SWC to Romanian Mayor: Apologize, Resign and Bring “Crimes of Wehrmacht” Exhibition to City
July 21, 2009
SWC to Romanian Mayor: Apologize, Resign and Bring “Crimes of Wehrmacht” Exhibition to City
Jerusalem – The Simon Wiesenthal Center today called upon the mayor of the Romanian city of Constanza Radu Mazare to resign his position in the wake of his appearance last week at a public fashion show dressed as a Wehrmacht officer, accompanied by his 15 year old son in a Nazi army uniform. In a letter sent today to Mazare by its Israel director Holocaust historian Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Center expressed a sense of insult and outrage at the poor judgment Mazare exhibited and called for his resignation.
According to Zuroff: “It would hard to adequately describe the depth of the pain that your appearance caused, not only to Jews and other victims of Nazism, but to any person of moral integrity who knows the history of World War II. Today it is well-known that the Wehrmacht played an active role in the mass murder of European Jewry and many other innocent victims. By dressing in a Wehrmacht uniform, you are expressing totally unwarranted support and nostalgia for an army which committed the most terrible war crimes and acts of genocide. “Under these circumstances, I believe that the proper thing for you to do is to admit your mistake, apologize for it and resign your position. After that you can begin to make amends for your incredible lack of judgment by creating a Romanian-language edition of the universally acclaimed exhibition on the crimes of the Wehrmacht created by the Hamburg Institute of Social Research and bring it to Constanta and elsewhere in Romania. At least in that case, some good will come out of your unfortunate mistake.” For more information call 00-972-50-7214156
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