The Holocaust

Greece's new health minister, Thanos Plevris, on Wednesday afternoon issued an apology for past statements he made as the defense counsel for his father, whom critics in the country and abroad consider a Holocaust denier, and following a same-day critical announcement by the Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece (KIS).

Romania's Foreign Ministry (MAE) is paying "pious homage" to the memory of the Roma Holocaust victims, pointing out that "the sufferings of the Romany people in Nazi concentration and extermination camps and their allies during WWII were long unknown to the general public, which contributed to the perpetuation of prejudices affecting this community." August 2 marks the National Roma Holocaust R

Seventeen funeral scrolls and manuscripts stolen from Jewish communities in Central and Eastern Europe during the Holocaust will now be returned to their rightful owners, the US Department of Justice said on Thursday.

Bucharest, June 30 /Agerpres/ - Interior Minister Lucian Bode has voiced regret for the involvement of the police authorities in the Iasi Pogrom, saying that Parliament's solemn session of Wednesday dedicated to the commemoration of the victims of the 1941 pogrom is a strong signal of firm condemnation of this tragic moment for Romania and the Jews of Romania.

Bucharest, June 30 /Agerpres/ - The Ambassador of the State of Israel in Bucharest, David Saranga, on Wednesday stated, in the context of the commemoration of the victims of the Iasi Pogrom, of June 1941, that Romania must accept "honestly the history" that binds the two countries, and learn from its lessons.

Prime Minister Florin Citu on Wednesday told the joint plenary sitting of Parliament that the June 1941 Iasi Pogrom represents a "black page" in the history of Romania, and also that Romania needs to take responsibility for its past. He stated that the Pogrom of Iasi was the largest anti-Semitic massacre in Romania in the modern era.

Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies Ludovic Orban said on Wednesday that the Iasi Pogrom is the bitter lesson of a history that, although it moves away from us, must not be forgotten. The Romanian Parliament on Wednesday commemorated for the first time ever the victims of the June 1941 Iasi Pogrom in a solemn session as part of a joint plenary sitting.

Polish President Andrzej Sebastian Duda has inaugurated a monument erected in the Latin Catholic Cemetery in Istanbul's Şişli district in honor of Wojciech Rychlewicz, a Polish diplomat who served as the mission chief in his country's consulate-general to Istanbul during World War II.

On March 10, Bulgaria marks the "Day of the Holocaust and Rescue of the Bulgarian Jews" and honors the memory of the victims of the Holocaust and the victims of crimes against humanity. March 10 was designated as the Holocaust Remembrance Day by decision № 105 of the Bulgarian Council of Ministers of February 19, 2003. 

The Jewish community in Cluj in Northern Transylvania has asked auction house Kestenbaum and Company to halt the sell-off of a 19th Century handwritten memorial register of the city's Jewish burials that it believes was stolen during the Holocaust, ahead of bidding that is scheduled to take place on Thursday.