This is the poignant "Shoes on the Danube Bank" memorial in Budapest, Hungary. This is to honor those the thousands killed here, along the banks of the Danube, by the Arrow Cross, the indigenous Nazi party of Hungary. The killings took place mostly in December 1944 and January 1945. Those killed were predominantly, but by no means exclusively, Hungarian Jews.
Why shoes? Those who were being executed were ordered to remove their shoes before they were shot. The bodies would fall into the river and be carried away by the current. The shoes here are correctly-sized, 1940s-style shoes cast in iron.
This is located on the Pest-side bank of the Danube River in Central Budapest. I visited here in May 2010.
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