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Romania:
The Journey To Truth
by Yifat Bachrach
On 13 June 2003, at the conclusion of
talks on cooperation between the Romanian government archives and
the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the Romanian
government issued the following statement: “The discussions held
on this topic have highlighted, in the final analysis, the
position of the Romanian government: encouragement of research
regarding the Holocaust in Europe while emphasizing the fact that,
within the borders of Romania, there was no Holocaust between
1940-1945.”
The statement was harsh, given that
Romania was the only ally of Nazi Germany that chose not send its
Jews to extermination camps in Poland; instead they were killed by
Romanian armed forces and police in the areas under its control,
including occupied Ukrainian territory given to them by Hitler.
The statement was all the more shocking as it coincided with the
publication of a comprehensive study by Dr. Jean Ancel on the
history of the Holocaust in Romania (Yad Vashem, 2003) which
proves that 420,000 Jews were murdered in greater Romania and the
areas under its control during the Holocaust (240,000 were
Romanian citizens and 180,000 were from the Soviet Union; the
study was also published in Romanian). Yad Vashem was quick to
voice its serious disapproval of this statement.
There is a new
generation in Romania that wants to free itself of all the
lies of the Communist regime - young politicians participate
in a seminar at Yad Vashem (pictured with Kathryn Berman,
Coordinator for Seminars for Educators from Abroad, second
from right, and group coordinator Yosef Rosen, Right) |
In a radio interview on 17 June,
Romanian Minister of Culture and the Denominations Razvan
Theodorescu supported his government’s statement, claiming there
had been no Holocaust within the borders of wartime Romania. Yad
Vashem responded by sending a strongly worded letter to then
Romanian Education Minister Ecaterina Andronescu. In the letter,
Avner Shalev, Chairman of the Directorate of Yad Vashem,
maintained that the statement made by the Romanian government was
a historical falsity. “If Germany were to have made a distinction
similar to that of the Romanian government, it could easily claim
that there was no Holocaust in Germany, since the German Jews were
systematically killed only once they were deported to the death
camps in Eastern Europe.”
On 29 June, following Shalev’s letter,
Romania's Ambassador to Israel, Dr. Valeria Mariana Stoica, and
State Secretary in the Ministry of Culture and the Denominations,
Ion Antonescu, visited Yad Vashem. In a meeting with Shalev, the
ambassador reported that she had spoken with Romanian Prime
Minister Adrian Năstase, who had reiterated his personal
acknowledgement of the historical facts regarding the murder of
Romanian Jews during the Holocaust. Prime Minister Năstase had
said he would investigate who was responsible for releasing the
statement denying that the Holocaust took place in Romania, a
statement that—according to the ambassador—was erroneous.
However, the series of alarming
statements emanating from Romania did not end there. In an
interview with Ha’aretz on 25 July, Romanian President Ion
Iliescu repeated the previous line of the Romanian government and
its representatives: “The Holocaust was not unique to the Jewish
population in Europe. Many others were killed in the same manner,
including Poles,” Iliescu said. He absolved the Romanian people
from any responsibility for the murder of Jews that took place in
Romania during WWII, adding: “In Romania under the Nazis, Jews and
Communists were treated equally.”
Following this interview, Yad Vashem
reached the conclusion that Holocaust denial in Romania is a
deeply
rooted phenomenon. A simple condemnation would no longer
suffice; some form of action was needed to end Romanian ignorance
of the facts, and attempts to avoid responsibility. This time,
Avner Shalev wrote to the Romanian president, inviting him to
establish a commission of historians “so that together we can
investigate the historical truth and publish the facts regarding
Holocaust-related events in Romania.” In his letter, Shalev
proposed that the commission include Romanian Holocaust experts,
and utilize Romanian and German archival documents, survivor
testimony, and Eastern European Holocaust research. Shalev’s
letter earned him the support of many other bodies in Israel and
abroad; among them the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum,
the American Jewish Committee, B’nai Brith, and Israel’s Foreign
Ministry.
Less than three months later, on 22
October, President Iliescu officially announced the establishment
of an International Historical Commission of Enquiry into the
murder of Romania’s Jews, to be headed by Nobel Laureate and Vice
Chairman of the Yad Vashem Council, Professor Elie Wiesel. Before
departing for Romania, Shalev said: “I congratulate the President
of Romania on his courageous decision to confront Romania’s past.
This is a vital step in the process of building the country’s
democratic society, and an essential act for strengthening the
ties between Romania and the Romanian Jewish community in Israel
and abroad.” He added: “The fact that Professor Wiesel is heading
the Commission gives it special weight and historical
significance.”
