Holocaust in Kolozsvar: 1944

Abstract

Kolozsvar Holocaust: 1944 Kolozsvar during 1940-1945, and Cluj before and after, this city, the capital of Transylvania, was deeply affected by the Holocaust. Prior to WWII, it was a hub of cultural activity, led by a cadre of Jewish professionals, artists and academics, who wore their Magyarized identity with pride, and imagined this identity to be protective under the fascist, Nazi leaning governance of the Horthy regime. Operation Margharete, the Nazi invasion of Hungary, brought this to an end on March 19th, 1944 and on May3rd the Jewish population ghettoized and then deported on six trains from May 25th till June9th. Some evaded deportation, by escaping over the border to Romania, by utilizing false identities and hiding, or surviving in the Jewish Labor Force, and by 1945, started to return from the camps. This paper analyses the factors which were most in play during the Spring of 1944, offering detailed insight into how the population was tragically decimated by deportations to Auschwitz. In addition, the various means of escape and evasion, the behavior of the general population and the functions of the Jewish Council are scrutinized. Some new population statistics and models are introduced and shed light on elements previous historiography has omitted.