From Community to Catastrophe
Mapping Jewish Life and the Holocaust in Monor
In 1862, 25 families established the Jewish community of Monor
Where were local Jewish institutions and central locations situated, how were they embedded in the town’s spatial structure?
The local survivors collected sources and recollections about the community’s past, and published their „Yizkor” book privately, which is not available to the public. In 2024, a local teacher and I compiled the short history of the community which was also published, but reached a limited audience. As Monor was the site of an active community and a major collecting camp in 1944, I believe it is essential to show the traces of Jewish life and Holocaust-related locations to the locals.
Explore the original work
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Before the catastrophe
The Jewish community of Monor was established in 1862 by twenty-five families. A synagogue, shops, homes and places of work became part of the town’s everyday landscape. The map makes this urban history visible, inviting visitors to begin with lives and institutions rather than only with their destruction.
A geography transformed by persecution
In 1944, anti-Jewish measures transformed familiar streets into a geography of surveillance, confinement and deportation. The StoryMap connects the sites of Jewish communal life with the spaces through which its residents were displaced and persecuted.
Reading absence in the present
A map can show what is no longer visible. By placing photographs, addresses and documents onto a contemporary street plan, this project asks how a town can recognise both its Jewish heritage and the violence through which that heritage was ruptured.
Sources & Credits
Original project references, visual sources and creator credits are collected here in one place.
- Creator & project
Borbala Klacsmann. StoryMap. Who Owns Memory? Digital Public Exhibition, First Cycle 2026.
Monor municipal collection at the Pest County Archives (MNL PML V.1075) recollections of local Holocaust survivors Bound by Fate – In memory of the Jewish community of Monor
- Visual and media material
Photographs, documents, illustrations, video and audio are attributed through the project text, captions and contributor documentation wherever that information was supplied. This exhibition page does not grant additional reuse permissions.
- Digital exhibition edition
Web presentation adapted for Who Owns Memory? (2026), with layout and language editing. The original contributors retain authorship of their research, interpretation and creative work.