Invitation to the inauguration ceremony of the Holocaust memorial in Kecskemét (1949)

Some 1,300 Jews lived in Kecskemét in the spring of 1944. The Hungarian authorities closed most of them up in the ghetto first and then transferred them to the local brick factory used as a collection camp. Conditions were horrible. Dozens committed suicide. Jews were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau in the last days of June with two transports. Less than a hundred survivors returned, yet, they revived the community. Similarly to other decimated communities, the remaining Jews of Kecskemét also erected a Holocaust memorial in 1949 in order to remember local Jews killed during the Holocaust. The names of the victims were generally put on these memorials. Since the time of the Crusades, Jews have preserved the memory of devastated communities by entering victims’ names in memory books (Yizkor). This practice well suited the traditions of the People of the Book on the one hand and was also practical on the other, as attacks on Jewish communities often left no dead bodies to bury and therefore no graves or tombs as memorial places to visit. Remembering the dead has become a ritual, sacred exercise by reading out the victims’ names once a year and reciting prayers for the deceased.