No Holocaust in Romania?

There’s quite a difference between zero, 24 and 13,000. Here’s how these numbers are a part of the same story.

Earlier this year, Dan Şova, the new Romanian Minister for Parliamentary Relations, said that “no Jew suffered in Romanian territory.” Oddly enough, when he was a spokesman for the Social Democratic Party he made the claim that “a total of 24 Jews were killed during the last program by the German army.” The truth is that the actual number is closer to 13,000 Jews. If you want the facts, you only have to read the Report of the International Commission on the Holocaust in Romania.

Maybe Şova also believes something like 300,000-plus Romanian Jews somehow vanished instead of being slaughtered by Romanian government troops between 1940-45. These murderers didn’t need Nazi pressure to work at ridding their country of its Jews.

As a result of his false statement, Şova was removed from his spokesperson role and sent to Washington “for an educational visit at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.” Now he is back and has been appointed by his country as Minister of Parliamentary Relations.

Would that there were zero Jews in Romania who were slaughtered. Even a total of 24 is far too many. Thousands upon thousands is unthinkable. France has acknowledged and begun to process its collaboration in the Holocaust. One can only hope that countries like Romania will do the same.

In the Bible the Apostle John wrote: “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.” But his next sentence reads, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”