Museum Commends Moldovan Parliament Action on Holocaust Remembrance

WASHINGTON, DC – The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum commends the recent initiative of the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova endorsing the Final Report of the International Commission on the Holocaust in Romania. This initiative honors the memory of Nobel Laureate and Founding Museum Chairman Elie Wiesel, who headed the Commission.  Professor Wiesel passed away on July 2, 2016.

On Friday, July 22, the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova overwhelmingly adopted a declaration endorsing the report. The Parliament’s declaration condemns the extermination and the persecution of Jews by the Nazis and their Romanian collaborators on the current territory of Moldova during World War II.  It also condemns attempts to deny or ignore the Holocaust and pays homage to its victims and survivors.

At the initiative of the President of the Moldovan Parliament, Adrian Candu, the declaration further states that within 60 days the government will present an action plan to organize national educational and commemorative events in the country. “We commit to not allowing attempts by ideologies, individuals or organizations to revise history and deny the Holocaust,” reads the declaration.  “We consider that by education, research, and public discussions, the memory of Holocaust victims will be honored, and the crimes condemned, so that xenophobia, antisemitism and racism not find place in Moldova.” 

The Final Report of the International Commission on the Holocaust in Romania was accepted by Romania through its President in 2004. The Report documents that in 1941 between 45,000 and 60,000 Jews were killed on the territory of Bessarabia and Bukovina and that between 105,000 and 120,000 Jews from the same provinces perished after being deported to Transnistria, a region between the Dniester and Bug rivers in southwestern Ukraine that was under Romanian occupation and administration during World War II.

The Museum maintains numerous productive relationships with Moldovan governmental and educational institutions, working with Moldovan archival repositories to make available research collections relating to the Holocaust, co-sponsoring scholarly colloquia and presentations in partnership with Moldovan universities, and hosting research scholars from Moldova as fellows of the Museum’s Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies. The Museum’s Academic Publications Program recently published two studies relating to Moldova: Paul Shapiro’s The Kishinev Ghetto, 1941-1942—A Documentary History of the Holocaust in Romania’s Contested Borderlands (with University of Alabama Press, 2015), and Diana Dumitru’s The State, Antisemitism, and Collaboration in the Holocaust—The Borderlands of Romania and the Soviet Union (with Cambridge University Press, 2016).

A living memorial to the Holocaust, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum inspires citizens and leaders worldwide to confront hatred, prevent genocide, and promote human dignity. Its far-reaching educational programs and global impact are made possible by generous donors. For more information, visit www.ushmm.org.