Murska Sobota, Prekmurje region, Slovenia

🇸🇮 Murska Sobota is a town in north-eastern Slovenia. It is the centre of the Municipality of Murska Sobota near the Mura River in the region of Prekmurje and is the regional capital.

History Murska Sobota used to be Yugoslavia's northernmost town, and throughout history it has shifted across borders between Slovenia, Yugoslavia, and Hungary. Hungarians still represent a 3,000-person minority. In 1919, the Republic of Prekmurje was declared here and the town was the capital of the new state. In 1991, during the Ten-Day War between Slovenia and the Yugoslav Federal Army, Murska Sobota was bombed from the air, with no casualties or visible damage. Today, it is a quiet town with an economy based on regional administration, light industry, commerce, and spa tourism. In April 2006, the town became the see of the newly created Roman Catholic Diocese of Murska Sobota, which is a suffragan to the archdiocese of Maribor.

History: Jewish community of Murska Sobota The once significant Jewish community of Murska Sobota was eliminated by Nazi Germany. Before World War II, a synagogue built by Lipót Baumhorn stood in Murska Sobota. It was consecrated on 31 August 1908 and demolished in 1954 by the local communist authorities after they purchased the building from a decimated Jewish community. The last rabbi in Murska Sobota was Lazar Roth. He was murdered at Auschwitz.

On 26 April 1944, all of the Jews were ordered to gather in the Murska Sobota synagogue, with hand luggage only. There, they were locked up overnight without food or water, and the next morning all the Jews of Murska Sobota were transferred to Čakovec and then to Nagykanizsa, the main concentration camp before their final destination of Auschwitz.

On 29 January 2010, the first Holocaust memorial in Slovenia was unveiled at the Murska Sobota railway station. It is dedicated to the exile of Jews from the Prekmurje region.