Obj. ID: 55451
Memorials The Bukovina Holocaust Memorial in Siret, Romania, 2013-24
Name of Monument
The Bucovina Holocaust Memorial
What/Who is commemorated?
Jewish Holocaust Victims from Bukovina
Description
The memorial is in the form of a brick wall the encircles the museum (housed in a 19th-century building reputed to have been a Jewish-owned tavern). The wall presents a bare face to the outside. Once through the gate one enters onto a wooden deck that forms a plaza surrounding the white classical building of the museum. Looking at the 2.15 meter-high enclosing wall, one sees the normal red bricks laced with thousands of bricks with bronze-colored plaques inscribed with names. There are 100 linear meters of wall as part of the monument, with 35 names plates for each linear meter, with fifteen names on each plate, totally approximately 51,000 names. The names proceed alphabetically by family name. Near the entrance gate is a small vertical acknowledgment plaque. Other than the names themselves, this is the only inscription on the memorial. More information about the Holocaust in Bukovina is found inside the museum.
Inscriptions
In Romanian:
Memorialul Holocaustului din Bucovina a fost
realizat cu sprijinul Yad Vashem The World
Holocaust Remembrance Center, The Central
Database of shoah Victims’ Names
(www.yadvashem.org)
şi ai
Institutului Naţional pentru Studierea
Holocaustului din România "Elie Wiesel"
Menţionăm că lista cu numeie victimelor primate de
la Central Database of Shoah Victims' Names
reprezintă un extras parţial și nu complet editat,
sursa fiind actualizată permanent.
The same text, in English:
The Bukovina Holocaust Memorial was made
with the support of Yad Vashem The World
Holocaust Remembrance Center - the Central
Database of Shoah Victims'Names
(www.yadvashem.org)
and of the
"Elie Wiesel" National Institute for the Study of
the Holocaust in Romania
(www.inshr-ew.ro/)
We note that the list of victims' names
provided by the Central Database of Shoah
Victims' Names is a partial and not fully edited
extract, the source thereof being constantly
updated.
Commissioned by
Siret City
Suceava County
National Museum of Bukovina
Yad Vashem World Holocaust Remembrance Center
“Elie Wiesel” National Institute for the Study of the Holocaust in Romania
sub-set tree: 
Metal
Each brick = 21 x 6.5 cms
Acknowledgment plaque 36 x 21 cm.
The Museum of History in Siret was renovated from 2019-2024, during which time a Holocaust Memorial to the Jews of Bucovina was added, but the proposal and design for the memorial dates back at least to 2013.
The memorial, designed by the Romanian architectural firm of ADG, is in the form of a wall the encircles the museum (housed in a 19th-century building reputed to have been a Jewish-owned tavern). The entire project included the renovation of the building and the creation of a new local history museum, a major component of which would be a history of the Jews of Siret, and their fate in the Holocaust.
The President of the Suceava County Council, Gheorghe Flutur, announced in 2019 that the project to renovate and modernize the Siret Museum would receive European funds, and this allowed the project to move forward. Fluter said of the planned museum and Holocaust Memorial, "It will be an extraordinary point of attraction, with everything we have there. At Siret there are also the oldest Jewish cemeteries in Romania and I think that this section, related to the history of the Jews of Bucovina, is something natural for the true history of this area. It is natural to find a place for this at Siret." Then in May 2021, Minister of Culture Bogdan Gheorghiu announced that the museum in Siret, would be refurbished and turned into the Holocaust Memorial of Bucovina. The challenge of collecting the names of victims from Bukovina was managed through the cooperation of Yad Vashem World Holocaust Remembrance Center
And the Elie Wiesel National Institute for the Study of the Holocaust in Romania, which provided the names based on their years of research.
After some delays, the museum and memorial opened in May 2024. The inauguration ceremony began with a prayer in memory of the 6 million Jewish victims of the Holocaust, led by the chief rabbi of Ukraine's Chernivtsi region and the rabbi of the Romanian city of Iași. Flutur, president of the Suceava County Council, expressed his gratitude for the timely prayer and commemoration in Siret. Also present were representatives of the embassies of Israel and Great Britain; Martin Sailer, president of Germany's Schwaben district; and Ruslan Zaparaniuk from the Chernivtsi region in Ukraine. Siret Mayor Adrian Popoiu said that the initiative for the museum was started a decade ago by Stelian Nistor, and expressed his gratitude for the support that led to the project's completion. Nistor conveyed a message from Ronald Lauder, president of the World Jewish Congress, Lauder thanked Flutur and Emil Ursu, director of the Bucovina History Museum, for establishing the museum, acknowledging that history can sometimes be difficult to accept.
"Bucovina Holocaust Memorial to be set up in Siret,” European Jewish Congress webpage, May 3, 2021., https://eurojewcong.org/news/communities-news/romania/bucovina-holocaust-memorial-to-be-set-up-in-siret/?fbclid=IwY2xjawEofKdleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHUM4BgonTT2XRnDHFYlho4s7RGr-L_MmhrEhYeeP1cEJzADXj3EtvoOQYQ_aem_z01Y4RaJG2L8U5bnC4FqYg (accessed August 20, 2024)
Humoreanu, Dana, “Memorial al Holocaustului evreilor din Bucovina,” Monitorul de Suceava, August 30, 2019., https://www.monitorulsv.ro/Ultima-ora-local/2019-08-30/Memorial-al-Holocaustului-evreilor-din-Bucovina (accessed August 20, 2024)
Somfalvi, Attila, “Romania's Suceava County inaugurates new Holocaust memorial museum,” Ynet News, May 28, 2024., https://www.ynetnews.com/article/sylevzqe0 (accessed August 20, 2024)
“Siret History Museum Proposal,” News report by Televiziunea Intermedia Suceava, Youtube, February 26, 2013., http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcEK-a5QtVQ (accessed August 20, 2024)