Jozsef Gecse, a Hungarian Nazi who was active in the ghetto, sits next to the body of a Jew killed in the ghetto in Dej

Photograph | Digitized | Photograph Number: 26510

Overview

Caption: Jozsef Gecse, a Hungarian Nazi who was active in the ghetto, sits next to the body of a Jew killed in the ghetto in Dej
Date: 1945 - 1946
Locale: Dej, [Cluj] Romania
Variant Locale: Hungary
Des
Dees
Photo Credit: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Randolph Braham
Event History: The Jewish population of Dej was around 3,500 before the beginning of the war. Following the German occupation of Hungary on March 19, 1944, the Jews of Dej were forced to move to a ghetto situated in a picnic area on the outskirts of the city. Until their deportation to Auschwitz four weeks later, many Jews were tortured and killed, and later buried within the ghetto. After the end of the war, survivors from Dej, mostly former labor servicemen, exhumed the bodies and reinterred them in the local Jewish cemetery with the aid of the authorities. Forensic tests were conducted on some of the bodies in preparation for impending war crimes trials. Several perpetrators of the killings, including Jozsef Gecse and Margit Fekete, were arrested, forced to participate in the exhumation of the bodies, and sent to trial.

Photo Source: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Copyright: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Provenance: Randolph Braham

Keyword: ATROCITIES COFFINS COLLABORATORS CORPSES EXHUMATION/REBURIAL FASCISTS/FASCISM FASCISTS/FASCISM (HUNGARIAN) FORCED CONFRONTATION HUNGARIANS ROMANIANS WAR CRIMES INVESTIGATIONS
Photo Designation: LIBERATION -- Romania -- Atrocities: Burial/Exhumation