Jewish cultural herritage from Timisoara – guided tour

Archival Document - research based on archival documents

Students researched the Holocaust based on archival documents.

Documentation session on the topic of the Holocaust and local history at the Documentary - periodical section of the Timis County Library.

The students watched a film on the subject of the Holocaust and received several newspapers from the Second World War about the anti-semitic legislation in Romania and the measures taken during the leadership of General Ion Antonescu regarding the Jews.

Holocaust documentation session at the Holocaust Museum in Northern Transylvania, within Babes Boyai University Cluj Napoca.

Mr. Gelu Păcurar from the Holocaust Museum presented the life of the Jews before Holocaust, the deportations from northern Transylvania starting with 1940, when this territory was ceded to Hungary. We watched 2 videos with the testimonies of Holocaust survivors. We also received access to the documents from the museum that we study with the whole class, during the Jewish history classes.

Meeting with representatives of the Jewish and Roma Communities in Timisoara at the Timis County Library

Professor Luciana Fiedmann, president of the Jewish Community in Timisoara, and Adrian Mirescu the president of the Roma Community in Timisoara presented to the students what happened to the Jews and Roma during the Holocaust. The students were very curious and asked the representatives of Jewish and Roma community questions related with the Holocaust

Testimony

Students listened to Martin Schottek's testimony about the situation of Jews in the Banat region and Timisoara during the Holocaust

Schindler s list - 1993

The students watched Schindler's List film, special screening for students at the Timis Cinema, as a result of the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp and the International Holocaust Remembrance Day

Textbooks and literature recommended for education

The students read history books: 1. Holocaust, Clara MacCarald 2. Holocaust, Europe, the World, and the Jews, 1918-1945 (USA) Norman J.W. (University of Florida Goda 3. The Holocaust in Romania The Destruction of Jews and Gypsies Under the Antonescu Regime, 1940-1944 Radu Ioanid 4. The Routledge Atlas of the Holocaust Martin Gilbert

Szeged Synagogue

The students participated in a guided visit to the Synagogue in Szeged, where they were able to learn about the history of the Jewish community in Szeged and the Anti-Jewish policies în Hungary Starting in 1938, Hungary under Miklós Horthy passed a series of anti-Jewish measures in emulation of Germany's Nürnberg Laws. Following the German occupation of Hungary on March 19, 1944, Jews from the provinces were deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp; between May and July that year, 437,000 Jews were sent there from Hungary, most of them gassed on arrival. In Arad, students discovered Francisc Neuman, a Jewish aristocrat who owned several factories in Arad and saved Jews by employing them in his factories. He was passionate about football and built the stadium that today bears his name -Francisc Neuman Arena.

Testimony at the Szeged Synagogue

At the synagogue in Szeged, students listened to the testimonies of a descendant of a Holocaust survivor: jews from the provinces were deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp, most of them being gassed immediately after they arrived there .

Historical newspapers from timis County Library

The students participated in a documentation session on the topic of the Holocaust and local history at the Documentary - periodical section of the Timis County Library. Here, they received several newspapers from the Second World War about the anti-semitic legislation in Romania and the measures taken during the leadership of General Ion Antonescu regarding the Jews.

Historical images from Szeged Synagogue

In the synagogue in Szeged there are pictures and short biographies of the Jews from Hungary who were deported to camps by the Nazi regime.

TVR Timisoara interview

The Facts not Fiction project, carried out at the Banatul High School with Sports Program, was broadcast on local television TVR Timisoara.

Holocaust Memorial Center Budapest, Shoes on the Danube Bank Monument

The students participated in Local Youth Training Activity on Community impact on October 28, 2025. The activity took place at the Budapest Holocaust Memorial Center. In the Synagogue hall of the Holocaust Memorial Center, students from the Banatul High School with Sports Program performed public speaking activities and presented their final product to their colleagues from the Emanuil Ungureanu Technical College - an interactive map of a guided tour of the Jewish cultural heritage in Timisoara. We visited the exhibition at the Holocaust Memorial, where students had the opportunity to ask questions to the Memorial guides and researchers. We visited the "Shoes on the Danube Bank ", located in front of the Parliament and other cultural sites in Budapest. "Shoes on the Danube Bank" is a memorial in Budapest that honors the thousands of Jewish people who were killed by the fascist Arrow Cross Party during World War II. During the winter of 1944-1945, victims were forced to remove their shoes, which were valuable, and were then shot on the edge of the river so their bodies would fall in. This is the link of the map of the Jewish cultural heritage sites from Timisoara – guided tour: https://tarloodioso.github.io/harta-timisoara/

Staro Sajmiste Concentration Camp

Students from Banatul High School with Sports Program carried out a local awareness activity in Begrad, Serbia, were they share their experience during Facts not Fiction project and makind the end products of the project with students from the 27th Secondary School in Timisoara and Emanuil Ungureanu Technical College in Timisoara. At the activity participated two teachers from Belgrade: Zorana Maticevic Vukadinovic and Maja Milankovic Keskinov, and from Sajmiste Museum - Staro Sajmiste concentration camp -IHRA- mr Vidan Bogdanovic. The students benefited from a guided tour in Sajmiste camp. The Sajmište concentration camp was a Nazi German concentration and extermination camp during World War II. Then we visited the Museum of the History of Yugoslavia in Belgrade. At the museum, students had the opportunity to learn about the history of a neighboring state of Romania during a totalitarian communist regime and were able to compare the totalitarian Nazi regime with the totalitarian communist regime, for two neighboring countries, Romania and Serbia.

Testimony

Students from Banatul High School with Sports Program presented at the Online International Youth Gathering information about the fate of the Jews of Timisoara, jewish families in the Labor Detachments, landmarks of memory in Timisoara and victims of the persecution during the Holocasut: Ezra Fischer, Annie Hammer and Francisc Neuman.

Library

Books recomanded for Holocaust studies

Jewish Life before World War II

Jewish Life before World War II | Holocaust Education | USHMM

The Book Thief, 2005

The students watched the movie The Book Thief, then we discussed in class the historical aspects related to the Holocaust and the fate of the Jews

Poster FNF Project

This is the poster from the presentation of the final products of the project -December 2025

Olga Lengyel - Five Chimneys

Olga Lengyel wrotte her testimony in the book "Five Chimneys" (original title: Five Chimneys / in Romanian: Cuptoarele morții), first published in 1946. It is one of the first and most explicit accounts of the functioning of the extermination camps.

Artifacts

Mr. Gelu Păcurar from the Holocaust Museum presented to the students artifacts who belonged to the Jews before Holocaust.