| Sumario: | ‟Southern Transylvania„was born as a concept after the Vienna Dictate in 1940,according to which Germany and Italy decided on a new frontier between romania and Hungary.Despite the lack of historical,geographical,economical or political reasons,Southern Transylvania consisted of three regions:the south and centre of historical transylvania,Crisana(including Arad County)and the Romanian Banat. In the 1930 Census,Southern Transylvania was inhabited by roughly 3.300.000 people of whom 54.338 were Jews.According tho the 1941 Official Census,the Jewish population in the area consisted of 40.937 persons representing 8,8% of the total Jewish population on the territory of Romania. The majority of the Jewish population was to be found in the following counties: Timis, Arad, Hunedoara, Brasov,Cluj, Turda, Alba.A year later,in 1942,the Jewish population had been reduced to 39.628 persons. In the period September1940-January 1941 the Jews population in confronted with a series of anti-Semitic legislative measures adopted by the shared dictatorship of General Antonescu and the Iron Guard. Based on the politics of ‟makingRomanian„the economy,the they decide to exclude Jews from getting and owning any real estate,and all jews landed properties were nationalized. In what concerns the labor force,Jews were fired,the right to practice for Jewish lawyers and doctors was limited and the military service was replaced by forced labor. In thr period 1941- 1942,Marshal antonescu continued the strategy of restraints and persecutions against the Jewishpopulation using such methods as:extortion of financial resources of the Jewish community,forced labor in group,evacuation of Jews from the Nazi Germany to resort to the ‟final solution„,and deport the Jewish population to the concentration camps of Poland became ominous,but it was finally abandoned. Under these circumstances the Jewish community in the Southern Transylvania was trying very hard to survice by keeping the synagogues open and maitaining the educational system. The community financed canteens,orphanages,asylums for the sick and the elderly,hostels for children. The overthrow of the Antonescu government on August 23,1944 lead to a dramatic situation for the Jews in Southern transylvania,many of them becoming victims of the Hungarian and German armies in places like Sarmas,Ludus during September 1944. But,despite the losses and the suffering the Jews in Southern Transylvania managed to survive the tragedy of the Holocaust.
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