After intense international reactions stirred by the Romanian Prime Minister's recent denial that the Nazi Holocaust had touched Romanian Jewry, Romania's government officially recanted Tuesday, acknowledging that its former leaders deported and exterminated Romanian Jews during World War II. The government statement said that the pro-Nazi Romanian regime during the war "was guilty of grave war crimes, pogroms, and mass deportations of Romanian Jews to territories occupied or controlled by the Romanian army..." and that it was responsible for "discrimination and extermination, which are part of the Holocaust." On the other hand, the government statement claimed that Prime Minister Adrian Nastase and his Cabinet consistently condemned the wartime persecution and killing of Jews.
On the other hand, Romanian President Ion Iliescu criticized his government's Holocaust denial only by saying it reopened a "useless debate" over the extent of Romanian complicity in the Holocaust. The persecutions of Jews in Romania, according to Iliescu, were not on the same scale as in Germany.
As previously reported, the earlier denial of the Romanian chapter in the annals of the Holocaust by Natase outraged Jews in Romania and abroad, leading to warnings from Israel that the relations between the two countries were threatened by the Romanian leader's statement. More than half of Romania's pre-war population of 760,000 Jews were killed after being deported to concentration camps under the control of Romania's pro-Nazi dictator, Ion Antonescu.
On the other hand, Romanian President Ion Iliescu criticized his government's Holocaust denial only by saying it reopened a "useless debate" over the extent of Romanian complicity in the Holocaust. The persecutions of Jews in Romania, according to Iliescu, were not on the same scale as in Germany.
As previously reported, the earlier denial of the Romanian chapter in the annals of the Holocaust by Natase outraged Jews in Romania and abroad, leading to warnings from Israel that the relations between the two countries were threatened by the Romanian leader's statement. More than half of Romania's pre-war population of 760,000 Jews were killed after being deported to concentration camps under the control of Romania's pro-Nazi dictator, Ion Antonescu.
