I am proud to have the opportunity to speak to you tonight on behalf of my government and of my people. I am here, first and foremost, to thank all of the individuals and organizations who worked with us to create this First Romanian Program to Remember the Holocaust. Thank you to our partners, The American Jewish Committee and The Los Angeles Museum for the Holocaust. Thank you to our guest speakers and most of all -- a profound thank you to all of the survivors who are here tonight. Your faith, courage and hope for the future are an inspiration to us all.
The Romanian word for “thank you” is MULTUMESC. My role here tonight, to put it in Romanian, is “sa va multumesc si sa va explic.” To thank you and to explain. In the next couple of minutes I’d like to acquaint you -- as briefly as I possibly can --with the reasons why my government, at the proposal of several organizations of Holocaust survivors as well as the Federation of the Jewish Communities of Romania has proclaimed the date of October 9th as the day for the annual remembrance of the Holocaust in Romania. It is this event, which we are honoring with tonight’s program.
I’m keeping my discussion brief not only because my American friends have tactfully warned me that no one has ever complained that a speech was too short but because we have a very full and interesting program ahead of us. However, we have copies of the much more in depth and detailed explanations provided by the President of Romania, Mr. Ion Iliescu, on the commemoration day in Romania. Please feel free to take his full address home. Don’t worry. It’s in English.
To put it in a nutshell, Romania has set aside a National Holocaust Day for
three reasons: the past, the present and the future. And since all of us prefer
to live in the here and now, I will begin with the Now. Why Now? And here I
am tempted to answer a question with a question -- and repeat Rabbi's Hillel's
famous question -- a question that survivor Primo Levy also used as the title
to an important book on the Holocaust -- IF NOT NOW WHEN?
Now Romania is emerging as a democratic country and becoming a new member of
the Euro Atlantic community. Now Romania is absolutely determined to embrace
the honesty and the sincerity that is consistent with democratic values and
democratic institutions. And as we all know, there is no greater honesty in
the world than honesty with yourself -- the honesty to look at your own past,
at your own history, at your own mistakes, at your own dark and bitter and painful
moments -- and face up to them, and try to understand them, and take responsibility
for them -- so they will never happen again. To quote from President Iliescu’s
speech: “This dark chapter of our recent past, when the Jews of Romania
became victims of the Holocaust tragedy, must not either be forgotten or minimized.
The first commemoration of October 9th must mark the conscious and honest assumption
of a painful episode in our national history, which the public consciousness
and our collective memory must neither hide nor conceal.
Let’s now take a brief look at that past. The Romanian government has
made a concerted effort over an extended period of time to study the facts.
What happened? I quote again from President Iliescu’s speech: “The
Holocaust has represented one of those serious problems of history, whose approach
was avoided under the Communist regime as well as in the period after 1990.
Sometimes the facts were concealed, other times the truth was distorted. There
were more than a few cases when responsibility transfers have taken place.
Without a doubt, the Nazi regime in Germany carries the major blame for the
Holocaust phenomenon at the European level. But to the Ion Antonescu regime
are corresponding the responsibilities of initiating and organizing the oppressive
and exterminating actions against the Romanian Jews and against Jews in the
territories under Romanian administration. The reality cannot and must not be
concealed. Assuming its own past, with the good and the bad, is not only an
exercise of sincerity, but also a proof of the democratic consciousness, of
the responsibility of the Romanian state leadership, which in one of the decisive
moments of its history did not manage to rise to the height of its essential
mission, that of ensuring the security of all its citizens, regardless of their
ethnic origin… Commemorating for the first time the Holocaust Day in Romania,
I use the occasion of this solemn reunion to suggest that we all bow to the
memory of the victims of this tragic event. According to the latest research,
during the Holocaust, 250,000 people from the territories under Romanian administration
have been murdered, for the sole fault of being born
Jews.
I now want to turn to the third, and ultimately most important reason why every
year on October 9th Romania will commemorate the Holocaust: the future. Concerted
efforts are now being made in Romania to help the new generation know and understand
the truth. For the in depth study of the Holocaust in Romania was constituted
an International Commission formed of well-known specialists, led by Ellie Wiesel,
who was born in Romania. In its turn, the Ministry of Education and Research
has decided to include in the school curriculum an optional class dedicated
to the Holocaust in Romania. Lately, the media has also devoted more time and
attention to radio and television programs and films dealing with The Holocaust.
In 2002, at the National Defense College, the first Holocaust history course
was launched.
As you can see, as a society we are now firmly committed to facing and understanding
the Holocaust, honoring the memory of its victims, and making sure that its
hard lessons are transmitted from generation to generation. While fully living
in the present, we remember the past in order to create a safe and peaceful
and harmonious future.