Moldovan parliament condemns Holocaust

Chisinau, 22 July /MOLDPRES/ - The Moldovan MPs today adopted, by majority vote, a political declaration on acceptance of the Report by International Commission on Holocaust, the parliament’s communication and public relations department has reported.   

The document condemns the systematic persecution and extermination of Jews by the Nazi and their assistants on the present territory of Moldova in 1937-44. The political declaration also condemns any attempts of ignoring or denying the Holocaust and pays homage to its victims and survivors.

“Honouring the memory, victims and survivors of the gravest crime of the 20th century - deported, exterminated people for the mere reason of being Jews or Romanies, - is an obligation towards the next generations. Holocaust represents a big historical tragedy, as well as a lesson, the deeds of which must be condemned and known. The condemning of actions of quarreling, anti-Semitism, xenophobia, persecution and extermination of Jews is a guarantee that such tragic events of betraying the mankind will never take place in our society,” the declaration reads.       

Moldova’s parliament considers that the text of the declaration is more topical than ever, given that phenomena of ethnocentrism and xenophobia mutilate people and acquire new forms all over the world.

“The condemning and recognition of the Holocaust is not just a political act, but also a social one, which clearly expresses that, via memory and history, we will never admit any actions or stances due to endanger the human value. This is a proof that our society is mature, tolerant, European, open, which can correctly assess the past and which will protect its future from intolerance and manipulation,” the declaration reads.   

In the context, the MPs encourage the academic environment, schools and universities from Moldova to initiate courses, topic-related discussions and symposia on the memory of the Holocaust, in order to educate the spirit of tolerance, humanism and mutual respect in the society.  

“We commit not to permit ideologies, people or organizations to try to revise and deny the Holocaust. We believe that, through education, research, public discussions, the memory of the Holocaust victims will be honoured, and the crimes – condemned, so that xenophobia, anti-Semitism and racism have no room in Moldova. The repressing of the truth, memories and collective memory is not specific to the citizens of Moldova, who resisted all attempts of revising the past,” the document reads.     

The International Commission on Holocaust, chaired by Elie Wiesel, set up in Romania, unveiled a report in 2004. The document presents conclusions of a comprehensive research of diverse historical sources, which describe the terror of the Holocaust, including on the present territory of Moldova. It is about violent anti-Semite movements, which degenerated in pogroms, mass deportations, creation of centres for concentration and extermination of citizens belonging to the Jewish ethnic group. According to report’s data, in 1941 alone, between 45,000 and 60,000 Jews were killed in Bessarabia and North Bukovina, and about 105,000 - 120,000 Jews died in the wake of expulsions to the Transnistrian region.       

(Editor A. Raileanu)