Mosonmagyaróvár is a city of about 30,000 inhabitants located in north western Hungary. It is about eight miles from the Austrian border on the main highway and railroad between Vienna and Budapest. In 1939 the Hungarian government combined the two existing towns of Magyaróvár and Moson into Mosonmagyaróvár. Since this area of Hungary used to have a large German speaking minority Moson was also known as Wieselburg and Magyaróvár as Ungarisch Altenburg.

Before the 2^nd world war 400-500 Jews were living in Moson and Magyarovar, where there was an organized community with a synagogue, chevra kadisha, and mikve, only a few Jewish families were living in Magyaróvár. In Hungary there were three Jewish religious groupings, the orthodox, the neolog (reform) and the Status Quo Ante (in the middle between the two). The Moson community belonged to the last.

Moson Jews were German and Hungarian speaking, were western oriented and most families had connections to the large Jewish communities of nearby Bratislava, Vienna and Budapest. All this came to an end in 1944, after the Germans occupied Hungary.