Yom HaShoah – Holocaust Remembrance Day on April 24
Yom Hazikaron laShoah ve-laG’vurah, known as Holocaust Remembrance Day, or Holocaust Day, is observed as Israel’s day of commemoration for the approximately six million Jews who perished in the Holocaust as a result of the actions carried out by Nazi Germany and its satellites, and for the Jewish resistance in that period. In Israel, it is a national memorial day. It was inaugurated in 1953, anchored by a law signed by the Prime Minister of Israel David Ben-Gurion and the President of Israel Yitzhak Ben-Zvi. It is held on the 27th of Nisan (April/May), unless the 27th would be adjacent to the Jewish Sabbath, in which case the date is shifted by a day.
The day commeorates mainly the so-called Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in 1943 when Jews within the Warsaw Ghetto in German-occupied Poland during World War II, opposed Nazi Germany’s final effort to transport the remaining Ghetto population to Treblinka. The uprising started on 19 April when the Ghetto refused to surrender to the police commander SS-Brigadeführer Jürgen Stroop, who then ordered the burning of the Ghetto, block by block, ending on 16 May. A total of 13,000 Jews died, about half of them burnt alive or suffocated. It was the largest single revolt by Jews during World War II.
Former PNL leader, again before the DNA
A former vice-president of Romania’s opposition National Liberal Party (PNL) appeared before prosecutors of the country’s National Anti-Corruption Directorate (DBA) in the capital Bucharest on Monday. Vasile Blaga appeared as a witness in a corruption-related case. Mr. Blaga stopped short from making any comments about the event. However, he mentioned the hearing was related to a corruption case in 2015.
EU’s CVM on Romania under debate
Romania’s Prosecutor General Augustin Lazăr and the head of the country’s National Anti-Corruption Directorate (DNA) Laura Codruţa Kövesi are attending a meeting at the Justice Ministry headquarters on Monday. Talks will focus on the Co-Operation and Verifcation Mechanism (CVM), sources say. The CVM is a safeguard measure called by the European Commission when a new mamber has failed to observe the commitments undertaken in the context of the accession negotiations in such fields as freedom, security, justice or internal market policy. On 13 December 2006, the Commission established such mechanisms for co-operation and verification of progress concerning Romania and Bulgaria. Romania’s Minister Delegate for European Affairs Ana Birchall also attends the meeting as she is expected to join a session of the CVM Commission in Brussels. Romanian Prime Minister Sorin Grindeanu said recently he would like Romania to close its CVM monitoring before 2018, when the country would take over the presidency of the EU Council.
Alexandru Danga
