The Jews in Cârlibaba

The fate of the Jews of Cȃrlibaba shows us that the Holocaust was an extermination project to which several states contributed. Cârlibaba tells the story of a small Jewish community that disappeared during the war.

The Jews began to settle in the town in the 19th century. The oldest tombstone in the local Jewish cemetery dates from 1833. In 1930, in the district of Cârlibaba lived 154 Jews, representing 13.2% of the total population. The commune had two villages under administration: Cârlibaba-Veche and Cârlibaba-Nouă.

Following the Vienna Dictate, in August 1940, Cârlibaba-Nouă came under Hungarian authority while Cârlibaba-Veche remained under Romanian authority.

The Jews from Cârlibaba-Veche, who remained under Romanian authority, were evacuated, in the autumn of 1940, to Vatra-Dornei, and their goods were taken over by locals or state institutions. The Post Office, the Border Police, the Customs, or the commune City Hall use former Jewish properties to carry out their activity.

On October 11, 1941, the Jews from Cârlibaba were deported to Transnistria together with their co-religionists from Vatra-Dornei.

Almost three years later, the Jews on the other side of Bistrita are also deported. At the beginning of May 1944, the Jews from Cârlibaba-Nouă were transported to the Bistrita ghetto from where they were deported to Auschwitz in the first days of June. Along with them, about 132,000 other Jews from Northern Transylvania were deported to Auschwitz in May-June 1944 by Hungarian authorities.

After the war, no Jew returned to the village.