Jewish cenotaph

one of the nice things about having guests is you get to see things that as a resident you never have seen before.

Or rather, passed over, and gone past every day without looking.


I am not Jewish, but there is a large synagogue near me iin XV distr4ict of Budapest. and there is a park, and in the park, there is a black marble cenotaph says simply ""Memorio" with engrraving of, I imagine, Huzngarian Jews being taken away during WW2. It says "1942-1945".

As far as I can tell no sculptor has signed for it. So  gues it is kinda like the unknwn soldier,

May that never happen again. We can laugh and joke and argue but may that never happen again, whatever religion you have, doesnt mean you can kill other people.

It is a beautiful, simple, I would call it a cenotaph just a simple welll pyramidical thing. I know there are tthe brass boots by the river, but people seem to forget that a million Hungarians were deported in WW2 for being Jewish.

LEST WE FORGET.

let alone how many Roma/Cigany were deported for having the wrong colour of skin.

What an idiot that man was. Even his book, Mein Kampf, is a hard read in English or German. Still banned in Hungarry, which is a  biit silly. I have got it from the public library in England and I can tell you it is extremely boringm and what is a bit worrying, usually marked up in green pencil or fluourescent marker, the bits that are racist,.. Let us not make the same mistake twice. Let's make new mistakes.

Even the professional English translator in the English version apologises not for his translation as such but that it is impossible to translate A. H.-'s rant properly into English. H. said I think "The mass of the people will falll better for a  big lie than a small one". Don't let it happen again.

If you have a vote on Sunday, please use it. It DOES matter. ****

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Met a friend of one of my relations in Poland at our family reunion. This US cousin knows tons about our family history and supports his travel habit by doing research for people.
The friend was a Gay man from the UK who also happened to be Ruysn as well as a Gypsy.
This couple had me laughing all night long with their funny stories of London in the 1970's.
Anyways his Rusyn/Gypsy mother just barely escaped the murder of her entire neighborhood in Poland when she was pregnant with him.
Somehow she managed to get to the UK before he was born.
He was trying to find his families land that was stolen by the Nazi's as they tore into our Ruysn lands.
Sad stuff for sure but at least this guy had a cray sense of humor, dang he was funny as all get out.

yes welll mosdt of them went to what is now Poland, was of course part of Germany at that time.- November 11 is when we have our remembrance day and for many years I did the boxes for the Britsish Royal British Legion, collecting pennies and pounds to say thankj you for your service,. In Hungary I am not on a position to do that, er maybe I am actually, but can12t stand at the Cenotaph saying Lesdt wE FORGET. But we must never fortget,. Let'smake new mistakes, not old ones. ANd mistakes that dont get people killed.

So klets try not to do that any more shall we? lets be idiots but peaceful idiots,. Not hard to try is it?

er I was born in London in 1972...... that is when we had three channels on telly.-...

Actually I was born in Welwyn Garden City which is just a bit north of London but all my family from London. I haave Welwyn Gardem City on my passport which is a right bugger for stocking in Hungarian becuse of the two "W"s adnd the y etcv so i have to say not VELViN, No NOT VOLVO? HANEM WELWYN. OK GIve mE A BIRO. A STICK PENCIL? a PEN,  I BIRO,. LOOk YOU INVENTED IT. HOW HARD Can IT BE. LASZLO AnD MIKILOS.... YOU INVENted the  bLOODy THING......

|Let'smake new mistakes, not old ones. ANd mistakes that dont get people killed. "

I dare you to move to a village with a large gipsy population. In no time you'll want to repeat "mistakes" from the past!  :lol:

atomheart wrote:

|
I dare you to move to a village with a large gipsy population.


I moved to a village with a large Hungarian population. And that had its own set of challenges and unnecessarily unpleasant interactions. ;)

Basically, nothing is insurmountable if you do you research (don't go in wide eyed and ignorant), keep your eyes and ears open, your wits active, and be aware of "behavior" and "limitation" the surrounding population may exhibit. No matter the ethnic makeup of that population. Because we are expats. We are outsiders. Be aware of that fact. :)

One issue though about having many jobless people living in a village where you live is that if you leave your property unwatched, there may not be anything left when you return home.
In a low income village even your copper pipes are worth a days wage to someone.
That's one reason we decided to buy a flat and not a house, easier to get someone to keep an eye on a flat then a house.

I try hard to not really think too much about all the horrors that went on and are still going on worldwide.
Like I told a blackjack player once when he told me ,"You don't really care if we win or lose" I said, if I cared, I'd never stop crying, what's the point?
Hard hearted, no but self protection is a good thing too.
People have been ganging up, killing, murdering and stealing lands from others since way before I arrived on the planet.
Don't see anything changing much for the better lately.
All one can do is try their best to be fair with others and try to do no harm.
Even then, someone is going to take offence , someone always does.

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

All one can do is try their best to be fair with others and try to do no harm.
Even then, someone is going to take offence , someone always does.


Sad. And only sad because it is true.... :(

klsallee wrote:
Marilyn Tassy wrote:

All one can do is try their best to be fair with others and try to do no harm.
Even then, someone is going to take offence , someone always does.


Sad. And only sad because it is true.... :(


Amen to that!!

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/ … -ben-adhem

I dont know what I am, I am not a Christian or a Jew r a Muslim or a really anything.... I am just a Simon. Jut help old ladies on or off the bus sometimes, help a blind man cross the street or a deaf man to try to say something he can't hear. I don't speak or sign Hungarian Sign Language only British Sign Language but we somehow manage to get along together with a bit of luck. I don't think anything I said was racist as such, and half my family is gypsy so I think the earlier comment about "living in a village full of gipsies" is extremely racist butt hat doesn't seem to have been "moderated",

try rto live in peace with each other can we?

"I dont know what I am, I am not a Christian or a Jew r a Muslim or a really anything.... I am just a Simon."

" and half my family is gypsy"

FYI, 90% of the population in this country will deem you a gypsy.

If you think my earlier comment was racist, then I dare you to live in those circumstances, as an honest person, who works and earns his living.

i went to a very beautifl church today, it is at Bosynak tér. I have gone past it for years and admired the architecture from outside, it is kinda new built, sixties I imagine, but in sort of more a Perpendicular style, it is very modern or modernist but traditional or rather with a nod to tradition.

It is such a beautiful building but I always seem to catch at the wrong tuime and today jusdt by chance my wife and I caight it when there were just three parishoiners, one deaf which I did nopt realise but she helped us to put a little to the Church. Not for Christianity but buildings do not come for free, Inside it is beautifully naturally lit, it is a masdterpiece really. I would not of course go there in a service etc that would be sacreligious I think or offensive to the Congregation  but it is an absolutely wonderful bui8lding.

Then only shame really is it  doesnt have a bell tower, it has a huge illuminated clock from four directions a bit like big ben you can set your watch from that but no belfry or bell tower. But then ringing church bells is a very peculiarly English custom so I shouldn't expect that

it is one of the delights of Budapest that are not on the picture postcards. Yet I can never pass it without it makin me just gasp in wonder, it is such a gorgeous building. Inside they have proper pews not silly seating like in English churches so someone on an architecture programme can cut it in half to make a bit of furniture for some posh person.

It is beautiful. I very much urge you to spend a few minutes to see it if you ever have the chance.