Img. ID: 319934

Who is Commemorated?

Jews of Mediaș and six millions Holocaust victims.

Description

The monument is set in the central pathway in the lower part of the cemetery. The monument is tripartite, consisting of three steles; the central stele is higher than the lateral ones.  The northern, front side features a depiction of a stylized menorah and the main inscription in Hebrew and Romanian at the central part.  '

The Hebrew inscription refers to the victims of 1943 and 1944, apparently the Jews of Mediaș, while the Romanian one speaks about the six million Jews killed in 1933-1945. The Hebrew text includes verses from the Av ha-rahamim prayer introduced into Ashkenazi liturgy after the Crusades, which called upon God to “avenge the outpoured blood of his servants.” The Romanian text mentions the Jewish Democratic Committee which erected the monument. Thus, the agenda of two inscriptions is different and they are directed to different audiences. The Hebrew text speaks to Jews and commemorates local victims in a traditional way, while the Romanian one is intended for non-Jews and commemorates the Jewish victims of the Nazi regime.

The lateral steles, completely covered by Hebrew text, contain names of perished local Jews in a mixture of traditional and modernized forms: the name and the patronymic are followed by the surname. Often, the name of a person is accompanied by the phrase "with his/her family.”

The southern, back side of the monument features names of perished people on all three steles in Hebrew. However, the lower part of the central stele has 9 lines with names in Romanian. Under them, the name of the donor, Shmuel Shmelke Fisch, and the date 1947 are written in Hebrew.

Inscription

In the front side of the central part:

לזכרון עולם

בעד הנשמות הקדושים הישרים
והתמימים שהומתו שנהרגו שנשחטו
ושנשרפו בקרעמאטאריאום שנטבעו
ושנחנקו על קדוש השם על ידי הרוצחים
היטלער י'ש' וחבירו בשנת ת'ש'ג' וד' תהיינה
נפשותיהם צרורות בצרור החיים
עם נשמותיהם של אברהם יצחק ויעקב
שרה רבקה רחל לאה ואם שאר צדיקים
וצדקניות שבגן עדן, וינקום מאויבנו נקמת
דם עבדיו השפוך וכפר אדמתו עמו:
בלע המות לנצח ומחה השם דמעה מעל
כל פנים וחרפת עמו יסיר מעל כל הארץ
כי השם דבר. ברוך דין האמת

Translation: In eternal memory of the souls of the holy, upright, and perfect that were killed, murdered, butchered, and burnt in crematoriums, drown and strangled for the sanctification of the name, by the killers, Hitler, may his name be blotted out, and his friends, in the year 1943 and 1944. May their souls be bound in the bundle of life with the souls of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, Leah, and with other [male and female] righteous who are in Paradise, and he will revenge from our enemies the avenge the outpoured blood of his servants [Ps. 79:10], make atonement for his land and people [Deut. 32:43]. He will swallow up death forever, the Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces, he will remove his people’s disgrace from all the earth; the Lord has spoken [Is. 25:8]. Blessed be the True Judge.

In memoria celor şase milioane
evrei ucisi mişeleşte de cei,
mai feroci inamici al umatitaţii,
de bestiile hitleriste, intre anii
1933 – 1945

Ridicat de C.D.E. în anul
1947.

Translation: In memory of the six million Jews massacred by those fiercest enemies of humanity, Hitler's beasts, between the years 1933 - 1945. / Erected by Jewish Democratic Committee in the year 1947.

The last row at the back side of the central stele:

נ'ונ' [=נעשה ונתרם?] שנת תש"ז לפ"ק ע"י שמואל שמערקע פֿיש

Translation: Made and donated in 1947 by Shmuel Shmelke Fisch.

Commissioned by

Jewish Democratic Committee (Comitetul Democrat Evreiesc, CDE), Shmuel Shmelke Fisch