Oradea's Orthodox synagogue dates from 1890 and was the main house of worship for around a third of the city's Jewish residents before WWII. It survived the war intact, but was badly neglected afterwards and at the time of research was undergoing a thorough renovation, which was close to completion.
Just behind and to the left of the synagogue is a small Holocaust Memorial remembering some 30,000 Oradea Jews who perished. Most of the victims were executed at the German Nazi extermination camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland in May and June 1944, after being forced to live in a cramped, sealed ghetto here. The ghetto was located in the area surrounding the synagogue and remains a depressed area to this day.
