In Sighetu Marmaţiei (German: Sighet or Marmaroschsiget, Hungarian: Máramarossziget) a museum in honour of Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Price Laureate Elie Wiesel opened in 2002 in his birthplace.
Sighetu Marmaţiei is situated in the Tisa valley at the foot of the Carpathian Mountains. In the beginning of the 20th century the area belonged to the Hungarian part of the Habsburg empire. The first Jews came to Sighetu Marmaţiei in the 18th century. Towards the end of the 19th century a network of institutions and organisations regulated the everyday life of the Jewish community. It was largely orthodox, their degree of assimilation remained low. After World War I Sighetu Marmaţiei was ceded to Romania in the Paris Peace Conference and was situated right on the border of the newly formed state of Czechoslovakia. In 1940 the area was reverted to Hungary. At that moment the Jewish population numbered approximately 10,000 people, about a third of the overall population. Yiddish was the first language for most of them but Hungarian was also widely spoken.
In summer 1941, shortly after the attack on the Soviet Union, the Hungarian authorities deported tens of thousands of Jews with »doubtful citizenship« to the occupied Ukraine, including many Jews from Sighetu Marmaţiei. The majority was shot a few weeks later by the SS, most notably in Kamianets-Podilskyi. Only one sole survivor returned to Sighetu Marmaţiei. In 1941 to 1942 the Hungary army sent hundreds of Jewish men from Sighetu Marmaţiei to the eastern front as so-called Labour Service men. Few survived the hunger and cold.
Few weeks after the German Wehrmacht invaded allied Hungary in March 1944, the authorities established two ghettos in Sighetu Marmaţiei. In May 1944 the SS and the Hungarian authorities deported all Jews from the city and surrounding area to Auschwitz-Birkenau.
In summer 1941, shortly after the attack on the Soviet Union, the Hungarian authorities deported tens of thousands of Jews with »doubtful citizenship« to the occupied Ukraine, including many Jews from Sighetu Marmaţiei. The majority was shot a few weeks later by the SS, most notably in Kamianets-Podilskyi. Only one sole survivor returned to Sighetu Marmaţiei. In 1941 to 1942 the Hungary army sent hundreds of Jewish men from Sighetu Marmaţiei to the eastern front as so-called Labour Service men. Few survived the hunger and cold.
Few weeks after the German Wehrmacht invaded allied Hungary in March 1944, the authorities established two ghettos in Sighetu Marmaţiei. In May 1944 the SS and the Hungarian authorities deported all Jews from the city and surrounding area to Auschwitz-Birkenau.
The SS and the Hungarian authorities deported 12,759 Jews from Sighetu Marmaţiei and surroundings to Auschwitz-Birkenau in four transports altogether. This number increased after more Jews were detected in hide-outs. The vast majority of the deported were murdered by poison gas on their arrival. The exact number of those who were assigned to work like Elie Wiesel in Auschwitz-Birkenau and who survived imprisonment in German concentration camps is not known.
The Elie Wiesel Memorial House in the old town of Sighetu Marmaţiei was opened on July 29, 2002. It remembers Jewish life in Sighetu Marmaţiei and the victims of the 1944 deportations. The future Nobel Peace Price Laureate spent the first 15 years of his life in this house. He has lived in the United States since 1955 and gained fame with his autobiographical novel »Night«, where he describes his deportation to Auschwitz and his survival. As a political activist he took a decades long stand for the remembrance of the Holocaust but also fought xenophobia all around the world. Since the 1990s he played a vital role in reappraising Romania's role during Holocaust and chaired the committee that was initiated for this reason in 2003 and which is named after him. He died on July 2, 2016 in New York City.
The once vibrant Jewish life of Sighetu Marmaţiei is remembered by the sole surviving synagogue, the Jewish cemetery and by a Holocaust memorial erected during the communist dictatorship.
The once vibrant Jewish life of Sighetu Marmaţiei is remembered by the sole surviving synagogue, the Jewish cemetery and by a Holocaust memorial erected during the communist dictatorship.
- Name
- Casa Memoriala Elie Wiesel
- Address
-
Str. T. Vladimirescu nr. 1
435500 Sighetu Marmației - Phone
- +40 (0)262 311 521
- Fax
- +40 (0)262 311 521
- Web
- http://muzeulmaramuresului.ro
- contact@muzeulmaramuresului.ro
- Open
- From April 15 to October 15 open Tuesday to Sunday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.,
from October 15 to April 15 open Tuesday to Sunday 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
closed on Mondays