Prefect Béla Bethlen was the county's administrative chief, and at the ghettoization planning conference in Satu Mare on April 26, attended by Adolf Eichmann's assistant László Endre, local representatives included: János Schilling, assistant to the prefect; Jenő Veress, mayor of Dej; Lajos Tamási, mayor of Gherla; Gyula Sárosi, chief of police in Dej; Ernő Berecki, his counterpart in Gherla; and Pál Antalffy, commander of the county's gendarmerie.
On April 30, in a special meeting called and chaired by Schilling, the goals and decisions of this conference were imparted to the heads of the county's civil service, gendarmerie and police.
The ghetto was among the region's most wretched, being located in the Bungur forest some 3 km from the city center, at the insistence of virulently anti-Semitic local officials.
[1] Surrounded by barbed wire, the ghetto was guarded by local police, who were aided by a special unit of forty gendarmes brought from Zalău.
[1] The camp commanders were József Gecse and Emil Takács; they prevented the non-Jews from Dej and nearby areas from bringing food to the detainees.