Victims of Holocaust commemorated in Moldovan capital

Chisinau, 25 January /MOLDPRES/ - A rally on the commemoration of the Holocaust’s victims took place at the Monument, Victims of the Fascism, today.  

Attending the event were President Maia Sandu, Ambassador of the State of Israel to Moldova Joel Lion, Culture Minister Sergiu Prodan, the president of the Jewish Community, Alexander Bilinkis, representatives of the diplomatic corps accredited in Chisinau and of the Jewish community.    

In her speech, President Maia Sandu said that, for Moldova, the tragedy of the Jewish people, of the Romanies and of all the others who had suffered in this country during the Holocaust was and would always be a deep wound. These communities, who went through unimaginable ordeal, are integral part of our history and represent models of resilience and courage before the adversity.    

”Each year, we assemble in order to commemorate together such a dark page of the mankind’s history, as we cannot but be frightened, each time when we recall the ordeal of millions of people who became victims of the Holocaust. But at present, the word ‘’history’’ seems to me almost unfit – when we talk about history, we run the risk to imagine that the evil which led to this unprecedented atrocity remained somewhere in the past. Yet, this is not like this: on 7 October 2023, other innocent people – children, women, elderly people – paid with their lives, as there are, in continuation, in our world minds perverted by hatred, ready to kill, to torture, to rape and mutilate. After almost eight decades since ‘’never’’ was said, the mankind witnessed helplessly a new tragedy. We do not talk about history, but about present – a present which shows us again that the lessons of the past have not been fully learned, a present in which the anti-Semitism remains widespread and in which, in many places, the Jews are still afraid of their lives when they go to synagogue, to school or to other important places for their community,’’ the head of state stressed.          

According to the official, at least now, at the twelfth hour, a collective effort is necessary all over the world, so that the hatred, bigotry and prejudices no longer manage to take root – as they are the sources of the evil which turns into monstrous crimes.    

In the context, the president of the Jewish Community, Alexander Bilinkis, said that, on 27 January 1945, one of the biggest Nazi concentration camps, Auschwitz-Birkenau, had been released. ‘’Not less than 1.1 million people were exterminated here, of whom one million were Jews. Almost 80 years have passed, but the memory must be preserved. It is known that, during the World War II, the Nazi and their allies exterminated more than six million Jews. In Moldova, 23 people are still alive, who survived the ghettoes and concentration camps, people who are older than 80 years. ‘’We are obliged to know our own history and diminish the risks for those tragic events to repeat. The tragedy must never repeat and we are everybody responsible for this fact,’’ Alexander Bilinkis said.         

At the event, the president of the bare-Rom Association, Robert Cerari, conveyed a message. He reminded about the suffering of the Jews and Romanies during the World War II. ‘’We think with trembling souls including about those hundreds of thousands of Romanies tortured by the Nazi on those dark days. We are again terrified by the inhumanity of the crimes committed against the nations from Europe. While we bow our heads in the memory of the victims, we must think about the people who went through the horrors of the mass destructions and who live nearby us. Our duty is to take care of them, to provide them with help and the worthy old age which they deserve,’’ Robert Cerari said.      

Moldova’s parliament condemned the Holocaust in July 2014, by adopting a political declaration on the acceptance of the Report of the International Commission for the Studying of the Holocaust, presided over by Elie Wiesel. The political declaration also condemns any attempt of ignoring or denying the Holocaust and pays homage to its victims and survivors.     

The International Holocaust Remembrance Day is annually marked on 27 January. This was decided under a Resolution of the United Nations General Assembly, adopted in 2005. In Moldova, the International Holocaust Remembrance Day has been annually marked since 2015, under a decision approved by the parliament.