Miklós Kallós

Miklós (Hungarian) or Nicolae (Romanian) Kallós was born to a religious Jewish family in Oradea on 11 November 1926. His father was employed by the Jewish community.

At the beginning of April 1944, Kallós and his entire family were committed to the Oradea Ghetto, and at the end of May he was deported to Auschwitz with his father. In early June he was transferred to the Little Camp of Buchenwald, and from there to a Brabag subcamp in Magdeburg. When Magdeburg was bombed in late September 1944, he was transferred to Niederorschel, another Buchenwald subcamp. At the beginning of April 1945, the inmates were forced to march to Buchenwald, where they arrived on 10 April.

After liberation, Kallós was initially taken to the Blankenhain hospital to be treated for tuberculosis. Then he returned to Cluj-Napoca and studied psychology and philosophy. In 1948 he became a lecturer on Marxist philosophy and later of sociology and political science. As a tenured professor he served as associate dean and later as dean of the philosophy faculty of the University of Cluj-Napoca; he also edited a number of cultural and scientific journals and was a member of the Academy of Political and Social Sciences. Many of his writings were published. Following his retirement he continued to supervise dissertations. Miklós Kallós is the chairman of the Jewish Community in Cluj-Napoca, vice-chairman of "Memento", the association of survivors of Buchenwald Concentration Camp in Romania, and editor in chief of the association’s bulletin.