Oradea, The Orthodox Synagogues

GPS Coordinates:
47.05217 N, 21.93235 E

It was built in 1890 after the plans of Knapp Ferencz in neo-maorical style. In 1908 in the yard of this synagogue there was built a second synagogue after the plans of Incze Lajos. As the Jewish community of the city was very strong this became visible in its charity acts as well as the foundation of the first organization of the city for child protection and of a ritual canteen for the poor to mentioned only two of the many organized actiones at the ending of the XIX century and the beginning of the XX century. At the doorstep of the I W.W. the number of the Jewish of Oradea was of 15 155 representing 23.6% of the population of the city.

The Monument of Holocaust

In the summer of 1941 the office for the control of foreigners (KEOKH) ordered the collection of the Jewish having foreign nationality (Polish, Austrian, Czech). The Jewish persons who had been established in Oradea for a long time were collected with their family. Many of them were arrested and transported between inhuman conditions to Polland giving them to German authorities and executing them in Kamenec Podolsk. Mans between age of 18-45 were taken into working detachments. In time of the German ocupy of Hungary the situation of the Jewish got worth. They were obliged to wear the yellow star, their fortunes were confiscated and were founded two ghettoes from what they were transported beginning with 25 May 1944 between inhuman conditions in the lager Auschwitz-Birkenau. At the liberation date in the city of Oradea there were still 6500 Jewish persons number what includes the Jewish persons from the surrounding settlements and 1000 refugees from Bucovina as well. Now the Jewish community that some decades ago represented the third of the population being the biggest Jewish community of Transylvania doesn't exceed 600 souls. In place of those who disappeared remained only a black marble monument placed close to the orthodox synagogue ... "To remind us! Never to repeat that again!"