Romania will open its first national Holocaust museum more than seven decades since the end of World War II.
The National Museum of Jewish History and the Holocaust in Romania will be in an 86,000-square-foot, eight-story building on the central Calea Victoriei avenue in Bucharest, reported Reuters.
Romanian President Klaus Iohannis supported the creation of the museum in a speech on Tuesday: “Young generations will never cease to wonder how the Holocaust was possible. Many of us have tried to understand what cannot be understood. Uniting our memories is a common good. Therefore, my hope is that this museum will bring us together.”
The museum, coordinated by the Elie Wiesel National Institute for the Study of the Holocaust in Romania, will be aimed at reviving the memory of the Holocaust, strengthening education around the Holocaust and combating anti-Semitism, added Iohannis.
Reuters added that it will also focus on promoting the history, culture and traditions of Jews in the country, in addition to their contribution to modernizing Romanian society.
As many as 380,000 Jews were killed in Romanian territories during World War II, according to Yad Vashem.
The Romanian government in 2003 recognized the role it played in the extermination of Jews during the Holocaust. The following year, Nobel laureate and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, who was born in Romania, chaired the Wiesel Commission, which was established to report on Romania’s involvement in the Holocaust.
