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Meeting of The International
Commission on the Holocaust in Romania held at Yad Vashem
by Yifat Bachrach-Ron
In early September, the International
Commission on the Holocaust in Romania held a meeting at Yad
Vashem to review and discuss all the draft papers prepared by its
working groups before presenting their final report to Romanian
President Ion Iliescu in November.
The International Commission on the
Holocaust in Romania was created by President Iliescu in October
2003, backed by the American Jewish Committee, B’nai B’rith, the
US Holocaust Memorial Museum, Israel’s Foreign Ministry and Yad
Vashem. The Commission is chaired by Nobel Peace Laureate
and Vice Chairman of the Yad Vashem Council Professor Elie Wiesel.
The vice-chairs are Israel State Archivist Prof. Tuvia Friling,
the Romanian Institute of Political Defense Studies and Military
History’s General Mihai E. Ionescu, and the US Holocaust Memorial
Museum’s Dr. Radu Ioanid. The Commission’s working group
consists of leading historians and public figures from the United
States, Romania, France, Germany and Israel.
As per the Commission’s mandate, the
final report will examine the Holocaust in Romania, including the
responsibility of the Romanian leadership at the time, and analyze
the relationship of Romania to its past, war crimes trials and the
place of the Holocaust in Romanian public discourse. The
Commission’s conclusions are expected to include recommendations
on ways to foster Holocaust awareness in Romanian education;
increased efforts to document names of Holocaust victims; and
events to highlight Holocaust Remembrance Day in Romania on 9
October.
When the Commission was established,
the Romanian President pledged to disseminate the Commission’s
findings to the Romanian public. This commitment includes
publishing the findings in Romanian and English; informing the
public of them through the media and conferences for different
target groups and decision-makers; creating a website where the
material will be available in Romanian and English; and
disseminating knowledge about the Holocaust in Romania’s
educational system via teacher training programs and the creation
of educational materials. The Commission will also issue an
analysis of current trends of Holocaust denial in Romania and
recommendations on ways to combat them.
In the course of their meetings
Commission members toured Yad Vashem, including the “No Child’s
Play” exhibition where an album donated by Lya Benjamin, herself a
Commission member, is displayed. The album was prepared by Dr.
Ardus Izor for his granddaughter Lya on her first birthday.
Copyright ©2004 Yad Vashem The Holocaust
Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority |
