Nearly three-quarters of a century since the end of World War II, Romanian President Klaus Iohannis has backed the creation of the country’s first Holocaust museum.
The National Museum of Jewish History and the Holocaust in Romania will highlight Jewish heritage in the country, Iohannis said in a speech.
Up to 380,000 Jews were killed in Romanian-controlled territories during World War II, according to Yad Vashem — The World Holocaust Remembrance Centre.
The museum, coordinated by the Elie Wiesel National Institute for the Study of the Holocaust in Romania, aims to recover the memory of the Holocaust, improve education around the mass murder of Jews and combat antisemitism, Iohannis added.
“Young generations will never cease to wonder how the Holocaust was possible,” he said. “Many of us have tried to understand what cannot be understood.”
The museum will be located in an 86,000-square-foot, eight-story building on the central Calea Victoriei avenue.
Romania had a Jewish population of about 757,000 before World War II, according to Yad Vashem.
In 2003, the Romanian government finally recognised the role previous administrations played in the Holocaust.