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Romanian Politician Causes Row Over Holocaust Remarks
News 09 Mar 12 / 09:55:23
Two civic rights groups have launched a lawsuit against a Social
Democrat senator for downplaying the scale of Jewish suffering in
wartime Romania.
Marian Chiriac
Bucharest
The two groups, the Center for Monitoring and Combating
Anti-Semitism, MCA, and Romani Criss, on Thursday filed a criminal
complaint against Dan Sova, a senator for the opposition Social
Democratic Party, PSD, for violating a law outlawing Holocaust denial.
Romani Criss said Sova had "ignored historical facts and the
conclusions of the International Commission for Jewish Holocaust
Research in Romania" and now risked going to jail.
The senator is the first politician to potentially face charges of
Holocaust denial in court in Romania. The state prosecutor must now
decide whether to press the charges in court.
Trouble started on March 5, when Sova downplayed the magnitude of a
massacre of Jews in Iasi in eastern Romania in 1941 while speaking in
a TV interview.
Sova dismissed the figures usually given for the massacre and denied
that Romanian took any part in the bloodshed, insisting that the
German army was "the sole body responsible for that event".
Most historians dispute his words. On June 27, 1941, Iasi saw one of
the worst pogroms in Jewish history, when at least 13,200 Jews were
killed.
A clearly irritated Social Democratic Party leader, Victor Ponta, on
Wednesday said Sova was no longer a PSD spokesman.
He will also be sent to Washington to visit the Holocaust Memorial
Museum to get his facts sorted out.
`Those who have a wrong perception of history should see for
themselves the reality, the evidence,' Ponta said.
For his part, Sova says his statement has been misunderstood and he
regrets that his words were interpreted as a denial of the Holocaust.
In recent years, Romania has made more efforts to confront its bloody
past. In 2002, the Balkan country adopted a law prohibiting Holocaust
denial as well as racist, fascist and xenophobic symbols, uniforms and
gestures.
In 2009 Bucharest unveiled the country's first Holocaust memorial,
after years of delays and disagreements over design and construction
issues.
>From 1939 to 1944 Romania was an ally of Nazi Germany and followed its
anti-Semitic policies.
Up to 380,000 Jews were killed during that time in Romania and in
Romanian-occupied territories, along with other groups of people,
including some 11,000 Roma.
http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/romanian-politician-comes-under-fire-for-holocaust-denial
News 09 Mar 12 / 09:55:23
Two civic rights groups have launched a lawsuit against a Social
Democrat senator for downplaying the scale of Jewish suffering in
wartime Romania.
Marian Chiriac
Bucharest
The two groups, the Center for Monitoring and Combating
Anti-Semitism, MCA, and Romani Criss, on Thursday filed a criminal
complaint against Dan Sova, a senator for the opposition Social
Democratic Party, PSD, for violating a law outlawing Holocaust denial.
Romani Criss said Sova had "ignored historical facts and the
conclusions of the International Commission for Jewish Holocaust
Research in Romania" and now risked going to jail.
The senator is the first politician to potentially face charges of
Holocaust denial in court in Romania. The state prosecutor must now
decide whether to press the charges in court.
Trouble started on March 5, when Sova downplayed the magnitude of a
massacre of Jews in Iasi in eastern Romania in 1941 while speaking in
a TV interview.
Sova dismissed the figures usually given for the massacre and denied
that Romanian took any part in the bloodshed, insisting that the
German army was "the sole body responsible for that event".
Most historians dispute his words. On June 27, 1941, Iasi saw one of
the worst pogroms in Jewish history, when at least 13,200 Jews were
killed.
A clearly irritated Social Democratic Party leader, Victor Ponta, on
Wednesday said Sova was no longer a PSD spokesman.
He will also be sent to Washington to visit the Holocaust Memorial
Museum to get his facts sorted out.
`Those who have a wrong perception of history should see for
themselves the reality, the evidence,' Ponta said.
For his part, Sova says his statement has been misunderstood and he
regrets that his words were interpreted as a denial of the Holocaust.
In recent years, Romania has made more efforts to confront its bloody
past. In 2002, the Balkan country adopted a law prohibiting Holocaust
denial as well as racist, fascist and xenophobic symbols, uniforms and
gestures.
In 2009 Bucharest unveiled the country's first Holocaust memorial,
after years of delays and disagreements over design and construction
issues.
>From 1939 to 1944 Romania was an ally of Nazi Germany and followed its
anti-Semitic policies.
Up to 380,000 Jews were killed during that time in Romania and in
Romanian-occupied territories, along with other groups of people,
including some 11,000 Roma.
http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/romanian-politician-comes-under-fire-for-holocaust-denial