Sighet’s only remaining synagogue is found near Piaţa Libertăţii. You can look around for free, but it’s customary to leave a donation (10 lei). Before WWII the Jewish community was estimated at 50,000 – more than half of Sighet’s prewar population. Sadly, today the local Jewish community numbers around 200.
Most of the Jews perished at Auschwitz-Birkenau after being shipped there in 1944, when Hungary (which ruled over the area at the time) agreed to surrender its Jews to Nazi Germany. Some 38,000 eventually perished and the majority of the survivors chose to emigrate.
