Remembering and Reminding. Memorial Signs of the Komárno Jewry

This study lists the memorial signs and memorials related to the Jewish community of Komárom (Komárno, Slovakia) numbering more than two thousand

before Holocaust. The place of remembrance was for a long time the cemetery where the sign of remembrance was the shrine, set up as a tribute to the memory of the deceased. One of the very first memorial signs installed outside the cemetery commemorates Kálmán Fried, former chairman of the town´s Israelite Charity Society. The memorial is located in the so called “Small Church” belonging to the Jewish Azylum. The second one, set up in one of the halls of the Asylum, pays tribute to the foundation of Ármin Schnitzer, the late chief rabbi of Komárom. The first memorial sign dedicated to commemorate several deceased persons at the same time, was established after World War I and it paid tribute to Jewish soldiers who died in the war. Most of the Jews of Komárom were killed in the Holocaust, so those who remained commemorated the victims by memorial signs. After the transition in 1989, the community having significantly decreased in number, inaugurated the memorials one after another—on one hand with the aim to commemorate those who were killed, and, on the other hand, designated the places which used to be parts of everyday life of Komárom´s Jewry. In the remaining small synagogue the number of memorial signs has grown too: former rabbis and other important persons have been given memorials there. This study not only sums up the memorial signs but also specifies the background of their setting up and their aftermath, and covers rituals connected with the objects serving as memorials.