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In a message conveyed on Thursday on the commemoration of the 82nd anniversary of the anti-Jewish pogrom in Iasi, Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu affirms the government's "firm" commitment to continuing efforts to combat anti-Semitism, xenophobia, discrimination and hate speech, to preserve the memory of the past and condemn the denial of the Holocaust, to support and protect the survivors, as well as to the promotion of Holocaust education and research.
Ciolacu brings to mind that approximately one third of the Jewish population of Iasi fell victim back then to the discriminatory, anti-Semitic and racist policies that etched "a dark moment" in national history.
"It was a stage of history characterized by death and suffering, which ushered in the death of more than 13,000 Jews - men, women, children - victims of the Iasi Pogrom. Today we honor the memory of the victims of this tragic event occurred against the backdrop of an aggressive and visceral anti-Semitism that progressively poisoned Romania and Europe," the head of the Executive notes.
According to him, the events in Iasi and the tragic consequences of the extremist behaviors that characterized that period require each of us today, "as a duty of honor, to acknowledge, own up to and know our history in a responsible manner, so that it never repeats again."
"Therefore, we have a special responsibility to remember the past, to keep its memory alive, especially for the younger generations, to condemn Romania's participation in the Holocaust, to protect the few remaining survivors and also to continue to promote education on Jewish history and the Holocaust," Ciolacu points out.
The prime minister emphasizes the duty to continue the fight "against anti-Semitism and any manifestation of intolerance, discrimination or hate incitement" and efforts "to publicly and unequivocally condemn without hesitation any attempt to deny or distort the Holocaust, and to defend the Romanian society from such threats."
"On February 24, 2022 the Russian Federation brought war back to the European continent by launching an unjustified and unprovoked military aggression against Ukraine, after two years of pandemic. The pandemic and the Russian military aggression against Ukraine have been accompanied by a worrying proliferation of anti-Semitic speech and by the trivialization and distortion of the Holocaust, by an increase in anti-Semitic, intolerant and discriminatory manifestations, especially in the virtual environment, with a harmful impact on Jewish communities around the world as well as on social relations and the cohesion of democratic societies," Ciolacu goes on to remark.
According to him, the commemoration of the Iasi Pogrom also represents "an exhortation not to let ourselves overwhelmed by the threat of hatred, ignorance or denial and to continue to rebuild with understanding, love and respect what some of our forefathers have tried to cruelly and fundamentally destroy."
