My father has been an excellent historian. He had a difficult childhood, however, despite this he always treated me with love, affection, and respect. One of the stories he told me was about his memory during WWII. His father worked at the train station in Nagyvarad (Oradea). He witnessed Jewish men, women, and children being deported via train to concentration camps. He remembers the yellow stars sewn on their dark coats. He also recalls them begging him to save them. As a young child, under 6 years old, he felt helpless and asked his father if they could help. His father was a very serious, stern man who told my father to be quiet because there was nothing they could do to help. Despite this, my grandmother secretly told her eldest sons to deposit bags of flour and water into the carts each night. When the morning came the soldiers would collect the Jewish neighbors in the carts. My grandmother knew this was a dangerous task for her boys and told them to go out late when the lights were out to sneak outside and if the guards caught them to tell them that they were looking for their dog that ran away.
A small summary from the Romania Tourism website on the Jewish population of Oradea.
Jewish Heritage in Oradea
The first Jews settled in Oradea as early as the 15th century, making Oradea the site of one of the oldest and most important Jewish communities. Jewish people helped establish the city's chemical and milling industries as well as its transportation, communications and banking infrastructure. They also played important roles in the medical, academic and artistic institutions. By the 1940s, Oradea had 27 synagogues and a population of around 30,000 Jews. Annexed by Hungary during World War II, Oradea became the site of two ghettos, with the majority of the members deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Oradea has two large Neolog and Orthodox Jewish cemeteries.
