This may be the smallest, most understated Holocaust memorial anywhere in the world. It is nothing more than about 60 pairs of real shoes, perhaps "iron-ed" and then welded to the bank of the Danube in Budapest, only a few steps from their beautiful Parliament building. Constructed just 6 years ago, it commemorates a fateful night in January, 1945, when dozens of Jews, whom Raoul Wallenberg had been attempting to hide/save, were rounded up and brought to the banks of the river. Perhaps unwilling to dig a mass grave in the frozen earth, the Nazi sympathizers simply lined them all up and shot them, allowing the bodies to drop into the Danube and be carried off. There are all kinds of shoes, including those of small children. While there is a small plaque nearby, there are no other words, sounds, or markers. The shoes simply speak for themselves.
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