Life and Death in Transylvania

 

This blog entry is mostly pictorial -  just focusing on some of the juxtapositions of life and death in Transylvania. 

 

I am a Biology teacher. I often stop to take pictures of interesting life or former life.

 

This trip was about the former  Jewish population of Romania so we had cause to visit many sites about death.

 

This is a picture of a dead pigeon I spotted on the main square in Cluj - just after we had visited the monument to those killed in the 1989 uprising. Its body had been cannibalised, leaving just it's wings. It almost looked like an angel of one of the 26 killed in this square in 1989.

The black sheep of the family. Almost like looking in a mirror. 😇

Some mushrooms we spotted on the way to the museum village.

 

 

 

 

I spotted this poster about a memorial exhibition to the victims of Ceausescu's brutal communist regime.    It's not only in the holocaust where many people suffered or were killed.

The memorial in Sighet to the thousands of Jews deported from there.

Jewish Journeys are often about who used to live in these places. These graves belonged to righteous leaders who, instead of being placed in the graveyard with all the others, were placed in purpose built mausoleums to encourage visitors. Each grave is covered with a large metal sheet with a slot in it for visitors to place their messages or wishes, as if these men (and it is usually men) have some direct link to god. Alongside the graves are shelves with prayer books, candles and tissues.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Entry to a cemetery
 

Two very different cemeteries in Săpânţa

Jewish cemetery 

The Jewish cemetery at Săpânţa is a relic. It is a memorial to the once vibrant Jewish population of the area. These people died long before the holocaust and all they knew was the vibrant and active life that the Jews of the area enjoyed.

Gravestones in Săpânţa

There is life in Săpânţa cemetery

 The Merry Cemetery

 This is a cemetery like no other. Every grave has a little rhyme or joke, with a tale of how the person lived or died. There are intricate carvings of them - either in death or in life.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This poor lad died when he was one year old.

 

 

This gentleman suffered the unfortunate fate of being beheaded

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On certain festivals, all the relatives descend on the cemetery and picnic with their departed loved ones. They bring wine, food and candles

The railway platform from where Sighet's Jews were deported.

 

We were driving along a main thoroughfare and I noticed that we were sharing the road with a herd of cattle. As I was getting my phone ready to take a photo, this guy decided to show off his prowess. I didn't even notice what I had captured until I looked at the photo.

 

 

At regular intervals along the way, there were stork nests on the posts. Obviously bringing new life to the people of Săpânţa .

Note the stork's nest.

Youth and death.

I noticed this sign in one synagogue. On the left is the sign directing the reader to the "Talmud Torah" or religion school. On the right is the Chevre Kadisha, the burial board. That's the cycle of life, I suppose ... or used to be when there was a community here.

In the same shul, I spotted these pictures in a book of sketches of the Auschwitz done by an inmate. This is what really happened - even to those who previously had been attending Talmud Torah.