The Jews of Baia Mare: Mining Town, Synagogue and Ghetto

Baia Mare, the mining town of northern Transylvania, stayed closed to Jews until 1848. In less than a century an Orthodox community of more than three and a half thousand grew up here, and in the spring of 1944 it was wiped out within a month. The 1885 synagogue on Strada Someșului still stands, and a small community still keeps it.

A Town Closed to Jews

Baia Mare (Hungarian: Nagybánya; German: Frauenbach) was for centuries a centre of gold and silver mining, and like other mining towns of the Kingdom of Hungary it barred Jewish settlement. According to the Encyclopaedia Judaica, the earliest record of a Jewish presence dates from 1664 — a Jew trading in locally mined metal. In 1693 Jewish settlement in the Hungarian mining towns was formally banned, and a document of 1725 states explicitly that there were no Jews in the town. Only in 1848 was the ban lifted, and from 1850 Jewish artisans, merchants and farmers began to arrive.

The community was formally organised in 1860 or 1861 (sources differ on the year), and a burial society was founded in 1862. According to research published in the local press, at the time of its founding the community already had a cemetery, a mikveh and a prayer room in a rented house.

An Orthodox Community Between Satmar and Zionism

The community remained Orthodox throughout its existence. Satmar Hasidism had a strong following, alongside an active Zionist movement, and tension between the two camps grew between the world wars. In 1882, during the Tiszaeszlár blood libel, a mob attacked and looted the community’s house of prayer. Between the wars the town’s Jews also suffered attacks by the Romanian Iron Guard.

The town’s first rabbi, from 1919, was Rabbi Moshe Aharon HaKohen Krauss (1886–1944), born in Hungary and one of the few university-educated rabbis in Transylvania. He was known as an outstanding preacher, and was murdered in the Holocaust.

• 1890: 701 Jews out of 9,838 inhabitants
• 1910: 1,402 out of 12,877
• 1930: 2,030 out of 13,904
• 1941: 3,623 out of 21,404

The Synagogue on Strada Someșului

The synagogue stands at Strada Someșului 3. According to the Federation of Jewish Communities in Romania, it was built in 1885 in a Transylvanian neo-Baroque style and covers about 377 m²; other sources give 1886 or 1887. The long façade has separate entrances for men and women. The building is a listed historic monument of local importance (category B).

It is neither a ruin nor a vast building: it is a modest synagogue, one of the few in Romania still used for prayer. In 2012 the Baia Mare city hall announced a plan to rehabilitate it together with the community, so that it would also serve as a cultural centre for concerts and events while Sabbath services continued. In 2013 it was reported that the synagogue was to be restored. We found no current source describing whether the restoration was carried out or the building’s present condition, so check with the community before you go.

The Labour Battalion and Imre Reviczky

In 1940 Baia Mare was annexed to Hungary with northern Transylvania. From 1941 to 1944 the town was the headquarters of Labour Service Battalion No. 10, which conscripted Jewish men of military age from all of northern Transylvania. Its commander, Lieutenant Colonel Imre Reviczky (1896–1957), saved many after the German occupation of 1944 by enlisting them for labour service instead of deportation. In 1962 Yad Vashem posthumously recognised him as Righteous Among the Nations.

The Ghetto of 1944

On 3 May 1944 the round-up of the Jews of the town and of northern Transylvania began. The Jews of Baia Mare were confined in a ghetto on the vacant lots of the König glass factory, which at its peak held close to 4,000 people. About 2,000 Jews from the district communities — among them Șomcuta Mare and Copalnic-Mănăștur — were locked in a stable and barn in the village of Valea Borcutului (Hungarian: Borpatak), about three kilometres from the centre. The buildings could hold only about 200; the rest were kept in the open.

The 5,917 Jews of the two ghettos were deported to Auschwitz in two trains: on 31 May 1944 (3,073 people) and on 5 June (2,844). Most were murdered on arrival. The Holocaust in Maramureș as a whole is covered in a separate article.

After the War and Today

In 1947 there were 950 Jews in Baia Mare — returning survivors and Jews from elsewhere. Emigration to Israel, Western Europe and the United States shrank the community quickly: in 1969 it numbered 120 families, and in 2012 it was reported to have 83 members. Survivors from the town and district published two memorial books: Nagybanya ve-ha-seviva (Bnei Brak, 1976) and Gal-ed le-yahadut Nagy Banya (Tel Aviv, 1996, in Hebrew and Hungarian). According to a 2024 report, the Maramureș Heritage association obtained the rights to translate the 1996 book into Romanian.

The town’s Jewish cemetery has existed at least since the founding of the community. We found no current source for its address or condition, so arrange any visit with the community.

Visiting

• The synagogue: Strada Someșului 3. Visits by prior arrangement with the local community or through the Federation of Jewish Communities in Romania (FCER). No opening hours are published.
• Nearby: the Jewish cemetery of Baia Sprie, about 9 km east, at Strada Lebedei 27C — fenced and locked, entry with permission. In Seini, the 1904 synagogue has undergone an EU-funded restoration to serve as a museum of Transylvanian Jews and a cultural hall, according to local press reports; check in advance whether it is open.
• Getting there: Maramureș Airport is about 10 km west of the town. From Cluj about 130 km, 2¼ hours by car or about three hours by bus. Sighet is about an hour away.
• Kosher food: we know of no verified kosher restaurant in the town; bring supplies.

Baia Mare is also the start or end point of our Maramureș heritage route. See also our articles on the Jews of Sighet and on the Holocaust in Maramureș in 1944.