Karlsburg commemorates Romanian National Holocaust Remembrance Day

A memorial service and concert were held at the Karlsburg/Alba Iulia synagogue to observe Romania’s National Holocaust Remembrance Day. The event honors the victims of the systematic deportations of Jews from Bessarabia and Bukovina to Transnistria, which began on October 9, 1941, under the regime of Marshal Ion Antonescu.

During the commemoration, historian Dr. Andreea Rotche detailed the historical operations involving arrests, executions, and the establishment of ghettos in Chișinău and Cernăuți. She noted that the International Commission on the Holocaust in Romania estimated that between 280,000 and 380,000 Romanian and Ukrainian Jews were murdered in territories under Romanian control, with 105,000 to 120,000 deaths resulting specifically from deportations to Transnistria.

Lia Borza, President of the Jewish Community, and Avram Faibiș, a worship leader, also participated in the service. Dr. Rotche emphasized that understanding this history is essential for fostering tolerance and respect toward different ethnicities and religions in the present day.