Satu Mare

Satu Mare in County Satu Mare

Satu Mare (pronunciation in Romanian: /'sa.tu 'ma.re/; Hungarian: Szatmárnémeti; German: Sathmar) is a city with a population of 115,000 and the capital of Satu Mare County, Romania.

Satu Mare is the origin of the Satmar community of Hasidic Jews, now residing in New York City, Jerusalem, London, and other places.

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Early Satu Mare History

The area of Satu Mare has been inhabited since the stone age. The archeological discoveries made in Ţara Oaşului, Ardud, Medieşu Aurit, Homorod and other places have unearthed abundant evidence regarding the Stone Age and Bronze Age settlements in this area.

A fortress by the name of Zotmar (Castrum Zotmar) was mentioned in the Gesta Hungarorum as being in the lands ruled by Menumorut in the early 10th century. According to the chronicle, the fortress was taken by the Magyars after three days of fighting. In 1006 Germans were settled around the fortress by the Hungarian queen Gizella. Later, more Germans settled in the town of Mintin, across the Someş river.

After 1543 the fortress, then owned by the Báthory family, was reinforced and a moat was built around it. The fortress was under siege by the Ottomans in 1562 and later destroyed by the Habsburg Monarchy (Austrian Habsburgs). The Austrian Lazar Schwendi, using the latest Italian fortification techniques, rebuilt the fortress. In 1703 the whole city burned down.

In 1721, Satu Mare, united with Mintiu/Mintin, became a "royal free city" and prospered as an important center of trade and craftsmanship.

In the 18th century much of the city was rebuilt and among the landmarks from that time are the old City Hall, the inn and several churches.

At the end of the 1760s the population rose to about 5,000 people.

In 1804, a Roman Catholic Bishopric was established in the city.

In 1902, the first Hasidic Rabbi to settle in Satu Mare, Rabbi Yisachar Bertchi Leifer, the son of the famous Rabbi Mordechai Leifer of Nadvorna, moved from Selish to Satu Mare, where he gathered a large following until his passing in 1906. He was buried in the local Jewish Cemetery, and his grave is still visited by hundreds of Hasidim each year.

According to the census of 1910, Satu Mare had a population of 45,000, out of which 94.5% were Magyars (including the Hungarian-speaking Jews).

On 2 March 1919, Hungarian Prime minister Mihály Károlyi delivered a historic speech in Satu Mare in front of the Székely Division: "we'll fight for our country". It came as an answer to the dispute over the Austro-Hungarian legacy at the end of World War I.

On 20 March 1919 a representative of the Allies in Budapest handed Károlyi a Note ordering him to evacuate a further area of central Hungary for the benefit of the Romanians. The new cease-fire line was: Satu Mare - Carei - Oradea - Salonta - Arad. Count Károlyi's government resigned, and Bolsheviks led by Béla Kun replaced his government.

On 16 April 1919 the Romanian Army started an attack across the cease-fire line against the Hungarian Soviet Republic, and marched on Satu Mare on 19 April.

In 1920 Satu Mare became part of Romania. In 1930 it was the 15th largest city of Romania, with a population of 51,495.

More than half of those who fled Poland after the Nazi German September invasion of 1939 went to Romania and Hungary, passing through Satu Mare.

As a consequence of the Second Vienna Award, on 30 August 1940, the city was given to Hungary with the rest of Northern Transylvania.

During World War II, Satu Mare and the surrounding areas were the stage of many deportations carried out by the Hungarian government, and Antisemitic violence was a common reality in the life of Satu Mare while the city was under Hungarian occupation. In memory of the victims of the crimes committed by the Hungarians and German Nazis in the Satu Mare area, a monument has been raised in front of the Satu Mare Synagogue.

Despite the many casualties and discriminatory measures, however, the bulk of the Jews of Northern Transylvania, like those of Hungary as a whole, lived in relative physical safety, convinced that they would continue to enjoy the protection of the conservative-aristocratic government. This conviction was shattered almost immediately after the German occupation of Hungary on March 19, 1944.

Some details relating to the ghettoization of the Jews in Northern Transylvania were discussed and finalized at two conferences chaired by László Endre (undersecretary of State in the Ministry of the Interior). These were attended by the top Hungarian officials in charge of the Final Solution and representatives of the various counties and municipalities, including the county prefects and/or deputy prefects, mayors, and the police and gendarmerie commanders of the affected counties. The first conference was held in Satu Mare on April 6, 1944, and was devoted to the "de-Jewification" operations in the counties of the Hungarian Gendarmerie (Csendőrség) District IX, namely Bistriţa-Năsăud, Bihor, Cluj, Satu Mare, Sălaj, and Someş.

The area was recovered by Romanian troops and the Soviet Red Army on 25 October 1944 after the intense battle of Carei. During the war at least 18,000 Jews from the Satu Mare area were deported and murdered in concentration and extermination camps as part of the Holocaust.

By 1950 Satu Mare once again had roughly the same population as in 1930. It took almost three decades for Satu Mare to become a properous city once again. In the 1970s the city was subject to an extensive process of modernization undertaken by the Romanian Communist government of that time after the floods that took place on 14 May 1970. The most visible achievement of the reconstruction process was the impressive building of a city hall that features a unique architecture–the symbol of the city. The 1977 census was the first to show Hungarians in a minority. The collapse of Communism placed Satu Mare into a long period of stagnation during the 1990s when it lost around 20,000 inhabitants due to the closing down of many industrial plants.

Nowadays Satu Mare is a dynamic city with an industry that is entering the global economy. A considerable number of the inhabitants are active as guest workers, mostly in Western Europe, while their families remain based in Satu Mare.