The National Day of Commemoration of the Victims of the Holocaust in Romania: 20 years since the foundation of the Memorial in the Capitaltranslated

This year, the National Day of Commemoration of the Victims of the Holocaust in Romania coincided with the 20th anniversary of the foundation stone laying ceremony, in the Capital, for the Memorial to the Victims of the Holocaust in Romania.

The ceremony was attended by the president of Romania at the time, Traian Băsescu, members of the Government, representatives of the diplomatic corps accredited in Bucharest and members of the Jewish community in Romania.

The day is marked annually on October 9, in memory of Jews and Roma who were persecuted, deported and even killed during the Holocaust in the territories administered by Romania.

Romanian Orthodox hierarchs who defended the persecuted Jews During the years when the far-right ideology fueled racial hatred and persecution, several hierarchs of the Romanian Orthodox Church intervened in support of the threatened Jews. Among them are Patriarch Nicodim Munteanu, Metropolitan Tit Simedrea, Metropolitan Nicolae Bălan and Bishops Andrei Magieru and Nicolae Colan.

Through their actions, the hierarchs protected those in danger and set an example of a dignified attitude in a period marked by discrimination, deportations and violence.…