Transylvania and the Cities Within It Part 7 of 17

For those who have just joined us, welcome. Please see the other cities and feel free to add more to them, via the comments section. I'm always reading them, so don't be shy! If there is a city you'd like me to add, then put it down in the comments...I'm always reading them.

This city is located in the most North-Western corner on the Border of Hungary and the Ukraine. It was once had a strong Jewish community, before World War II. Satu Mare (Romanian), Szatmárnémeti (Hungarian), Sathmar (German) and Satmar. (Yiddish) Of all the cities I would want to talk about this one is by far the most unique and interesting of them all, not because of the history, as they are interesting, but because of the community that lived there.

This strong population of the Jewish community came form the Stamarer Hasidic Jews. These people have their origins in with the Hunagarina and Romanian Jewish population. It is through their name that Satu Mare gets it name. It is the most unfortunate event of the Second Wold War that these people were killed or dispersed from their homes.

As I didn't live during this time, I wonder why the Hungarian government didn't protect them. Under the regent Miklos Horthy, their destruction was not complete it wasn't until the end of the war that history began to change. Horthy lost power and a more repressive regime came to power. I'm in no way suggesting that there was not repression before, only that it became worse.

The city has many monuments which are historical in nature but also commemorative. There is a citadel which was rebuilt under the Hapsburg dynasty. Destroyed by both the Mongols and Turks, it was rebuilt. There is the administrative Palace, a tall structure where if one goes to the top, you can see to Hungary. It has three smaller tower representing the German, Romanian, and Hungarian communities, while the largest is representative of the bond the three share.

The Satu Mare chain church is one of the oldest in the city and house many artifacts. It beauty is visible to many tourists.

It is unfortunate that in all my travels I was unable to find any monuments which relate to the Jewish population, if anyone knows of any, please leave it in the comments section.

Comments

Anonymous said…
hmm... did you try something in wikipedia?

That might help you a bit more.
ml said…
I've enjoyed reading a bit of history too:
You may want to use:
http://translate.google.com/#
to have the content translated in english:

http://www.jewishcomunity.ro/index.php?page=content&p=1&id=13

http://www.cjh.org/pdfs/RomaniaGuide07.pdf
http://otersm.jewish.ro/istorie.html
Thanks for all the help.