Image via Budapest Beacon
In Budapest, Hungary, a living memorial is being erected and enacted daily by a group of citizens to counter a more traditional monument that was recently added to the city. The Budapest Beacon describes this living memorial as an act of protest, as people gather across from a new stone and bronze monument dedicated to victims of the German invasion in 1944. Expressing concerns about how the new monument fails to represent Hungary’s responsibility in the Holocaust, the living memorial is also an act of remembrance for citizens who wish to recognize the 70th anniversary of the Holocaust. By virtue of its focus on collective memory and dialogue about remembrance, the living memorial is an exciting alternate monument to what was erected by the state.