Boráros tér, 9th District, Budapest, Hungary
The writer Zsolt Kácsor and János Schiffer, president of NÜB (National Association of Victims of Nazi persecution) initiated the idea of a memorial to the innocent people interned in Horthyliget in 1944.
The memorial consists of two metal plates facing each other and resting on their corners resembling torn-out pages of a scrapbook. On the plates the names of Jewish artists, journalists, and lawyers are inscribed in longhand who were deported in 1944 from the vicinity of Boráros Square to the outskirts of Szigetszentmiklós to do forced labor at the Horthyliget military factory.
The sculpture, created by Tamás Varga, is made of two aluminum plates, 20 mm thick each, with perforation on one side evoking scrapbook pages. The text, consisting of names, is cut into the plate covering the surface like a fabric.
The memorial was made possible thanks to the cooperation of the City of Budapest and the NÜB, with the donations by numerous supporters in the Spring of 2024 on the 80th anniversary of the Hungarian Holocaust.
The following text is inscribed on a marble plaque next to the monument:
“This marks the route taken in 1944 by the victims who, because of their Jewishness, were deported to the HORTHYLIGET internment and concentration camp on the outskirts of present-day Szigetszentmiklós. Some 700 innocent people were held there and more than 200 were murdered in death camps.
The memorial, created by the sculptor Tamás Varga, was erected by NÜB to honour the victims of HORTHYLIGET
2023″
Concept: Zsolt Kácsor, writer, journalist; and János Schiffer, president of NÜB Commissioned by: NÜB (National Association of Victims of Nazi Persecution) and the City of Budapest
Artist: Tamás Varga, sculptor, graphic artist
Architecture: László Vincze, architect and Helga László, art historian
Support structure: Géza Balázs
Construction: Paczolay Kft
Pubications:
https://www.kozterkep.hu/49173/a-horthyligetre-hurcoltak-emlekmuve
https://kilenconline.hu/emlekezet/holokauszt-emlekjelet-avattak-ferencvarosban/
https://enbudapestem.hu/2024/04/16/holokauszt-emlektablat-avattak-a-boraros-teren
Completion: 2022-2024