The Garden of Remembrance

In today’s Times Union, Harry Rosenfeld writes about a trip he took to Europe last month:

In Budapest, we visited the Great Synagogue, which is the second largest in the world (exceeded by New York City's Temple Emanuel) and reflects the rich traditions of a once-thriving Hungarian Jewish Community. The Germans used it as a stable.

As the tour was concluding, our guide took us to the Garden of Remembrance behind the temple. There was a Tree of Life sculpture on whose leaves were engraved names of the some of hundreds of thousands of murdered Jews.

Adjacent to the sculpture were two steles with names emblazoned in gold and a stone placed into the ground honoring righteous gentiles who at the risk of their lives acted to save Jews.

Our guide walked over to one of the steles and pointed to the fourth name on it and said, "that is the name of my father, my Catholic father."

This is an interesting column, which you can read here.