Several places that are related to or encompass Jewish heritage sites (and/or the Holocaust) have recently been recognized with the European Commission’s “European Heritage Label.”
Starting in 2013, the Label, according to the EC, has been awarded each year to places that “celebrate and symbolize European ideals, values, history and integration.” To date 48 places have been recognized (including the Dohany St. synagogue complex in Budapest).
This year’s Labels went to 10 new sites that “have played a significant role in the history and culture of Europe or the building of the European Union.” The were chosen by a European panel of independent experts out of 19 sites pre-selected by participating member states.
The new sites include three with Jewish heritage and/or Holocaust dimensions:
The Archaeological Area of Ostia Antica (Italy)
Ostia Antica, found in the 6th century BCE, was the ancient port of Rome, originally located at the mouth of the Tiber River but today located around 4 km inland. The ruins of the city include those of an ancient synagogue, believed founded as early as the first century CE.
Visit Jewish Italy writes:
The building, made up of various rooms, was later renovated and enlarged, particularly in the 3rd and 4th centuries. The sanctuary was accessed through a vestibule with three doors and an intermediate passageway with tall Corinthian columns. The tevah is thought to have been situated on the slightly curved wall at the end of the room; on the opposite side is still the 4th century apse which made up the aron, framed by an aedicule structure with originally trabeated columns. At the tops of the projecting plinths (copies of which are reproduced here) are decorative bas-reliefs with traditional subjects: the menorah (seven-branched candlestick), the shofar (horn), and lulav (a bundle with palm fronds and other plant species).
The Living Heritage of Szentendre (Hungary)
A quaint village on the Danube River near Budapest, Szententre has long been an artists’ colony and magnet for tourists. Jews settled there in the 18th century. Several of the artists who had studios in Szentendre before World War II were Jewish.
The Szanto Memorial and Prayer House, a small Jewish museum-cum-synagogue, was founded in 1998 in the heart of the old town to serve as a memorial for the Jewish community. It stands in the courtyard of the former home of Laszlo Szanto and his wife, who were among the 250 Jews from Szentendre and surroundings deported to their deaths in June 1944. Szanto’s surviving descendants created the center, which includes a tiny prayer room, an exhibition on local Jewish history and a Holocaust memorial. There is also a small Jewish cemetery about 1 km away, near the main town cemetery.
A museum is dedicated to Lajos Vajda, who was killed in the Holocaust. Another museum houses the work of the Jewish husband and wife artists Imre Amos and Margit Anna. Amos, a noted surrealist, died during the Holocaust in 1944. He was deported to work in a forced labor brigade and secretly sketched what he saw; many of the works in the museum depict the horrors of those years. Margit Anna survived the war and was known for her colorful works employing puppet figures.
The Chambon-sur-Lignon Memorial (France)
The Chambon-sur-Lignon memorial area opened in 2013; it commemorates the rescue operations provided by the locals during World War II: From December 1940 to September 1944 the inhabitants of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon and surrounding villages in the Vivarais-Lignon Plateau in south-central France provided shelter for an estimated 5,000 people, including around 3,000-3,500 Jews — most of them children, as well as Spanish republicans, anti-Nazi Germans, members of the French resistance and others.
The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Holocaust Encyclopedia writes:
Led by Pastor André Trocmé of the Reformed Church of France, his wife Magda, and his assistant, Pastor Edouard Theis, the residents of these villages offered shelter in private homes, in hotels, on farms, and in schools. They forged identification and ration cards for the refugees, and in some cases guided them across the border to neutral Switzerland. These actions of rescue were unusual during the period of the Holocaust insofar as they involved the majority of the population of an entire region. […]
The refugees were mostly foreign-born Jews, who did not hold French citizenship. A majority of them were children. They were dispersed among the small isolated villages and farms in the mountainous region surrounding Le Chambon. OSE (Oeuvre de Secours Aux Enfants, Children’s Aid Society), a French-Jewish child care agency, played an important role in escorting children to Le Chambon and placing them in private homes, boarding houses, and in seven houses funded specifically to shelter them.
The Quaker organization, American Congregationalists, the Swiss Red Cross, and even national governments like Sweden contributed funding to maintain the houses. The refugees received food, clothing, and false identity documents. The sheltered children even attended school and took part in youth organizations. In order to maintain an appearance of normalcy and to conceal the presence of Jews in the communities, the children frequently attended Protestant religious services. Nevertheless, Trocmé also encouraged these Jews to hold clandestine Jewish services.
The Memorial’s web site offers an Interactive Online Tour of the museum.
Click to see the full list of 10 new sites
1 comment on “European Heritage Label awarded to three sites with Jewish heritage and/or Holocaust dimensions”
Hi,
This is Dr. Michael Taub (New York)
I have ancestors buried in a cemetery in Calinesti and one in Lapus (Maramures/Romania)
Whos in charge of maintaining these sites?
Thanks,
MT