Keyword Romanian History

In Iasi, Romania, from June 28 to July 6, 1941, nearly 15 000 Jews were murdered in the course of a horrifying pogrom. At the time, the programmed extermination of European Jews had not yet began. After the war, the successive communist governments did all they could to ensure the Iasi pogrom would be forgotten. It was not until November of 2004 that Romania recognized for the first time its direct responsibility in the pogrom. All that remains of this massacre are about a hundred photographs taken as souvenirs by german and romanian soldiers, and a few remaining survivors.

On August 23rd, 1944, the fascist regime was taken down and Romania changed sides in World War II. 75 years later, inside the Jewish Retirement Home, four of the last survivors of racial persecutions reflect upon the personal and political significance of the event. The different attitudes of the protagonists, their passionate debates and irresolvable conflicts reflect the diversity of the Jewish survivors` experiences, the cleavages in the community and the Romanian society as a whole, as well as the importance and controversy of the events in 1944.