2017: Official Opening of the Documentary Museum and Virtual Museum of the Holocaust in Northern Transylvania

This museographic achievement opened on 9 October 2017, and is dedicated to the history and memory of the Holocaust in Northern Transylvania. This museographic project comprises two sections: a Virtual Museum and a Documentary Museum, the latter consisting of a traditional exhibition including objects such as documents, photographs and testimonies, as well as audiovisual material. 

The Virtual Museum of the Holocaust in Northern Transylvania, which can be accessed at http://holocausttransilvania.ro, is, to the best of our knowledge, the first of its kind in the world. The term "virtual museum" refers to a series of digital collections which are essentially virtual exhibitions specifically addressing a certain part of the subject of the Holocaust. The Virtual Museum of the Holocaust in Northern Transylvania (http://holocausttransilvania.ro) documents the events of the Holocaust in this area holistically by illustrating all the aspects of the extermination of the Jews in this region. In this sense, it is the first virtual museum of the Holocaust in the world.

The Documentary Museum of the Holocaust in Northern Transylvania is a project of the Babeș-Bolyai University and is located at the Dr. Moshe Carmilly Institute for Hebrew and Jewish History on 13 Croitorilor Street in Cluj-Napoca. This museum offers an innovative experience because it contains, in addition to thematically structured original documents and objects, a section where audio-visual recordings of survivors’ (as well as their families’) testimonies are displayed on a screen. This section 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 creates a link between written, photographic, audio-visual and artistic documents, all of which come together in illustrating the history of the Holocaust.

The museographic achievement of the Documentary Museum and the Virtual Museum of the Holocaust in Northern Transylvania is the result of three years of work carried out by a team of researchers from the Dr. Moshe Carmilly Institute for Hebrew and Jewish History. The museums were founded with the exclusive financial support of the Babeș-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca. The following members of the Babeș-Bolyai University Executive Team were present at the official opening of the museums: Dr. Ioan Aurel-Pop, Vice-Chancellor, Professor and Member of the Romanian Academy; Dr. Ovidiu Ghitta, Professor and Dean of the Faculty of History and Philosophy; Dr. Ioan Bolovan, Professor and Pro-Vice-Chancellor; Rev. Dr. Ioan Chirilă, Professor and President of the Babeș-Bolyai University Senate; Dr. Rudolf Gräf, Professor and Pro-Vice-Chancellor. They were joined by the Dr. Moshe Carmilly Institute for Hebrew and Jewish History research team, the museum donors, as well as a large audience.

The Documentary Museum is open to the general public, but is specifically targeted at the young 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 agreement between the local School Inspectorate and the Babeș-Bolyai University Executive Team, as well as the Executive Board for the Dr. Moshe Carmilly Institute for Hebrew and Jewish Studies. Entrance to the museums is free.