The shoes of the disappeared in the snow

The shoe monument on the side of the river near the Parliament building is one of the most eloquent and beautifully simple statements of loss and rememberance to those who were murdered by the previous regimes who ruled Hungary through fear.

On Sunday, as we walked along the riverbank in the sun, we saw the memorial, covered in snow and surounded by the footprints of other visitors - the contrast between the movement of the living and the shoes of those who had disappeared just served to emphasis the impact and sense of abandonment.