• Cemetery for the Victims of the Massacre in Sărmaşu
A tomb group and a monument not far from Sărmaşu (Hungarian: Nagysármás), Transylvania, commemorate the approximately 126 murdered Jews of Sărmaşu. In September 1944, Hungarian units occupied Sărmaşu and killed all of the town's Jews on a nearby hill soon after.
Image: Sărmaşu, undated, The village synagogue, Yad Vashem
Sărmaşu, undated, The village synagogue, Yad Vashem

Image: Sărmaşu, 2006, Monument to the victims of the massacre, Stiftung Denkmal, Roland Ibold
Sărmaşu, 2006, Monument to the victims of the massacre, Stiftung Denkmal, Roland Ibold
The small township of Sărmaşu (Hungarian: Nagysármás, sometimes also Sármás) is situated in the historical region of Transylvania, which was Hungarian before the First World War and subsequently became part of Romania. At the end of the 1930s, Hungary increasingly raised a claim to the region. Pressure exerted by Germany and Italy led to a partition of Transylvania in 1940, after which the northern part came under Hungarian sovereignty. From the summer of 1941 on, Hungary and Romania fought alongside Germany against the Soviet Union. In August 1944, after Romania changed fronts forming an alliance with the Soviet Union, Hungarian troops moved into parts of Southern Transylvania, including Sărmaşu, which they took on September 5, 1944. Before the war, Sărmaşu had a population of 4,000 - about half were ethnic Hungarians. Sărmaşu was also home to somewhere between 120 and 200 Jews. Although many of the Jews living in Sărmaşu considered themselves Hungarians, Hungarian troops, particularly the constabulary, began enforcing anti-Jewish measures. On September 11, 1944, all the Jews - approximately 126 - had to move to a house and a barn which they were not permitted to leave. Hungarians looted houses owned by Jews and Romanians they had arrested. A few days later, in the afternoon of September 16, 1944, all Jews were loaded onto oxcarts and brought to a nearby hill. Two mass graves had already been dug by Jewish prisoners. In the course of the night, Hungarian units murdered all of the men, women and children. The mass killing stretched over several hours as many of the victims weren't shot, but slain with shovels and rifle butts and thrown into the graves.
Image: Sărmaşu, undated, The village synagogue, Yad Vashem
Sărmaşu, undated, The village synagogue, Yad Vashem

Image: Sărmaşu, 2006, Monument to the victims of the massacre, Stiftung Denkmal, Roland Ibold
Sărmaşu, 2006, Monument to the victims of the massacre, Stiftung Denkmal, Roland Ibold
Hungarian units murdered about 126 Jews in Sărmaşu; over half of the victims were women. There were many children, youths and elderly people among those murdered.
Image: Sărmaşu, 1945, Exhumation of the victims, Yad Vashem
Sărmaşu, 1945, Exhumation of the victims, Yad Vashem

Image: Sărmaşu, 2006, Cemetery for the victims of the massacre, Stiftung Denkmal, Roland Ibold
Sărmaşu, 2006, Cemetery for the victims of the massacre, Stiftung Denkmal, Roland Ibold
At the beginning of October 1944, the Red Army reached Sărmaşu. In February 1945, the leader of the Jewish community of Romania, Wilhelm Fildermann, initiated an investigation of the mass killing in Sărmaşu. The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, a worldwide Jewish relief organisation, supported the investigative commission chaired by Matatias Carp. On February 21, 1945, 126 bodies were exhumed near Sărmaşu in the presence of the commission. Close examination of the bodies revealed that many of the victims had died of wounds inflicted upon them with blunt objects or bayonets. The victims' remains were laid to rest at the foot of the hill and soon after, tombstones and a monument bearing a memorial plaque to the victims were erected.
Image: Sărmaşu, 2006, Gravestones at the cemetery, Stiftung Denkmal, Roland Ibold
Sărmaşu, 2006, Gravestones at the cemetery, Stiftung Denkmal, Roland Ibold

Image: Sărmaşu, 2006, The tomb group in the hilly landscape around Sărmaşu, Stiftung Denkmal, Roland Ibold
Sărmaşu, 2006, The tomb group in the hilly landscape around Sărmaşu, Stiftung Denkmal, Roland Ibold
Name
Cimitirul Victimelor Pogromului din Sărmaşu
Open
The cemetery is accessible at all times.