• Holocaust Memorial
In October 2009, a central Holocaust memorial was unveiled in the Romanian capital of Bucharest. It is dedicated to the victims of the Holocaust in Romania. Between 1940 and 1944, hundreds of thousands of Romanian Jews fell victim to the systematic persecution of Jews by the Romanian authorities.
Image: Mogilev-Podolskiy, 1942, Romanian units bring Jews across the River Dniester to Transnistria, Yad Vashem
Mogilev-Podolskiy, 1942, Romanian units bring Jews across the River Dniester to Transnistria, Yad Vashem

Image: Bucharest, 2009, View of the building and the steel column, Stiftung Denkmal
Bucharest, 2009, View of the building and the steel column, Stiftung Denkmal
Before World War II, there were up to 700,000 Jews living in Romania (including the regions of Transylvania and Bessarabia); of those, between 70,000 and 100,000 lived in the capital Bucharest. In 1940, General Ion Antonescu came to power with the help of the Iron Guard, a fascist movement. From the start, the authorities pursued an aggressive policy towards the Jews, accompanied by bloody pogroms. In June 1941, Romania participated in the invasion of the Soviet Union. From the end of 1941 on, Romanian authorities deported up to 150,000 Jews and 25,000 Roma from the regions of Bukovina and Bessarabia to Transnistria – a part of Ukraine occupied by Romania – where they had to live in ghettos and camps in catastrophic conditions. They were deployed in forced labour and many died of hunger and diseases. In 1940, The northern part of Transylvania was ceded to Hungary. Of the approximately 160,000 Jews living there, 120,000 were deported by the Hungarian authorities in cooperation with the SS in 1944.
Despite the anti-Semitic atmosphere, the Jews residing in the Romanian heartland and in Bucharest were at first spared the deportations and mass murders. The anti-Jewish laws, however, excluded them from all spheres of public life, and many Jewish men were deployed in forced labour. When it became foreseeable that the Axis powers would eventually lose the war, Antonescu's government changed its strategy towards the end of 1943: contrary to previous plans, the Romanian Jews were not handed over the the Germans. Those who had been deported to Transnistria could return to their home from the end of 1943 on, as had been demanded by the Jewish communities. In August 1944, in anticipation of the invasion of the Red Army, Antonescu was ousted from power by King Michael I. Romania changed fronts and became an ally of the Soviet Union.
Image: Mogilev-Podolskiy, 1942, Romanian units bring Jews across the River Dniester to Transnistria, Yad Vashem
Mogilev-Podolskiy, 1942, Romanian units bring Jews across the River Dniester to Transnistria, Yad Vashem

Image: Bucharest, 2009, View of the building and the steel column, Stiftung Denkmal
Bucharest, 2009, View of the building and the steel column, Stiftung Denkmal
The Holocaust memorial in Bucharest is dedicated to the Romanian victims of the Holocaust. The fates of the victims as well as the numbers varied greatly in the different regions of Romania. About 100,000 Jews from the regions of Bukovina and Bessarabia died in the camps and ghettos of Transnistria; about 60,000 had been murdered before or they perished in transit camps prior to deportation. About 20,000 Jews died in the Romanian heartland under Antonescu's dictatorship. Hungarian authorities and members of the SS deported about 120,000 Jews from Transylvania to Auschwitz, about 110,000 of them were murdered there. The memorial in Bucharest is also dedicated to the approximately 25,000 Romanian Roma who were deported to Transnistria. It is estimated that about half of them died there.
Image: Târgu Frumos, 1941, Bodies of Jews deported from Iaşi are unloaded from the »death train«, Yad Vashem
Târgu Frumos, 1941, Bodies of Jews deported from Iaşi are unloaded from the »death train«, Yad Vashem

Image: Bucharest, 2009, Opening of the memorial on October 8, Stiftung Denkmal
Bucharest, 2009, Opening of the memorial on October 8, Stiftung Denkmal
On October 8, 2009, the Holocaust memorial was dedicated in the presence of all three Romanian presidents since the collapse of the communist regime. It is located on the square in front of the building that housed the Ministry of the Interior under Antonescu. An international commission of historians chaired by Holocaust survivor and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize Elie Wiesel had initiated the construction of the memorial in 2004 after having completed a report commissioned by the Romanian government on Romania's participation in the Holocaust. This report and the erection of the memorial were the first instances in which the Romanian state openly admitted its involvement in the murder and expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Jews and tens of thousands of Roma during the Holocaust.
The memorial was designed by Peter Jacobi, a German artist originally from Transylvania, and it consists of several parts. At the centre of the premises stands a cubic concrete building with an underground entrance. Inside the building, lit by daylight coming in through the ceiling, are Jewish names inscribed on metal plaques which are attached to the walls. Set up on the sides of the building, at the level of the entrance, are tombstones originating from destroyed Jewish cemeteries in Transnistria and Romania. The memorial furthermore comprises a sculpture of an alienated Star of David, a wheel of corten steel in memory of the deported Roma, and a »Column of Memory« raging into the sky.
Image: Bucharest, 2009, Front of the memorial building, Stiftung Denkmal
Bucharest, 2009, Front of the memorial building, Stiftung Denkmal

Image: Bucharest, 2009, Interior of the memorial, Stiftung Denkmal
Bucharest, 2009, Interior of the memorial, Stiftung Denkmal
Image: Bucharest, 2009, Entrance to the interior of the memorial, Stiftung Denkmal
Bucharest, 2009, Entrance to the interior of the memorial, Stiftung Denkmal
Image: Bucharest, 2009, A circuit leads around the central memorial building, Stiftung Denkmal
Bucharest, 2009, A circuit leads around the central memorial building, Stiftung Denkmal
Image: Bucharest, 2009, Tombstones from Jewish cemeteries destroyed in Transnistria, Stiftung Denkmal
Bucharest, 2009, Tombstones from Jewish cemeteries destroyed in Transnistria, Stiftung Denkmal
Image: Bucharest, 2009, »Column of Memory«, Stiftung Denkmal
Bucharest, 2009, »Column of Memory«, Stiftung Denkmal
Image: Bucharest, 2009, A wheel made out of corten steel in memory of the murdered Roma, Stiftung Denkmal
Bucharest, 2009, A wheel made out of corten steel in memory of the murdered Roma, Stiftung Denkmal
Image: Bucharest, 2009, Alienated Star of David, Stiftung Denkmal
Bucharest, 2009, Alienated Star of David, Stiftung Denkmal
Name
Memorialul Holocaustului
Address
Strada Anghel Saligny
050032 Bucureşti