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The Kolozsvár Ghetto was one of the lesser-known
Jew Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""T ...
ish
ghetto A ghetto, often called ''the'' ghetto, is a part of a city in which members of a minority group live, especially as a result of political, social, legal, environmental or economic pressure. Ghettos are often known for being more impoverished ...
s of the
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
era. The ghetto was located in the city of
Kolozsvár ; hu, kincses város) , official_name=Cluj-Napoca , native_name= , image_skyline= , subdivision_type1 = County , subdivision_name1 = Cluj County , subdivision_type2 = Status , subdivision_name2 = County seat , settlement_type = City , l ...
, then
Kingdom of Hungary The Kingdom of Hungary was a monarchy in Central Europe that existed for nearly a millennium, from the Middle Ages into the 20th century. The Principality of Hungary emerged as a Christian kingdom upon the coronation of the first king Stephe ...
(now
Cluj-Napoca ; hu, kincses város) , official_name=Cluj-Napoca , native_name= , image_skyline= , subdivision_type1 = County , subdivision_name1 = Cluj County , subdivision_type2 = Status , subdivision_name2 = County seat , settlement_type = City , ...
,
Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, a ...
). Between the signing of the
Treaty of Trianon The Treaty of Trianon (french: Traité de Trianon, hu, Trianoni békeszerződés, it, Trattato del Trianon) was prepared at the Paris Peace Conference and was signed in the Grand Trianon château in Versailles on 4 June 1920. It formal ...
in 1920 and the
Second Vienna Award The Second Vienna Award, also known as the Vienna Diktat, was the second of two territorial disputes that were arbitrated by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. On 30 August 1940, they assigned the territory of Northern Transylvania, including all o ...
in 1940, Cluj was a part of
Greater Romania The term Greater Romania ( ro, România Mare) usually refers to the borders of the Kingdom of Romania in the interwar period, achieved after the Great Union. It also refers to a pan-nationalist idea. As a concept, its main goal is the creatio ...
.


History

Hungarian Prime Minister
Miklós Kállay Dr. Miklós Kállay de Nagykálló (23 January 1887, in Nyíregyháza – 14 January 1967, in New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 ...
, who had been in office from 1942, had the knowledge and the approval of Hungarian Regent
Miklós Horthy Miklós Horthy de Nagybánya ( hu, Vitéz nagybányai Horthy Miklós; ; English: Nicholas Horthy; german: Nikolaus Horthy Ritter von Nagybánya; 18 June 1868 – 9 February 1957), was a Hungarian admiral and dictator who served as the regen ...
to seek secretly at negotiating a separate peace with the Allies in early 1944. Hitler wanted to prevent the Hungarians from turning against Germany. On 12 March 1944, German troops received orders by Hitler to capture critical Hungarian facilities. Hitler invited Horthy to the Palace of Klessheim, near of
Salzburg Salzburg (, ; literally "Salt-Castle"; bar, Soizbuag, label=Austro-Bavarian) is the fourth-largest city in Austria. In 2020, it had a population of 156,872. The town is on the site of the Roman settlement of ''Iuvavum''. Salzburg was founded ...
, on 15 March. As both heads of state conducted their negotiations at the Schloss Klessheim, German forces quietly marched from
Reichsgaue of the Ostmark Austria was part of Nazi Germany from 12 March 1938 (an event known as the ''Anschluss'') until 27 April 1945, when Allied-controlled Austria declared independence from Nazi Germany. Nazi Germany's troops entering Austria in 1938 received the ...
into Hungary. The meeting served merely as a German ruse to keep Horthy out of the country and to leave the
Hungarian Army The Hungarian Ground Forces ( hu, Magyar Szárazföldi Haderő) is the land branch of the Hungarian Defence Forces, and is responsible for ground activities and troops including artillery, tanks, Armoured personnel carrier, APCs, IFVs and ground ...
without orders. Negotiations between Horthy and Hitler lasted until 18 March, when Horthy boarded a train to return home. On 19 March, the occupation of Hungary began. When Horthy arrived in Budapest, German soldiers were waiting for him at the station. Horthy was told by Jagow that Hungary could remain sovereign only if he removed Kállay for a government that would co-operate fully with the Germans. Otherwise, Hungary would be subject to an undisguised occupation. Horthy appointed
Döme Sztójay Döme Sztójay ( sr-cyr, Димитрије Стојаковић, 5 January 1883 – 22 August 1946) was a Hungarian soldier and diplomat of Serb origin, who served as Prime Minister of Hungary in 1944, during World War II. Biography Born i ...
as prime minister to appease German concerns. On March 27, Nazi troops started their occupation of Kolozsvár. On May 3, the ghettoization of Kolozsvár Jews began, and was completed within one week.


Life in the Ghetto

The Jews were concentrated in the Iris brickyard, in the northern part of the city. This area consisted mostly of shacks used for drying bricks and tiles. The ghetto had practically no facilities for the approximately eighteen thousand Jews who were assembled there from Kolozsvár and the surrounding Kolozs County. The concentration of the Jews has been carried out by the local administrative and police authorities with the cooperation of Nazi SS (
Schutzstaffel The ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS; also stylized as ''ᛋᛋ'' with Armanen runes; ; "Protection Squadron") was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany, and later throughout German-occupied Europe d ...
) advisers, including SS-Captain (SS- Hauptsturmfuhrer)
Dieter Wisliceny Dieter Wisliceny (13 January 1911 – 4 May 1948) was a member of the ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) and one of the deputies of Adolf Eichmann, helping to organise and coordinate the wide scale deportations of the Jews across Europe during the Holocaust. ...
. The ghetto was under the command of László Urbán, the local police chief of Cluj. The ghetto's internal administration was entrusted to a Jewish Council (
Judenrat A ''Judenrat'' (, "Jewish council") was a World War II administrative agency imposed by Nazi Germany on Jewish communities across occupied Europe, principally within the Nazi ghettos. The Germans required Jews to form a ''Judenrat'' in ever ...
). Members of this council included Fischer (as head), Rabbi Akiba Glasner, Rabbi , and Ernő Márton. As in all other ghettos in Hungary, the local brickyard also had a "mint," a special building where the police tortured Jews into revealing where they had hidden their valuables.


Deportation

The Kolozsvár Ghetto was liquidated in six transports to Auschwitz (now
Oświęcim Oświęcim (; german: Auschwitz ; yi, אָשפּיצין, Oshpitzin) is a city in the Lesser Poland ( pl, Małopolska) province of southern Poland, situated southeast of Katowice, near the confluence of the Vistula (''Wisła'') and Soła rive ...
,
Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, , is a country in Central Europe. Poland is divided into Voivodeships of Poland, sixteen voivodeships and is the fifth most populous member state of the European Union (EU), with over 38 mill ...
), with the first deportation occurring on 25 May, and the last on 9 June. Altogether 16,148 inhabitants of the ghetto were deported. Upon arrival, 75% of them were sent to the gas chambers. The remaining were subjected to disease and starvation.


After the war

Following the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp in January 1945, only a small portion of survivors ended up returning to Cluj. In June 1945, the Jewish population of Cluj was approximately 1,000.


References


External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kolozsvar Ghetto Jewish Romanian history Jewish Hungarian history Kolozsvár Ghetto History of Cluj-Napoca Holocaust locations in Hungary 1944 establishments in Hungary