Jews and Roma who died in the Holocaust, commemorated in Bucharest

Jews and Roma who died during the Holocaust were commemorated today in Bucharest at the memorial built in their honor.

The event included a wreath-laying ceremony. Those present recalled in their speeches events that took place during the Holocaust or on October 7 last year in Israel.

Roxana Popa, Public Relations Advisor at the National Institute for Holocaust Studies in Romania "Elie Wiesel", Roxana Popa: On May 15, 1944, the first train with wagons for the transportation of animals left Sighetu Marmatiei, loaded with 3.007 Jews. Also, between 1941 and 1944, over 300.000 Jews of Romanian or Ukrainian origin were victims of the Antonescu regime, dying of bullets, cold, hunger or disease. 11.000 Roma out of the 25.000 deported were exterminated in Transnistria by shooting, starvation, epidemics. More than 13.000 Jews lost their lives during the bloody episodes of January 1941 in Bucharest and June 1941 in Iasi.

National Holocaust Remembrance Day in Romania is marked on October 9.

Translated by: Radu Matei