Views of the memorial in the Avas Hill Cemetery, dedicated to
"the martyrs who were taken by force from Abaújszántó."
Abaújszántó is a small town about 23 miles east-northeast of Miskolc. The martyrdom of the town's Jews began on April 16, 1944, when they were herded into a school and their valuables were taken from them. They were transported to Kassa (now Kosice) and from there to Auschwitz, where most of them were murdered.
In addition to this large memorial in Miskolc, Abaújszántó's cemetery contains seven plaques in memory of the town's Jewish residents who died in the Holocaust. For more information about the history and destruction of Abaújszántó's Jewish community, see Wine and Thorns in Tokay Valley: Jewish Life in Hungary; The History of Abaújszántó (Fairleigh Dickenson University Press, 1995) by Zahava Szász Stessel, a Holocaust survivor from Abaújszántó. As to the large memorial in the Avas Hill cemetery pictured above, Stessel notes: "In 1948 the names of Holocaust victims were verified and inscribed with gold letters on a black memorial tablet. .... It was placed on the southern wall of the synagogue's entrance hall ...... In 1951 anti-Semites damaged the memorial tablet." The black memorial tablet was so mutilated that it was decided not to replace it. Instead, a granite monument memorializing the martyrs of Abaújszántó was erected in the Avas Hill cemetery in Miskolc.
To search for the names on this memorial, go to the Hungarian Holocaust Memorials Database at
http://www.jewishgen.org/databases/Hungary/
Credits: Page design copyrighted © 2008 by Helene Kenvin Photographs copyrighted © 2008 by John J. Kovacs. Translation by John J. Kovacs and Margarita Lacko. Link to the Hungarian Holocaust Memorials Database courtesy of Margarita Lacko. The information about the decision to erect a monument to the Abaújszántó martyrs in the Miskolc cemetery is from a conversation between Margarita Lackó and Elazar (Gustav) Blau, a Holocaust survivor from Abaújszántó; courtesy of Margarita Lackó. Page created by Helene Kenvin. All rights reserved.