History of Sighetu Marmatiei

Sighetu Marmației was one of the Romanian, Rusyn, and Jewish cultural and political centers in the Kingdom of Hungary. The Jewish community was led by the Teitelbaum family — who also led the Satmar Hasidic community.

It became part of the Kingdom of Romania after World War I (see Greater Romania), and was again under Hungarian administration during World War II as a result of the Second Vienna Award. The latter lasted until 1944 and in these years more than 20,000 Jews from Sighet would be sent to Auschwitz (including the Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel, born in Sighet) and other Nazi extermination camps. Nowadays there are only about 11 Jews living in Sighetu Marmației.

The Treaty of Paris at the end of World War II voided the Vienna Awards, and Sighetu Marmației returned to Romania