Jewish mementos in Györ-Moson-Sopron Comitatus

Vásárosfalu

Cemetery

“There is no Jew and Hungarian, there are only Jewish Hungarians, this trace of land is for them, this soil will faithfully guard their ancestors’ remains” - was said when the 300 year old cemetery was redone in 2004. “Vásárosfalu is not to be found in books which hold evidence of the important Jewish communities, it did not have a traveling rabbi, people here believed in an ideal, in one another and in peace” - rabbi Zoltán Radnóti emphasized in his inaugural address at the reopening of the cemetery, commemorating the events of the Holocaust, the times when “uncertainty and fear gave birth to hatred” and innocent people were sacrificed for hideous theories. Commemorating those who “did not let go of the naive ideal of their childhood days, even at the gates of hell, who did not go away but stayed as Hungarian Jews.”

The cemetery of Vásárosfalu is the oldest Jewish cemetery in this area, it dates back to the 17th century. The earth has since “devoured” the tombstones, only a few standing stones remind us of the past. A simple memorial was put up, it is message and symbol alike. A symbol of faithfulness and of a joint effort, a message to the faithful of how to pay respect to the victims, our ancestors, and also an encouragement to make up for our past in the hope of a peaceful future. Beled born Sándor Grosz who now lives in London contributes a lot towards the restoration of the Jewish cemeteries of the Rábaköz (Raab area). This one is mentioned as a cemetery but in fact is a memorial. It had been a cemetery since the 17th century, the tombstones still stood up to the 60s, they were most likely taken away. The remaining ones were brought to the neighboring Jewish cemetery of Beled.
The Vásárosfalu cemetery was fenced in, it is empty, in its midst lies a memorial and a bed of pebbles which show that the cemetery is still visited to this day.

by Scholem Alejchem & Alexandra Vogt

2012.05.31