The register of Jewish burials in the Romanian city of Cluj-Napoca between 1836 and 1899, is one of very few documents left after more than 18,000 Hungarian-speaking Jews were deported from the city and murdered at Auschwitz-Birkenau. Their homes and synagogues were ransacked, leaving almost no record of their lives and existence; the presence of this book on the auction list came as a shock. Says one survivor, “We have few documents or books, so this manuscript is a vital source of information about the community in the 19th century.” – The New York Times
