Elefant House Jewish Museum in Vișeu de Sus

Casa Elefant, at 5 Cerbului Street, is one of the last wooden Jewish houses in Vișeu de Sus. Originally it stood on the other side of the river; it was moved and rebuilt next to the historic station of the narrow-gauge railway in the Vaser Valley. A permanent exhibition on the history of the town's Jews opened here on June 13, 2011.

Until World War II, Jews made up 30 to 40 percent of the town's population. The town had 14 synagogues. In 1944 they were deported to Auschwitz and Birkenau and only 780 survivors returned. The museum keeps a small library of old books that belonged to the Jews of Vișeu, along with objects they owned. There is also a cafe in the house, and visits are available on request.

Photo: Strainu / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 ro. Cropped to 650 × 400 px.