us-005578-irn72754-irn514035
type: RecordSet
archival history: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
biographical history: Adrienne Matyas was born on May 20, 1923, in Cluj [Cluj-Napoca), Romania, to Akos and Tereza Matyas. Both of her parents were general surgeons with successful medical practices. Akos was born in Nagyenyed on September 21, 1893, to Mihai and Laura Sperber Matyas. Mihai was a physician. Akos had 2 sisters, Miczi and Irma, who married Simon Racz and had 2 children, Eva and Ilona. Tereza was born in Gyergy-Ditro on June 18, 1898, to Albert and Anna Stark Matyas. Albert was a gentleman farmer. Tereza had 3 older brothers, and 1 older and 2 younger sisters. All of her siblings had Gentile spouses. Matyas, the eldest, was a physician with a private 200 bed hospital, his wife was a Catholic opera singer. Another brother was a surgeon, and one a lawyer, her younger sisters married Romanians, a diplomat and colonel. Tereza graduated from medical school in 1920. She and Akos married Akos circa 1922. Adrienne’s sister Mariette was born on April 18, 1933. The family was prosperous and assimilated. Adrienne had governesses from France, Germany, and England, and she learned those languages as well as Hungarian and Romanian. When Adrienne was 10, she decided she wanted to learn about Judaism and went to a rabbi who let her enroll in weekly classes. Romania had a long tradition of vicious antisemitism which increased with rise of Nazi Germany. On August 30, 1940, northern Transylvania, which included Cluj, was reassigned to Hungary by the Second Vienna Award, arbitrated by Germany. After years of near civil war, the loss of this territory forced King Carol to abdicate that September. General Antonescu and the fascist Iron Guard came to power and Romania joined the Axis Alliance. Jewish businesses were confiscated, property destroyed, and there were anti-Jewish pogroms throughout the country. Adrienne, in her final year of high school, transferred to a Hungarian Presbyterian school. In the late 1930s, the Hungarian government had enacted anti-Jewish laws similar to Germany’s Nurember…
has beginning date: 1921-01-01
has end date: 1941-12-31
has or had holder: us-005578
has or had identifier: 1
has or had subject: 701
has record set type: Item
identifier: irn514035
is or was included in: us-005578-irn72754
record resource extent: folder 1
results or resulted from: 1
scope and content: The collection consists of 20 photographs depicting the Matyas family and their experiences in Romania before, during, and after the Holocaust.
title: Matyas family photograph collection