The letter of appointment written by
the Romanian president states that the Commission will investigate
the Holocaust in Romania in order to ascertain the historical
facts, and publish them in Romania and abroad. Members of the
Commission are to include historians and public figures from
Israel, the United States, Romania, Germany and France. Dr. Jean
Ancel will be one of the five Israeli representatives (see
sidebar).
The Romanian government has pledged to
disseminate and publish the Commission’s findings to the Romanian
public using three methods: publication of the Commission’s report
in Romanian and English; holding conferences, forming discussion
groups and posting a full copy of the Commission report on the
Internet informing the public of the report and its conclusions;
and, most significant of all according to Dr. Ancel, disseminating
and circulating knowledge about the Holocaust of Romanian Jewry in
Romania’s education system, through teacher training programs and
special curricular materials. “The educational aspect of the
Commission’s mandate is its greatest achievement,” notes Dr. Ancel.
In November, Yad Vashem’s
International School for Holocaust Studies,
assisted by
and
the Foreign Ministry,
held a weeklong seminar for Romanian politicians to study the
Holocaust in Romania and understand its importance for Romania
today.
The seminar was initiated by the President of Romania;
seven young politicians representing various political
parties (except for the Fascist “Greater Romania” party) attended.
Leading researchers, including Dr. Ancel, presented lectures and
led discussions on Jewish-Romanian relations during the Holocaust
and today.
The participants also heard testimonies from Romanian Holocaust
survivors.
After the seminar, three
participants—members of the Social-Democratic party (to which
President Iliescu belongs)—sent a letter of thanks: “We came to
Yad Vashem in order to discover the truth. After hearing the
lectures and testimony from survivors, and after seeing the maps
and official documents, we became convinced of the historical
truth… We must be accountable for our history, both the good and
the bad. The Holocaust in Romania was horrific and we are not
proud of what happened… We hope you are convinced of our honest
and genuine intention to assume responsibility and serve as young
ambassadors for the message of peace and friendship.”
The author is Assistant to Yad
Vashem’s Spokesperson
What is the Commission’s
mandate?
Yad Vashem insisted that the scope and
topics of the investigation by the Commission would be as broad as
possible, and would include all elements pertaining to the
Holocaust against Romanian Jewry.
The Commission’s letter of appointment
states: “… The Commission shall investigate events that took place
between December 1937 and May 1945 relating to discrimination,
isolation, enclosure, deportation and physical destruction of the
Jews of Romania; the Commission shall investigate the persecution
of the Gypsies in Romania in 1942-1944; the Commission shall
examine the trials that were conducted immediately after World War
II (1945-1951) in relation to these events. The Commission’s
findings shall be based on archives found in Romania, Moldavia,
the Ukraine, France, Germany, Israel, Russia, the United States,
or any other country…The Commission shall enjoy investigative
independence and shall work according to the criteria of
academic-scientific research; the Romanian government hereby
undertakes to adopt the Commission’s report and its conclusions;
the Romanian government undertakes to open all of its archives and
provide any document needed for the Commission’s investigative
work.”
Dr. Jean Ancel |
According to Dr. Jean Ancel, although
the establishment of the Commission began with a Romanian slip of
the tongue, it marks the beginning of a serious dialogue:
“The establishment of this Commission
represents the Romanian government’s withdrawal of its painful and
unreasonable statements. This is an attempt to retreat from its
previous position and prepare the Romanian people for the
Commission’s findings—which will
determine not whether there was a Holocaust in Romania, but the
extent of the Holocaust—and will
make the Romanian people aware of what has been hidden from them
for so long. I see the establishment of the Commission as an
achievement, because this act is both a way of satisfying the
Jewish people and telling antisemitic circles that the ‘games’ are
over and the time has come to recognize this aspect of Romanian
history, too.”
Dr. Ancel stressed the significance of
the Commission’s establishment as an official government
initiative: “In a country like Romania, which used to be
Communist, if the establishment doesn’t signal that there is a
change, then the people won’t accept it so easily. This time it
comes from the highest echelon, indicating to the Romanian people
that the days of hiding the truth are over, and the time has come
to turn the Holocaust into a subject studied in Romania’s schools,
and to publicize it.”
After his lecture to the seminar
participants, Dr. Ancel said, “There is a new generation in
Romania that wants to free itself of all the lies of the Communist
regime. Slowly this truth will trickle down, forming the basis of
all their attitudes regarding WWII and the devastation perpetrated
against the Jewish people during the Holocaust.”
Copyright ©2004 Yad Vashem The Holocaust
Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority |
