Obj. ID: 30257
Memorials Holocaust Memorial in the Jewish cemetery in Sfântu Gheorghe, Romania, 1950s(?)
To the main object: Jewish cemetery in Sfântu Gheorghe, Romania
Memorial Name
No official name
Who is Commemorated?
Jewish victims of the Holocaust from Sfântu Gheorghe.
Description:
The monument is situated in the Jewish cemetery of Sfântu Gheorghe, at the back side of the cemetery chapel.
It is a thick stele with a triangular pediment standing on a base composed of four high steps. Both sides of the pediment bear the Star of David.
In the center of the stele, there are two marble plaques with Hungarian and Hebrew inscriptions. Since parts of characters are covered by plaster/concrete, it seems that originally those plaques were situated on another monument or, alternatively, that they were reinforced in a later stage.
The Hebrew inscription contains also a depiction of a seven-branched menorah.
Inscription:
In Hebrew:
זכור – ואל תשכח
נמשכו הפאשיזם ימש"ז את אחינו
ואחותינו בשבי ולעבודת הפרך
להמם ולאבדם בשנת תש"א-ד לפ"ק
בורית שנקרא "ריף" זייפע שעשאה
הרוצחים מחלבהן שנהרגו על ק"ה
ד' יזכור זכותם
ת'נ'צ'ב'ה'
Translation: Remember and do not forget [After Deut. 25: 17-19] [how] Fascists, may their name and memory be obliterated, took our brethren and sisters in captivity and hard labor to kill and exterminate them in the years 1941–1944, according to the small count.
Soap that is called RIF Seife that the murderers made from the fat of those who was killed for the sanctification of the name.
God will remember their virtues.
May their souls be bound in the bundle of life.
In Hungarian:
Munkaszolgalat
es deportalas
aldozatainak
emlékére
1942 – 1944
Translation: In memory of labor service and deportation victims, 1942–1944.
Commissioned by
Survivors from the Jewish community of Sfântu Gheorghe (?).
3 image(s)
sub-set tree:
During WWII, the legend was spread that the Nazi Germany made soap with the stamp 'RUF' from the bodies of Holocaust victims. Starting from 1944, 'RIF' soap was buried by Jews in cemeteries all over the world in memory of Holocaust victims. Yad Vashem turned down the legend in 1990.
Romania most probably has more ‘Jewish soap’ graves than the rest of the world. [Neander, 27]
Neander, Joachim, Symbolically burying the six million’: post-war soap burial in Romania, Bulgaria and Brazil,” Human Remains & Violence, Volume 2, No. 1 (2016), 23–40, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/301933744_%27Symbolically_burying_the_six_million%27_post-war_soap_burial_in_Romania_Bulgaria_and_Brazil (accessed August 25, 2024)