Government - No Holocaust on Romanian territory

BUCHAREST, Romania -- A day after allowing American Holocaust experts to study its archives, Romania denied Friday that a mass murder of Jews took place on its territory during World War II. Historians say 250,000 were deported or killed.

"We firmly claim that within the borders of Romania between 1940 and 1945 there was no Holocaust," the Ministry of Public Information said in a statement faxed to The Associated Press.

A local Jewish leader said the statement did not reflect the truth about what happened.

"You cannot say there weren't victims," said Ernest Neuman, head of the 600-member Jewish community in the western city of Timisoara. He said there were historical accounts of killings in the city of Iasi and the capital Bucharest.

Romania has been criticized for a reluctance to come to grips with its role in the Holocaust. On Thursday, the government signed an agreement allowing the Washington-based Holocaust Memorial Museum to study Romanian archives about the Holocaust.

"The government encourages research about the Holocaust in Europe, including of documents of this type found in Romanian archives," the ministry said.

Historical accounts, however, detail how about one-half of Romania's prewar Jewish population of 760,000 was killed during the war. Most died in the former Soviet Union, where they had been deported under the rule of pro-Nazi leader Marshal Ion Antonescu.

Some 130,000 Romanian Jews died after being deported by Hungarian authorities who temporarily ruled parts of Romania.

Historians have documented pogroms in Romania, including one in June 1941 in the northeastern city of Iasi, where up to 12,000 people are believed to have died as Romanian and German soldiers swept from house to house to killing Jews.

There are about 6,000 Jews living in Romania today.