12, hoping to bring the culprits to justice and force the ex-communist country to face its Nazi past.
Efraim Zuroff of the Simon Wiesenthal Center told reporters he brought to Romania the organization’s "Operation Last Chance," a campaign that was originally introduced to expose war criminals in the Baltics.
PROBLEMS
Officials say the operation has already uncovered over 240 suspected war criminals and sent 55 prosecutors to prosecutors in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia as well as Ukraine. Zuroff said in Bucharest that Romania has serious problems in dealing with its past.
He cited recent comments made by government officials who denied that the Holocaust ever took place in Romania. "It is a problem when the prime minister denies that the Holocaust took place. Or when the president says that other social groups suffered the same as the Jews," the Romanian news agency Mediafax quoted him later as saying.
Records have shown, however, that about one-half of Romania’s Jewish community -of about 750,000 – died during World War Two. Under war-time leader, Marshal Ion Antonescu, Romania became a staunch ally of Nazi Germany.
EXECUTED
Antonescu himself was tried and executed as a war criminal, but continues to be seen by many Romanians as a hero. "Does Romanian society, Romanian leadership have the courage to bring these people to justice,?" Zuroff wondered at a time when the country prepares to join the European Union in 2007.
He said there has been no investigation and no prosecutions of war crimes in Romania. The Simon Wiesenthal Center is offering a 10-thousand dollar reward for any information leading to the prosecution of Romanian war criminals.
Romania’s Jewish community, which now numbers about 13,000, said the project was crucial for Romania as a whole. "We are not looking for revenge. We are only looking for the truth," Alex Sivan, the director of the Federation of Jewish Communities in Romania, told the Reuters news agency.
