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The Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles has criticized Israeli President Shimon Peres for thanking Romania for saving Jews.

Efraim Zuroff, the Israel director of the center, issued a statement Aug. 13 saying that Peres should have instead condemned the Romanian state for the tens of thousands of Jews who were killed there during World War II.

On Aug. 12, Peres publicly thanked Romania for helping 400,000 Romanian Jews immigrate to Israel during the communist regime that ended in 1989. Peres, the first Israeli head of state to visit Romania, did not mention Romania’s role in the Holocaust.

The country was responsible for the deaths of 280,000 Jews and 11,000 Roma during World War II under the regime of pro-Nazi Marshal Ion Antonescu, according to a 2004 historical commission.

Of Peres, Zuroff said in a release: “His failure to condemn the horrific crimes of the Antonescu regime against the Jewish people are likely to have very dire consequences, especially in Romania and elsewhere in Eastern Europe, where there is a growing tendency in post-communist societies to deny or minimize the highly significant role played by local Nazi collaborators in the annihilation of the Jews.”

On Aug. 13, Peres made a comment that appeared to address the center’s concerns. While visiting the Holocaust memorial in Bucharest, he said that there was a “cruel and unfair” time in Romania during World War II when people “were killed for the fault of being Jewish” at the hands of “Romanian assassins.” But he also said Romania is totally different today, a free and democratic nation that respects human rights. — ap