October 10, 2005
Romania must teach its children that Jews were murdered on its territory, its foreign minister Razvan Ungureanu said on Sunday as the country marked its second Holocaust Day. "Admitting what happened, and a proper education of the young generation, will prevent similar events taking place," Ungureanu said at a memorial ceremony in the eastern city of Iasi. He later opened a Jewish Studies Centre in Iasi, where most of Romania's pre-war Jewish population lived. "The city of Iasi has a responsibility to study Jewish history in Romania and to present the Jewish contribution to Romanian culture," said Paul Shapiro, head of advanced studies at the Holocaust museum in Washington, who also attended.
Romania only admitted its role in the Nazi genocide in 2003, when a government denial that Jews had perished on its territory sparked a diplomatic row with Israel. Romanian children were not taught about the Holocaust during decades of Communist rule which ended in 1989, and the subject was introduced into schools only last year following the spat with Israel. Between 280,000 and 380,000 Romanian and Ukrainian Jews were killed by Romanian civilian and military authorities in the Balkan state and territories under its control.
