Holocaust memorial to be dedicated in Bucharest
October 5, 2009
http://jta.org/news/article/2009/10/...d-in-bucharest
(JTA) -- A Romanian National Holocaust Memorial commemorating Jews and Gypsies killed in the Shoah will be dedicated in central Bucharest.
Holocaust survivors as well as political, cultural, social and religious dignitaries are to take part in the Oct. 8 ceremony. Since 2004, Romania has marked Oct. 9 as Holocaust Commemoration Day.
President Traian Basescu laid the cornerstone for the memorial in 2006 and is expected to attend the dedication.
The Romania Ministry of Culture, Religious Affairs and National Heritage described the monument, designed by Peter Jacobi, as "a contemporary expression of a memorial, the bearer of a message, a visible sign, an active space with which the public can interact freely."
The monument includes five sculptures symbolizing Jewish and Roma suffering, a central memorial site and two installations using tombstones.
Among those attending the dedication will be Warren Miller, chairman of the U.S. Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad, and Rabbi Andrew Baker, director of International Affairs of the American Jewish Committee, who also serves as the OSCE representative on combating anti-Semitism.
Construction of the monument was mandated by an international commission on the Holocaust in Romania, headed by Elie Wiesel, which released a 400-page report in 2004. As many as 380,000 Jews, and thousands of Gypsies, were killed in the Holocaust in Romanian-occupied territories.