Conference of the Democratic Jewish Youth Organization

Conference of the Democratic Jewish Youth Organization

The DJYO - Demokrata Zsido Ifjak Szovetsege, Democratic Jewish Youth Organization - was a completely separate organization. A couple of younger guys organized it, who had previously come back from Buchenwald. One of them was Dr. Hersko, who later Romanianized his name to Petru Muresan. He became a party activist and later worked in the Ministry. Vilmos Schwartz, a dentist, was also a member of the DJYO. Emil Lobl, another organizer, was an architect, became a professor at the Polytechnic University and changed his name to Szava. He got in an ideological conflict with Docsi, another DJYO leader, who was a doctor. Andor Havas was also in the leadership and supported Docsi. Then there was Lajko Rot, who remained a communist and became the director of the Romanian department of the local radio. I got into conflict with him because I disagreed with him over the fact that it was forbidden to marry a person with kulak background. I was the secretary of the DJYO for a while. The DJYO collaborated with the Jewish Committee. The Jewish community had nothing to do with these organizations.Back then we didn't really have a political agenda yet, but many of us were already party members and I, myself, joined the party in 1945. In Pap Street there was a building with an L shape and many windows, this is where we organized the DJYO conferences. There was a small room where we had our meetings but this is a picture of the bigger room, where we had the DJYO celebrations. This is what a DJYO conference looked like. The photo was taken in 1946. We had delegates from various places: from Vasarhely, but mostly from Maramarossziget and Nagybanya. The person showing his back is probably Dr. Hersko, he was a tall person. I am next to him, in the right corner and there is only half of me in the picture. I was the secretary at DJYO at that time. One of Lenin's sayings is on the wall above the door. The part of the saying that is visible in the picture says: '? makes mistakes, who doesn't work'. The axiom reveals the mentality of the older generations of the intelligentsia. The DJYO was founded in Kolozsvar and after that we sent members to nearby towns, to organize the local Jews and to open DJYO offices.
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