Vișeu de Sus Ghetto

Members of the Boys were imprisoned in the Vișeu de Sus Ghetto.

The Vișeu de Sus Ghetto was one of a network of ghettos set up by Nazi Germany in Hungary after it was invaded by German forces in March 1944. Vișeu de Sus is in Northern Transylvania, which had been annexed by Hungary under the 1940 Second Vienna Award.

The Boys were teenage and child-Holocaust survivors, who were brought to the UK after the war for rest and rehabilitation.

^{The Synagogue in Vișeu de Sus, Romania.}

Vişeu de Sus is in Maramures County in Romania. To find out more about the region and the Boys who grew up there click here.

Overview

On 15-16 April 1944, about 12,000 Jews from Vişeu de Sus and its surrounding area were rounded up and forcibly gathered into a ghetto in Vişeu de Sus. The ghetto was located in the centre of the town. Those who tried to escape were shot.

As the Jews were violently rounded up their homes were searched. There were often stripped and internal body searches were carried out as valuables were confiscated. Any baggage weighing more than 50kg was forbidden, and only food, clothing and bedding were allowed.

^{The Hecht brothers were held in the Vişeu de Sus Ghetto before being transported to Auschwitz. These photographs were taken after liberation in the Kloster Indersdorf DP Camp.}

Daily Life

Conditions in the ghetto were appalling. There was often no water and little food. Sanitation was non-existent. The weather was bad, and many people fell ill. The Hungarian gendarmes who guarded the camp were brutal and many women were raped. Many men were humiliated by having their beards cut.

Deportation

^{Memorial and Museum Auschwitz Birkenau, Poland.}

Four transports left the ghetto on 19, 21, 23 and 25 May bound for the Auschwitz II-Birkenau extermination and concentration camp over 630 kilometres away.

Between 70-100 people were crammed into the freight wagons which were sealed and locked with chains. Hundreds died during the journey.

Most of the Jews were gassed on arrival after a selection in which the members of the Boys were selected as slave labourers