VIENNA – SCHONBRUNN PALACE

Opulence....opulence....opulence. Emperor Charles VI gave Schonbrunn Palace to his daughter Maria Theresa, (1717-1780), who later became the head of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, as there were no male heirs to the throne. A staff of 1,200 servants prepared the 1,400 rooms of this summer palace for the royal entourage and served while they were in residence. It was constructed to imitate the Versailles of Louis XIV, the Sun King, complete with a lavish, gold leaf Hall of Mirrors. Today Schonbrunn is continuously being restored to maintain its former glory. It is economically self-sufficient - supported by tourist fees as the most visited site in Austria and from rental fees for private apartments and businesses occupying upper palace floors. Some address!

VIENNA’S JEWISH MUSEUM

Many grand churches and cathedrals adorn present day Vienna. They dominate the skyline and its open cobblestone squares. New excavations of Judenplatz have uncovered the foundations and some artifacts from a medieval synagogue from the 13th and 14th centuries. These archaeological findings are on display in the basement of a sparkling new Jewish center for Vienna. In the square adjacent to the museum entrance and Holocaust memorial stood a large sukkah - a temporary structure with holiday decorations and picnic tables for eating outdoors during the traditional Jewish harvest festival of sukkot.

BRATISLAVA, SLOVAKIA

Bratislava suffered greatly under communist rule in post World War II years until the Velvet Revolution of 1989 with the fall of the communist regime. The city displays relics of the sterile, poor quality concrete block architecture built by the Soviets. Now freed of communist domination, Slovakia is an independent nation peacefully separated from the Czech Republic. Bratislava, the capital, has blossomed with a free market economy so that its new, very busy shopping mall on the banks of the Danube River resembles that of any successful American city.

SEMMELWEIS - A DOCTOR BEFORE HIS TIME

The Semmelweis home in Budapest is now a museum of medical history - including early surgical instruments such as bone saws, curettes, birth stools, foot operated dental drills, etc. Semmelweis, a 19th century Hungarian doctor, connected puerperal sepsis (septicemia following childbirth) to the fact that physicians went from the autopsy rooms to the birthing rooms without washing their hands. When he implemented stringent handwashing, the incidence of the usually-fatal illness was lowered from 30% of births to as low as 1%. Unfortunately, his findings were ignored by the medical community until Louis Pasteur developed the germ theory of disease.

Today Semmelweis is honored by a University which bears his name.

THE HOUSE OF TERROR

The House of Terror is no amusement park; it is a museum recalling totalitarian rule in Budapest. The building was originally used to direct the oppression of the populace by the Hungarian fascists who collaborated with the Nazis and then by the Nazis directly. Without skipping a beat, when the Soviets took over, they used the same facility - terrifying and controlling by spying, torturing, murdering, and deportations to the Gulag. These years of the 20th century saw totalitarianism dominate much of Europe. The experience is made very personal as local victims give poignant personal testimony in video clips with English sub-titles. It wasn't until the 1980's that individual liberties returned as Soviet troops withdrew and the Berlin Wall fell in 1989. Hungarians give honor to Ronald Reagan for his steadfast resolve leading to the end of terror in their lives. How fortunate we are to be Americans!

Photos
1. Wall of photos of faces of victims
2. Ronald Reagan statue near American Embassy
3. Files on individual citizens under surveillance
4. Video of Nazi occupation

After bearing witness to the terror and atrocities of these totalitarian regimes - the Nazis and the Soviet Communists - we participated in kabbalat services at the Great Synagogue of Budapest.

SUKKOT IN BUDAPEST

Jews first settled in Hungary in the 13th century. In the 19th century, a new wave of immigrants arrived from the Pale of Settlement. One of the synagogues built at this time and still standing could seat up to 3,000. The community thrived until 1941 when anti-semitic laws were promulgated by the Hungarian government. Only in 1944, when the Germans took charge were most of the Budapest Jews deported and then annihilated. Several thousand Jews now live in Budapest re-establishing the community -- supporting a synagogue that had a poster for its High Holy Day schedule, a Talmud Torah (school)for its children and kosher markets.

While walking in the Jewish quarter this morning, we were invited for lunch in the Chabad sukkah along with 30-40 others celebrating this festive holiday. The Semmelweis Medical School in Budapest accepts foreign students -- classes are taught in Hungarian, German, and English -- so today Jewish medical students from Israel and Spain gathered with us in the sukkah.

Later in the day, we took the tram across Liberty Bridge to the site of the former Swedish Embassy. Here, a plaque commemorated Raoul Wallenberg who saved tens of thousands from the Nazi death camps.

BUDAPEST, HUNGARY

In Pest, we are overlooking riverboats plying the Danube with the hillside of Buda on the opposite shore. A short way upstream is the Chain Bridge built by the British in the 19th century.

The National Hungarian Museum featured a historical survey from medieval to current times. Interestingly, Hungary was portrayed as an unwilling ally of Austria and Germany in World War I and of Germany in World War II. Hungary certainly lost much in both conflicts. They did break with Austria and Germany in WW I and the Nazis in W W II, but on both occasions it was towards the end of each conflict after the tide had clearly turned in favor of the Allies. How much choice they had is unclear; they followed the strong horse.

Tonight we will go to a chamber music concert in St. Michael's church - Bach, Vivaldi, Mozart, Liszt...

(a very nice Hungarian-born gentleman, one of those who fled the Communists in 1956, and now from Princeton NJ, gave Jane a seat on the tram and chatted her up. I was several feet away and thought he was trying to make a positive impression......)

PHOTOS 1. Parliament building
2. Ethnographic Museum
3. Vaci Utca, pedestrian shopping area
4. Park
5. Chain Bridge, view from our room