The Jews in Reghin during the Holocaust
September 1940 - June 1944
The Jews settled in Reghin in the second half of the 19th century, after the restrictions regarding their settlement in the city were lifted. They were originally from Poland, Galicia, and Bukovina. The Jewish population grew by the end of the same century, from 40 people in 1850 to 449 in 1900. In 1930, 1,587 Jews lived in cities, representing 17% of the city’s population. Data on the number of Jews in the city in April 1944 mention figures between 1,682 and 1,950 people.
Initially, the occupations of the Jews were in retail or itinerant trade, colonial trade, or even the production of brandy. Later, they also dealt with viticulture and wine marketing. Over time, they opened their own religious, social, and educational institutions. In the interwar period, the Zionist movement enjoyed success among the Jews of Reghin.
Persecutions
Repressive measures in Reghin have been felt since September 1940, after the city came under the administration of the Hungarian authorities. The Jewish primary school, established in 1910, was closed. The policies adopted by the Hungarian government also affected the economic activities of the Jews. The sawmill in the city was occupied by the Hungarian fascists, and the owners were forced to sell it at a ridiculous price, well below the real one. In 1941, the provisions regarding the expulsion of foreign Jews were also applied in Reghin. Dozens of Jewish families, originally from Galicia, were expelled to Kameaneț, Ukraine, where they were killed by the Nazis. Since 1942, several Jewish men have been mobilized in labour detachments and sent to Ukraine, where they died.
After the occupation of Hungary by German troops, on May 3rd, 1944, the Jews were removed from their homes and interned in the ghetto set up in the brick factory on the outskirts of the city. Along with them, the Jews living in the northern and north-eastern localities of Mureș-Turda County were also imprisoned. In the ghetto, the inmates lived in the sheds used to dry the bricks or under the open sky. The characteristics of the short detention in this place were the lack of water, insufficient food, and the beatings applied to the Jews so that they would say where they had hidden their valuables. The daily food in the ghetto consisted of 100 grams of bread and a potato soup. A survivor recalls:
"In Reghin we were placed in the sheds for drying the bricks, and others who did not fit under the roof, stayed under the open sky. I was sleeping on the floor. I stayed in the ghetto in Reghin for about eight weeks, during which time, in terms of nutrition, I received only 1 kg of bread for four people a day and sometimes some potatoes. We, the ones from Ditrău, not being supplied like others, not being allowed to take the necessary things and objects, after we arrived in that ghetto, in the first days, we had nothing to feed ourselves, starting to endure the misery of the first days. There was no drinking water in the ghetto: from time to time it was brought in by a fire truck, and this was absolutely insufficient. The hygienic condition were in a detestable situation with no means to take care of us. That way we didn’t have water to wash and clean. It was a dirty puddle from which we started using water for washing, but later they forbade us to wash, telling that it wasn’t a bathing place”.
In June 1944, Jews from the Reghin ghetto were deported to Auschwitz. The existing information mentions that between 4 and 10 June 1944 about 6,000 people were deported. The number of survivors is unknown. After the Second World War, 820 Jews from other localities settled in Reghin in 1947. In 1949, their number dropped to 650. Later, during the communist years, most emigrated from Romania.
Sources:
Yitzhak Perri, Reghin, in Randolph Braham, Zoltan Tibori Szabo, Enciclopedia geografică a Holocaustului din Transilvania de Nord [Geographical Encyclopaedia of the Holocaust in Northern Transylvania], Chișinău, Cartier/Editura Institutului Național pentru Studierea Holocaustului din România „Elie Wiesel”, 2019, pp. 270-276.
Ladislau Gyémánt, Reghin, accessible online at https://yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Reghin
Oliver Lustig, Procesul ghetourilor din nordul Transilvaniei - Ghetoul din Reghin. Mărturii [The Process of Ghettos in Northern Transylvania - the Reghin Ghetto. Testimonies], vol. II, București, Editura Aervh, 2007, accessible online at http://www.survivors-romania.org/text_doc/reghin.htm