Imagine the scene of World War II: destruction, death, and suffering everywhere. Thousands were murdered in gas chambers, while others slowly succumbed to hunger and disease. Daily life was steeped in pain, fear, and despair, in a time when human life seemed to have no value.

It was in this context that George Legmann was born — the first of seven babies who came into the world in 1944 inside the Dachau concentration camp in Germany.

Legmann’s parents were from Transylvania, a region contested between Hungary and Romania. During the war, Hungary aligned itself with Hitler’s Axis and was rewarded with Northern Transylvania, previously part of Romania. This annexation had tragic consequences: the Jewish community was subjected to antisemitic policies and deported to concentration camps.

In the regional capital — called Cluj-Napoca in Romanian, Kolosvár in Hungarian, and Klausenburg in........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)