Alternate names: Balassagyarmat [Hun], Balážske Ďarmoty [Slov], Balašské Ďarmoty [Cz], Jahrmarkt [Ger], Yarmit [Yid], Dzhormet, Děrmet, Balassa-Gyarmat. The town in northern Hungary at 48°04′43″N 19°17′39″E / 48.07864°N 19.29403°E is 42 miles NNE of Budapest on the Slovak border and was the seat of the Nógrád comitatus. 1900 Jewish population was about 2,000. Synagogue photo. [The Jewish Museum is located in the former prayer house.[February 2009]
A Jewish cemetery here was descrated by neo-Nazi vandals in 1997. The cemetery, 50 miles N of Budapest, dates back to the 1800s. Source: Dateline World Jewry. 7/1997, World Jewish Congress
Hungarian police reported on June 13th that a Jewish cemetery in the northern town of Balassagyarmat was desecrated ahead of a commemoration of Holocaust victims scheduled for the next day. Vandals smashed one tombstone and uprooted several others and painted swastikas and Nazi slogans over the tombstones and surrounding fence. The Federation of Jewish Communities expressed "shock" and said the incident was the result of the authorities' past failure to make full use of the law against "anti-Semites and racists." [6/1998] Source?
Orthodox Cemetery: landmarked. [March 2009]
Neolog Cemetery: [March 2009]