Romanian president decorates survivors of 1941 Iași pogrom

President Klaus Iohannis signed the decree to decorate three survivors of the June 1941 Iași pogrom, the Presidential Administration announced.

They are Cernea Musi-Mihail, Evron Jehuda and Moshe Yassur.

"To show the utmost respect for the suffering enduring during the Second World War, for the high moral standing they showed throughout their life, and for the efforts to keep alive the memory of the victims of the Holocaust – a tragedy that humankind should never experience again, president Klaus Iohannis bestowed the National Order of Faithful Service, Knight rank, to Cernea Musi-Mihail, Evron Jehuda and Moshe Yassur," a statement from the Presidential Administration reads.

On Wednesday, June 30th, the Romanian Parliament held, for the first time in its history, a solemn session commemorating the victims of the Iaşi pogrom.

More than 13,200 people were killed in the pogrom in the city of Iași, in northeastern Romania.

"The Iași pogrom is not only the tragedy of the Iaşi Jews, following that of the Jews killed during the Legionnaires' rebellion earlier that year, but it is also the drama and responsibility our nation has been facing since then. When the state institutions not only fail lamentably in fulfilling their duties towards the citizens but also discriminate, persecute, and ruthlessly kill them, the reign of absolute evil and arbitrary sets in," president Iohannis said in a statement issued on the commemoration.

"Remembering the suffering of those days and commemorating the victims constitute the main moral reparation that the current and future generations are compelled to show. If this happens, we have the guarantee of taking the responsibility for the facts as they happened and of respect for fundamental rights and freedoms."

(Photo: Parliament session commemorating the Iasi pogrom, Gov.ro)