Obj. ID: 33331
Memorials Holocaust memorial in Sopron, Hungary, 2004
Who is Commemorated?
More than 1,600 Jews deported from Sopron to Auschwitz
Description
The monument is situated on an elongated triangular space in a park across from the former Orthodox synagogue, designed by architect János Schiller (1859–1907)and built in 1990-91. Since the monument was dedicated, a parking lot has been inserted in the park around the space of the monument. As of 2022, it is now surrounded by parked cars.
The sculpture consists of a tall concrete slab set on a concrete base, on which the sculpture has signed his name. The vertical slab represents a wall of a dressing room of the Brikenau gas chamber. On this are “hung” bronze replicas of four jackets with yellow stars attached, awaiting owners who will not return. Each jacket hangs below an oval plaque with a number: 610, 611, 612, 613. The culmination with the number 613 seems to be a reference to the number of Torah commandments.
Below, on the “floor” are piled bronze replicas of shoes, eyeglasses, and children's toys. Above the hanging clothes bronze letters spell out in Hebrew the Shema prayer, and over this, two more versions of the letters of the prayer rise and separate as they reach the top edge of the vertical “wall” slab, and some letters even extend upward beyond the edge. The repeating Hebrew words of the Shema ascend like flames (or souls). The Shema prayer is also inscribed on the base in Hebrew, Hungarian, and a transliteration.
A low metal fence surrounds the monument. This is fashioned in metal Hebrew letters that spell the prayer/exhortation "May the memory of the righteous be blessed.”
Inscriptions
On the front side of the base:
שמע ישראל יהוה אלהינו יהוה אחד
In the upper part of the front side:
שמע ישראל יהוה אלהינו יהוה אחד
610, 611, 612, 613
On the right side of the base:
Halljad, Izrael,
Örök Istenünk, az Örökkévalo egvetlen!
On the left side of the base:
Sma Jiszrael
Adonaj Elohénu Adonaj echad
On the back side of the monument:
A 60 éve elhurcolt 1860 soproni zsidó polgár emlékére
Állíttatta
A kultúrális örökség minisztériuma
Dr. Hiller István Miniszter
és
Sopron megyeijigú város önkormányzata
Walter Dezsö Polgármester
2004 július 4.
"Áldott legyen az igazak emleke"
זכר צדיק לברכה
On the fence, in Hebrew:
זכר צדיק לברכה
Translation: May the memory of the righteous be blessed
Commissioned by
Municipality of Sopron
Jewish Community of Sopron
sub-set tree: 
T | Toy (doll)
M | Magen David
P | Prayer | Shema, reading of
O | Ornamentation: | Letter
|
On the back side of the base:
Kutas 2004
There were 1,860 Jews living in Sopron in 1941 (about 4.4 percent of the total population). There was restrictive legislation, but open persecution of Jews increased greatly after March 1994 when the German Wehrmacht occupied the town. Jewish property was expropriated, the Jewish Community was dissolved, and a Judenrat installed to implement German policies. By May 1944, several ghettos were established in Sopron. On June 29, Hungarian police moved all Jews to an industrial area on the town’s edge from where they were deported on June 5, 1944, with Jews from surrounding areas to Auschwitz-Birkenau where they were murdered.
The monument, dedicated in 2004, represents a piece of the undressing room of the gas chambers at Auschwitz and symbolizes much more.
Samuel Gruber writes:
“Kutas was one of the first artists of memorials to cast bronze sculpture from real objects to evoke things left behind as Jews were deported and murdered. In this case, Kutas casts from real clothes to suggest the garments left by victims in the "showers" of Auschwitz. Four jackets with yellow stars are hung on hooks awaiting owners who will not return. A pile of shoes and broken children’s dolls lies beneath them. The dolls, some with the heads removed, are meant to be just that – dolls left behind – but more fully are surrogates for the murdered children.”
"Budapest-Sopron Retúr – Beszélgetés Kutas László Szobrászművésszel Életről, Értékről, Éremről," Evangelikus.hu, https://archiv.evangelikus.hu/interju/budapest-sopron-retur-2013-beszelgetes-kutas-laszlo-szobraszmuvesszel-eletrol-ertekrol-eremrol/?searchterm=None (accessed December 4, 2022)
Gruber, Samuel D., “Hungary: Sopron's Holocaust Monument and Memorial Plaques,” Samuel Gruber’s Jewish Art & Monuments, July 16, 2022., https://samgrubersjewishartmonuments.blogspot.com/2022/07/sopron-hungary.html (accessed August 26, 2022)
"Holokauszt-emlékmű," Public Map of Monuments, https://www.kozterkep.hu/7409/holokauszt-emlekmu (accessed August 24, 2022)