„Even if you were born later, open your mind to the memories you inherited from your ancestors. You will feel pain, but you will not be ashamed. The shame will be left in the past”. This is the message of Elie Wiesel, at the inauguration of the Holocaust Monument in Bucharest. The monument commemorates the victims of fascism – Jews and Roma. The initiative of building this monument comes from the Ministry of Culture and Cults, at the International Commission’s for Holocaust Study in Romania recommendation – the Wiesel Commission. The monument was created by the sculptor Peter Jacobi.
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The Holocaust Victims’ Memorial was inaugurated last Thursday. President Traian Basescu, representatives of the Jewish community from the country and abroad, numerous invitees, and two survivors of the deportations to Nazi camps attended the event.
The actress Maia Morgenstern opened the event. Then 12 bundles of Tora were presented by the representatives of the Jewish community in Romania: “the witnesses of the destruction”, which belonged to some victims of the Holocaust. They have been reconditioned in Jerusalem and then brought back to Romania.
After the ceremony Menehem Cohen, Rabbi of the Jewish Community in Romania and President Traian Basescu held speeches.
„Even if you were born later, open your mind to the memories you inherited from your ancestors. You will feel pain, but you will not be ashamed. The shame will be left in the past”, wrote Elie Wiesel in his message sent for this ceremony and read by Sara Brumfield, representative of the Holocaust Museum in Washington.
Liviu Beris, president of the Romanian Jews Association and survivor of the Holocaust and Dumitru Tranca, representative of the Roma community, who was deported to Transnistria during the WWII, held speeches about the tragedy of deportations.
Members of the diplomatic body in Bucharest, cults’ representatives and politicians were present at the event: Roberta Anastase, President of the Chamber of Representatives, Theodor Paleologu, Minister of Culture and Cults, Vasile Blaga, Catalin Predoiu, mayor Sorin Oprescu and representatives of the Jewish and Roma minorities in the parliament.
„Remembering the Holocaust, Romania expresses its responsibility in front of history”
President Traian Basescu presented in the name of the Romanian state a homage to the Holocaust victims, on the occasion of Monument’s inauguration, in the center of Bucharest, saying that “Romania expresses today with dignity its responsibility in front of history”.
The chief of the Romanian state said that between 1940 and 1944 the responsibility for the Holocaust belongs to the Romanian state’s leadership, to Marshal Ion Antonescu and by this to all those who didn’t took attitude toward the abuses and crimes against the Jewish and Roma communities.
“The Holocaust Victims Memorial inaugurated in Bucharest and made by sculptor Peter Jacobi is Romanian society’s mature answer to the need of memory recovery and to the need for a critical look at the past”, stated Basescu, underlining Romania’s obligation to remember the victims of the pogroms from Dorohoi and Galati in 1940, Bucharest, January 1941 and Iasi 1941.
The President underlined the necessity for taking action against xenophobe and anti-Semite manifestations. “A Jewish pray says “Let’s remember”, as the Memorial Column reminds us. We should remember and tell our children and grandchildren the Holocaust tragedy, so that it should not happen again. We should not repeat the crimes, violence and persecutions”, said the President.
The President expressed his hope that Romania will continue to develop the research programs regarding the Holocaust history, following the previous two initiatives: the Elie Wiesel National Institute for Holocaust Studies in Romania and the Jews’ history textbook for high schools. “Due to all those who contributed to these initiatives, Romania shows today its responsibility toward history”, concluded the chief of state.
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The Holocaust monument is built on a surface of 3.000 sqm in the Lipscani area. The Memorial is composed of five elements: the Epitaph, David’s Star, Via Dolorosa, Gipsy’s Wheel, and the Column, wich is the highest one of 20 meters.
The idea of this monument was launched in 2006, but the project was not approved by the General Council of Bucharest, because it didn’t have all the necessary notices from the technical urbanism commission of the mayor’s office.
The sculptor Peter Jacobi won the design projects’ contest finalized in 2006.
According to the 2004 report released by the International Commission for the Holocaust Study in Romania, between 280.000 and 380.000 Romanian and Ukrainian Jews were murdered during WWII and over 25.000 Roma were deported, from these over 11.000 Roma died. (DIVERS – www.divers.ro)