The Old Synagogue

Friday I visited the old Dohany Street Synagogue. Built in 1851 (according to my guide, 1854 in other sources) and eventually reconstructed 1991-1997 the synagogue holds 3000 people during the high holidays (and usually up to 6000 can be present). During WWII there were over 800,000 Jews living in Hungary, after the war 600,000 of them had been killed, I write this to you matter-of-factly and hope it reaches you on a deeper level as I am always in awe of how easy it is to be dismissive of the great human tragedies. In the temple there was a mass grave of over 300 bodies covered with a small spattering of marked headstones. The reason the synagogue still stands today goes back to the story of when the gestapo set up their headquarters in the second balcony tier during the war, because of this strange occupation, the Germans never bombed the building and because the Jews also occupied the building the Allied forces did not bomb it either....It is so hard to comprehend the massive nature of annihilation that took place during the second world war (any war for that matter). It is hard to understand why we still do these things to eachother, why genocide is still tolerated in the world and why we continue hold onto prejudice against another human being, when all we really have is eachother. There is not much more I am able to say about this, as words do not do the moments I experienced justice.