Cehei Ghetto

JAHF installed an informational marker at the site of the former Cehei ghetto, also known as the Șimleu Silvaniei ghetto. This was one of the Nazi-era ghettos for European Jews during World War II. It was located outside Szilágysomlyó in the village of Somlyócsehi, Szilágy County, Kingdom of Hungary. The ghetto was active in the spring of 1944, following Operation Margarethe.

In Szilágysomlyó (Șimleu Silvaniei), the Jews were rounded up under the direct command of István Pethes; in Zilah (Zalău), by Ferenc Elekes; in the rest of the county, under orders from András Gazda and the direct supervision of György Mariska. Among the larger communities affected were those at Tasnád (Tășnad) and Kraszna (Crasna). The Jews were forced to live on the precincts of the Klein brick factory in Somlyócsehi (Cehei), in a swampy and muddy area some 5 km distant from the center of Szilágyosmlyó (Şimleu Silvaniei). At its peak, there were nearly 8,500 inhabitants, including Jews from the districts of Kraszna, Szilágycseh, Zsibó, Szilágysomlyó, Alsószopor, Tasnád and Zilah.

As the brick shelters could not accommodate everyone, many ghetto residents had to live outside. Security was provided by a special gendarmerie unit from Budapest commanded by Krasznai, a man noted for his cruelty.[2] He practiced constant humiliation of the Jews; in one incident, he led them to the ghetto fence, where they excreted onto a field. He ordered their picture taken, blowing it up and placing it in a shop window in town, with the legend, "this is the lesson of the yids in the Cehei ghetto". At other times, Jews would be forced up a hill, some of them savagely beaten in order to obtain information about where their valuables were hidden. Those watching the beatings were also expected to reveal what they knew.

Conditions in the ghetto were such as to keep inhabitants barely alive during the three to four weeks they spent there. Due to physical torture, lack of food and of water, the Jews of Szilágyság (Sălaj) reached Auschwitz concentration camp in particularly poor shape, so that an unusually high percentage were selected for the gas chambers immediately upon arrival. The deportations from Somlyócsehi (Cehei) took place in three transports: May 31 (3,106), June 3 (3,161) and June 6 (1,584), with a total of 7,851 Jews sent to Auschwitz. Some 1,200 Jews survived the Holocaust but later emigrated from Romania, so that by the 2000s, under fifty Jews remained in the county.