“Make sure you see Shoes on the Danube,” that’s what my sister told me when I asked what she recommended from her own visit to Budapest. “Shoes on the Danube” is an art installation memorializing people who were executed by the Arrow Cross Militiamen (Hungarian Nazis) in Budapest along the Danube River in 1944-45. During this time, the Arrow Cross Militia rounded up 23,500 people, 20,000 of whom were Jewish. Those to be executed were marched to the edge of the Danube, so that when they were shot, their bodies would fall into the river and be carried away.
But first. First, they were told to take off their shoes. Why? Because in a time of war and scarcity, those shoes were highly valuable. Imagine that. The shoes were more valuable than the human beings who wore them.
It’s a lie that we humans tell over and over — throughout history. Even now. This one or that one is less than human and then we use words to create a story that is much different than what God has taught us — all human beings are created in God’s image. The trumped-up story tells us that we can treat the “less-than-human” humans in ways that we know are wrong in order to get what we want. Getting what we want is more valuable than whom we hurt or kill to get it.
Imagine believing a story that told you that a pair of shoes is more valuable than a human life. In these days, keep your ears full of the words of Jesus: “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did it to me.” (Mt. 25:40)
+BJST