congregation is a retired journalist.  It was fascinating to discuss with him what it was like to be  a journalist behind the Iron Curtain.  We were joined by another young woman who also had a fascinating story I am told ... but I didn't hear it so can't report it here.

So, you think this blog is long?  You should have experienced the day!

Totally exhausted from a looooooong day, we headed back to the hotel and to bed to catch a few hours of sleep before an early rise and visit of some more fascinating sites on Saturday.