During the Holocaust, the Jewish community of Oradea (Nagyvárad), one of the largest and most vibrant in Transylvania, was devastated. In May 1944, following the Nazi occupation of Hungary, over 27,000 Jews from Oradea were forced into a ghetto under brutal conditions. Within weeks, nearly all were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau in a series of transports, where the vast majority perished in the gas chambers. Of the more than 27,000 Jews deported from Oradea to Auschwitz in 1944, only about 2,000 to 2,500 survived and returned after the war.
The faces on this page do not and have never existed. They were generated by a computer. They have been curated to provide a demographically accurate view of the victims, accounting for age, gender. The blurred faces symbolize the Jews who never made it back.
As you scroll, try to suspend your disbelief of these virtual images and consider the real person symbolized by each one—the life they lived, the way they died.
People of Oradea: History warns us that indifference and extremism paved the way to unimaginable tragedy. Let us honor the memory of those deported from our city by choosing leaders who uphold moral courage, champion peace, and reject hollow populism and divisive nationalism.
Choose to protect our shared future from repeating the horrors of the past.