International Holocaust Remembrance Day marked in Moldova's capital

Chisinau, 28 January /MOLDPRES/ - A string of actions of commemorating the Holocaust victims took place at the National Library (BNRM) today. The events were organized on the occasion of the International Holocaust Remembrance Day, marked on 27 January.   

Among them, there are a topic-related book exhibition titled, The Holocaust – the Right to Memory, an exhibition of banners titled, The History of Jews, a public lecture dedicated to commemorating the victims of the Holocaust and screenings of documentary films.    

The book exhibition comprises about 50 titles of the National Library’s collection and the one of banners is based on interviews by survivors of the Holocaust from Moldova and those over 400 old family photographs and documents about stories of a lost Jewish society.   

Contacted by MOLDPRES, BNRM director general Elena Pintilei said that the event had taken place within the Week of Holocaust Victims in Moldova. “The event was organized in partnership with the Education, Culture and Research Ministry, Cultural Heritage Institute, Centropa Historical Jewish Institute, Maghid Public Association, city theatre lyceum and other institutions. This day is a lesson of history about one of the most tragic events of the 20th century. Namely therefore, we set the goal that, through these actions of commemorating the Holocaust victims, the public opinion learns better about what happened in the last century,” Elena Pintilei stressed.   

For her part, a university lecturer at the Ion Creanga State Pedagogical University, Diana Dumitru, said that those due to visit these exhibitions would learn more terrible stories through which entire families of Jews went.    

At the event, a researcher at the Cultural Heritage Institute, Irina Sihova, presented a public lecture about the ordeal through which numerous families of Jews went on the territory of the present Moldova in the 20th century. “The present exhibition is not about death, but about life. The stores of those who survived are unveiled here. I knew many of these people. This is a living story of a concrete family,” Irina Sihova said.       

The International Holocaust Remembrance Day, marked on 27 January, was approved by the United Nations General Assembly on 1 November 2005. On 26 November 2015, Moldova’s parliament adopted a decision on the inclusion of this day into the list of official commemorative dates as National Holocaust Victims Remembrance Day.   

The two exhibitions will be opened during ten days.