The international press over the last half a year published two calls in which foreign critics of antisemitism warned that in Chisinau there are two monuments that glorify personages and historic events related to the extermination of Jews during World War II: Octavian Goga’s bust on the Classical Writers’ Alley and a monument to Romanian soldiers who fought in World War I and also to liberate Bessarabia and northern Bucovina in World War II. The Moldovan authorities said they haven’t received any request to review the two monuments considered antisemitic, RFE/RL’s Moldovan Service reports.

According to the quoted source, the distancing from the two monuments was requested in spring by the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Jerusalem, by a letter addressed to President Maia Sandu, and also in autumn, by another letter signed by a group of MEPs. Details from the letter signed by members of different political groups of the European Parliament appeared for the first time in the daily Jerusalem Post. The officials condemned the existence of the two monuments, describing this as “a scandalous act”. The European officials reminded that the Republic of Moldova is obliged to combat antisemitism if it wants to join the EU.

Responding to a request made by the Service, the Ministry of Culture said that it hasn’t received any letter asking it to provide information about the legality of building the two monuments. It noted that Octavian Goga’s bust is a public monument built in 2000 in accordance with the normative regulations in the field and this was added to the Register of State Protected Monuments of the Republic of Moldova, while the spring “General Georgescu P. Ion” erected in Valea Morilor Park in 2021 wasn’t put on the register.

In April 2023, the Simon Wiesenthal Center called on President Maia Sandu to solve the same problem related to the monuments. Contacted by the Service, President Sandu said that any form of violence and inciting of hatred on racial, ethnic, religious grounds or other forms of discrimination should be combated. The monuments are built, relocated or removed by Government decision, at the proposal of the Ministry of Culture, based on a decision by the responsible local public administration.

The Jewish Community of Moldova said there are a series of impediments in the process of perpetuating the memory of the victims of the Holocaust and of preventing the glorification of antisemitic celebrities. The Community repeatedly informed about the necessity of renaming Octavian Goga St that ironically intersects Rabbi Țirilson St.

After similar objections were made to the unveiling of Octavian Goga’s bust in Iasi in 2021, the local authorities reacted and placed on the monument a plaque saying “Unfortunately, his political activity is regrettably for the history of Romania as he was a fascist and antisemitic militant.”