Obj. ID: 16968
Memorials Holocaust memorial at the site of synagogue in Sighetu Marmației, Romania, 1948
Memorial Name
no official name
Who/What is Commemorated?
13,000 Holocaust victims deported from Sighet and 40,000 from Maramureş
Description:
The monument occupies a rectangular area set back from the street and consists of an approximately 4-meter-high stele and base, set on a larger stepped platform, all set behind a low metal fence with a gate.
The sides of the platform are thick walls made of irregularly shaped mortared stones. Rectangular concrete planters sit atop the ends of each side wall. Between these walls rise seven wide cast concrete (?) steps that lead to a raised open platform, also made of concrete. It is a space large enough for several people to stand for ceremonies.
From the platform rise two more steps, these are made of concrete but faced with irregularly shaped darker stone (sandstone?), many of which are (or of 2024) detached exposing the rubble (?) and concrete structure underneath. On top of these steps sits the monument itself: a tripartite base supporting wide and high stele. The central part of the base is a large concrete (?) block with a short rectangular front on which are placed in large, raised numbers, the date 1944. The block’s top slopes back and upward, upon which is applied in relief the image of a lighted menorah. On with the of this “menorah” block base walls project, but not as far as the “1944” front.
On the ends of these side walls are affixed inscribed stone plaques. The one on the left is in Romanian, and the one on the left is Hebrew, with an English exhortation “God Bless Us”. Rising and towering over this assemblage is a white concrete slab, the tapers backward slightly as it rises. The stele width remains the same, but the top – where there is a four-line memorial inscription in Yiddish - is thinner than the bottom.
The rear of the monument is marked by chains.
In 2023 (?) a series of historical informational signs were installed between the fence long the sidewalk the delimits the memorial space, and the entrance fence and gate of the memorial itself. These vertical informational panels are not part of the memorial, but it is understood that the two installations -are to be viewed together.
Inscriptions:
Yiddish inscription on central stele:
צום אייביקו אנדענק
פאר די קרבנות
פּונעם אכזרישן פאשיזם
אין אוישוויץ
Translation: In eternal memory / to the victims / of brutal fascism / in Auschwitz // 1944.
Plaque on left of base:
IN LUNA ΜΑΙ
ANULUI 1944
38 000 CETĂTENI EVREI
DIN MARAMURES
AU FOST EXTERMINATI
ÎN LAGARELE NAZISTE.
ELIBERATI DE GLORIONSA
ARMATĂ SOVIETICĂ
RIDICAM ACEST MONUMENT
ÎN AMINTIREA
VICTIMELOR
URGIEI FASCISTO-HITLERISTE
LUPTĂM
IMPOTRIVA NOILOR HITLERI
CA ASEMENEA CRIME
CONTRA OMENIRII
SĂ NU SE MAI ÎNTIMPLE
NICIODATĂ
Translation: In May / 1944 / 38,000 Jewish citizens / of Maramures / were exterminated / in Nazi camps. Liberated by the glorious / Soviet army / we erect this monument / in commemoration of the victims / of the fascist-Hitlerist murders. / We fight against the new Hitler so that such a crime against humanity never happens again.
Plaque on the right side of the base:
God Bless Us!
במאי 1944 נראחו על ידי הנאצים
38יהודים תושבי 000
MARAMURES
במחנות ההשמדה
ניצולים ששוחררו על ידי הצנא הרוסי המפואר
הקימו אכדרטה זו
.לזכר קור בנות השנאה הפשיסטית
ניאבק בכל מקום ובכל עת נגד הניאו נאציזם
•נדי שרצח עם לא יישנה לעולם
MS~2009
Translation: In May 1944, the Nazis killed 38,000 Jews from the Maramures extermination camps, survivors liberated by the glorious Russian army, and established this monument. In memory of the victims of fascist hatred, we will always fight everywhere and against neo-Nazism. We hope that genocide will never happen again. MS~2009
Commissioned by
Survivors of Sighet
sub-set tree: 
Stele approximately 4 meters high
The monument was built by Holocaust survivors soon after the liberation of the city by the Soviet Army. It was built in memory of the 13,000 Jewish people from Sighet and the approximately 40,000 people from Maramureş deported by Hungarian authorities in May 1944 to their deaths, mostly at Auschwitz.
In the 1960's the letters the monument was renovated and celebrated in another ceremony.
A new plaque in Hebrew is dated 2009, and appears to have been added at that time. In 20?? A new synagogue serving Satmar Hasidim was erected next door to the monument.
In 20?? A series of historical signs were installed inside the metal fence separating the monument from the fences. These give much more information about the Holocaust in Maramures.
“Holocaust Monuments,” Monuments of Remembrance (1918-2018), http://monuments-remembrance.eu/en/panstwa/rumunia-2/165-holocaust-monument (accessed February 18, 2025)
“Sighet Students Honor Holocaust Victims in Moving 80th Anniversary Commemoration,” Tarbut Foundation., https://www.ftsighet.com/80th-holocaust-commemoration (accessed February 18, 2025)