Over 50 books about the genocide of Jews during World War II were presented at the National Library of the Republic of Moldova at an exhibition mounted on the occasion of the International Holocaust Remembrance Day that is marked on January 27.

National Library director Elena Pintilei said the exhibition tells the young generation and also the grownups that peace and respect between ethnic groups are fundamental values. “January 27 is the day mankind deplores those who were exterminated and tortured in Nazi camps, concentration and forced labor camps and in jails of the Nazi regime. Families were destroyed and family members hadn’t met for many years. This phenomenon to destroy a nation should never repeat,” Elena Pintilei stated for IPN. 

She noted that the number of victims among the Jews who at that time lived on current Moldova’s territory is differently estimated by researchers: from 87,000 (Hathan Ak) to 250,000-300,000 (Rab. Moses Rosen). By December 1, 1941, the absolute majority of Jews in Bessarabia were annihilated or exiled to the Transnistrian region. Bessarabia was declared a territory “free of Jews”.
 
The exhibition includes documents from the library’s collections and books from the Information and Documentation Center of the Council of Europe that is housed by the library. “Any researcher that is interested in the Holocaust should know that the National Library has enough literature on the issue. It has both monographs and periodical editions,” stated Elena Pintilei.

The exhibition “Holocaust, Right to Memory” is open to the public at the National Library until January 31.