Romania commemorates Jewish victims of 1941 pogrom

By AFP 30 June 2021, 6:56 pm

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A child wearing a kippa and holding a Romanian flag walks past tombstones at the Jewish cemetery in the city of Iasi, Romania, on June 29, 2021. (Liviu Chirica/AFP)

Romania, which has long denied taking part in the Holocaust, pays tribute to thousands of Jews killed during a 1941 pogrom in the northeastern city of Iasi.

“We, as a nation, must openly admit that our past was not always glorious,” says Prime Minister Florin Citu at an unprecedented meeting of parliament in the presence of the massacre’s last survivors. Citu recalls the “unimaginable suffering, cruelty and savagery” inflicted on the orders of pro-Nazi marshal Ion Antonescu.

“By commemorating this massacre, the worst in modern Romanian history, the parliament is laying the foundations for a truth-based reconciliation,” says Alexandru Muraru, the government’s top representative for fighting antisemitism and xenophobia.