Toma Kassovitz, a survivor of the Bergen-Belsen extermination camp in Germany, was awarded the title of honorary citizen of Ploiesti municipality on Tuesday.
Local councillors approved, in the ordinary meeting, the project that provides for granting the title of honorary citizen of Ploiesti to Toma Kassovitz.
"Mr. Toma Kassovitz, a survivor of the death camp in Bergen-Belsen, Germany, is a special personality who has impressed by his extraordinary courage and admirable resistance in the face of unimaginable circumstances. Through his life story and his subsequent activities, Mr. Kassovitz has made a significant contribution to preserving the memory of the Holocaust and to educating future generations about the atrocities committed in that dark period of history," the project approval report shows.
According to the cited source, Toma Kassovitz was born in Cluj, in a sanatorium, but the family lived in Turda, as they were all Jewish. In 1940, the surrender of the north-western half of Transylvania trapped them in Cluj.
"Between 1940-1944, he and his family were considered Romanian citizens, of Jewish ethnicity, namely exiles, in the part of Transylvania occupied by the Horthy regime in Budapest. He grew up with his mother and three brothers, while his father worked under false papers in Budapest. In May 1944 they tried to cross the border into Romania clandestinely. They were caught and held by the Hungarian secret police for a month. They escaped and with false papers they reached Budapest, where they hid for another month until they were welcomed into the 'Kasztner group', with which they ended up in Bergen-Belsen camp. In October 1944, they were taken out, and this time their father was brought along with Mr. Toma Kassovitz and his family. The group arrived in Switzerland in November, and the Kassovitz family, because they were Romanians, remained in the camp. In December, the camp was taken over by the Nazi leadership that ran the Auschwitz camp, from a transit camp becoming an extermination camp. As a Jew he would have ended up in Switzerland, but as a Romanian he stayed in the camp until the end of the war," the document states, told Agerpres.
According to the cited document, the distinction offered by the local administration "is a gesture of appreciation and respect for Mr. Toma Kassovitz's efforts to keep alive the memory of the Holocaust and for his positive role on our community and the world."