The Virtual and Documentary Museum of the Holocaust in Northern Transylvania bring to the fore a fragment of the vast research available on the topic of the Holocaust, specifically focusing on the deportation and extermination of Transylvanian Jews during the Second World War.
The Documentary Museum of the Holocaust in Northern Transylvania offers a collection of a few dozen objects that is still under development, presenting the history of Transylvanian Jews during the Holocaust. The collection, which includes a variety of photographs, documents and multimedia products (audiovisual recordings), can be visited in person at the Dr. Moshe Carmilly Institute for Hebrew and Jewish History, 13 Croitorilor St., Cluj-Napoca.
The Virtual Museum of the Holocaust in Northern Transylvania consists of a digital collection of documents already included in the Documentary Museum, in addition to several hundred other items connected to the history of Transylvanian Jews during the Holocaust. The Virtual Museum may be accessed at holocausttransilvania.ro/en, in Romanian or English.
The Virtual and Documentary Museum of the Holocaust in Northern Transylvania
Officially opened on 9 October 2017, the Virtual and Documentary Museum of the Holocaust in Northern Transylvania provide the public with an unprecedented museum experience owing to the fact that visiting and consulting the collection of several hundred objects can be achieved both in person, at the Documentary Museum, and online, on the website for the Virtual Museum, holocausttransilvania.ro/en.
The Documentary Museum of the Holocaust in Northern Transylvania, exclusively supported by the Babeş-Bolyai University and operating within the premises of the Dr. Moshe Carmilly Institute for Hebrew and Jewish History in Cluj-Napoca, is an innovative technological initiative because along with thematically structured original documents and objects, it also includes a section where video and audio testimonies of survivors and their family members are displayed on a screen. This multimedia installation is located in the painting and sculpture exhibition comprising works on the subject of the Holocaust, created by the renown local artist, Egon Marc Lövith (1923-2009), himself a Holocaust survivor. This project establishes a connection between written, photographic and audio-visual documents and artistic ones, all of which come together in illustrating the history of the Holocaust in northern Transylvania.
The Virtual Museum of the Holocaust in Northern Transylvania, which may be accessed at holocausttransilvania.ro/en, is a world premiere because it is a virtual museum in the true sense of the term. The term “virtual museum” refers to a series of digital collections, which are essentially virtual exhibitions specifically covering a certain part of the subject of the Holocaust. The Virtual Museum of the Holocaust in Northern Transylvania documents the events of the Holocaust in this area holistically by illustrating and describing all the aspects of the extermination of the Jews in this region. In this sense, it is the very first virtual museum of the Holocaust in the world. The collections of the Virtual Museum are available for consultation and use in both Romanian and English.
The Documentary Museum is open to the general public, but is specifically targeted at the younger generation of pupils and students, who are welcome to pay organised visits as part of the school curriculum for Civics and History class. This is in accordance with a multilateral protocol signed by the local School Inspectorate and the Babeș-Bolyai University Executive Team, and the director of the Dr. Moshe Carmilly Institute for Hebrew and Jewish Studies. In addition, the Documentary Museum offers public lectures on the topic of the Holocaust, at the museum or in schools, on Holocaust remembrance days: 27 January – International Holocaust Remembrance Day; in April/May – Holocaust Remembrance Day in Israel (Yom HaShoah); 9 October – National Day of Commemorating the Holocaust in Romania. Upon request, the Documentary Museum can also organise visits to the former Cluj camp, located in the former brick yard in the Iris district.