Event dedicated to commemoration of the Holocaust, organized by Israeli ambassador to Romania

The Israeli Ambassador to Romania, David Saranga, organized on Thursday, at his residence, an event dedicated to the commemoration of the Holocaust, to which he invited on one of the survivors of Nazi German camps, Octavian Fulop, to tell his story.

"Today, the day of Holocaust Remembrance in Israel, we honor the memory of the 6 million Jews who were humiliated, tortured and killed eight decades ago. (...) This year marks the 80th anniversary of the beginning of the Jews' mass murder operations. The memory remains alive only if a person turns it into something relevant to himself. (...) Today I organized this special event, 'Zikaron BaSalon', which translates to 'Memories from the living room'. In an intimate setting, a Holocaust survivor is invited to tell his story so that the memory of this tragedy can be passed on to the younger generations. His story is about a terrible past that we have a duty to carry on," Saranga said.

Octavian Fulop, a survivor of Nazi Germany's concentration and extermination camps, recalled the difficult times he went through during the Holocaust. He is originally from Transylvania, and when he arrived in the camp he was a child, he was 13 and a half years old. His parents died in those camps.

He mentioned that about 140,000 Jews were deported from Northern Transylvania, of whom 10 percent survived, and currently in Romania there are still 25 survivors of German camps.

Asked if he forgave those who committed those atrocities, Fulop replied: "At that moment, when I was there, you lose your parents, you lose your relatives, you lose your friends, and not just in any way, by gassing, innocent people, they have no graves ( ...), of course, by that judgment, I say what I felt at that moment, after the release I had a hatred in me, to be honest. Now I judge differently. At the moment I can't blame the whole German people. (...) But those who ordered, those who were executioners, I can never forgive them, for as long as I live. That is, they are innocent people, but those who were executioners, those who gave orders, as the executioner also acted on the basis an order, that I could not forgive and I do not forgive. It is impossible for me".

The event was attended by, among others, the President of the Senate, Anca Dragu, the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, Ludovic Orban, the Social Democratic Party (PSD) Senator Titus Corlatean and the Minister of Education, Sorin Cimpeanu.AGERPRES