Digital Technologies Role in the Preservation of Jewish Cultural Heritage: Case Study Heyman House, Oradea, Romania

Abstract

The Jewish architectural heritage is and will remain an integral part of the local cultural heritage, but part of it still needs to be discovered, rehabilitated, maintained and valued. For Oradea, a Central–Eastern European city, this challenge is very specific because the Jewish communities before World War II were very strong and prosperous and because of the current desire to assert the city in the tourism market through urban regeneration. The Jewish community of Oradea had an important representative in Éva Heyman, a child of the Holocaust, nicknamed “Anne Frank of Transylvania”, which became famous. At the age of 13 years, Éva Heyman kept a diary during the Jewish ghettos in Oradea. In addition to the diary, her story is about the house where she grew up, built in the Art Nouveau style at the center of Oradea. Even though this house is of inestimable value from an aesthetic and cultural point of view, very little is known among the local population. Moreover, it is not listed as a historical monument, and its current state of preservation is precarious. With the increasing importance of preserving cultural heritage and computer graphics development, the digitization of historical buildings began to be used more and more for evaluation, preservation and promotion. This paper attempts to highlight the story of Éva Hayman and the house where she grew up. The paper further presents the innovative methods by which it is desired to achieve the presented goal for this architectural jewel. The results show that three-dimensional digitization methods are powerful tools for preservation and use for the benefit of the general public, education professionals, administrators and investors, art historians, restorers, etc., who are concerned with the collection preservation, exploration and mediation of the Jewish cultural heritage.