Echoes of a dreadful time.

In 1941, about 246,000 Jews lived in Budapest. At the beginning of the war Hungary sided with Germany and, consequently, was not occupied by the Nazis until March 1944. Nevertheless, nearly fifty percent of Budapest's Jewish population were to die during the Holocaust, murdered either by the Germans or by the Hungarian Arrow Cross fascist organisation.

There are many fine artistic memorials to the murdered Jews in the old Jewish quarter but for me the abandoned Synagogue on Rumbach Street, still littered with the remains of its fine furnishings, provides the most moving memorial of all.

The Rumbach Street synagogue was designed by Otto Wagner, the creator of architectural modernism. It was built between 1868 and 1872. The building is said to be the most stunning example of arabesque synagogues around the world.