Budapest

I felt really stunned to stand before this place. I have no other way to put it. In front of me was a playground. There were kids there, swinging on swings, and parents cooing over infants. Grass was growing.

There was no reminder of the past.

That same plot of land was where they laid the bodies. We were standing in the middle of the Jewish ghetto, and I was looking at one of the mass grave sites during the Nazi occupation of Hungary. It was surreal. Underneath my foot was a stone with a Space Invader tag. The street artist chose an unnerving spot to place his work, considering his tags throughout the world have become his game, and his characters are an invented style called “Rubikcubism.” The Rubik’s cube: a 1974 game invented by a Hungarian named Rubiks.

Methodical, algorithm, solution.

Words I’ve heard in the same sentence as Hitler.

Surrounding me is the artistic, hipster, liberal oasis of Budapest, but in my mind, thoughts of poverty, displacement, and death fill me. What did it feel like when the front gate to this district had Nazis guarding the entrance? If you looked into a crowd would you easily notice all the Stars of David glowing on their coats? How many people left to get a haircut, and later were dumped at this playground, instead of returning home?

I don’t know, but I certainly wonder.