Romania's agriculture minister said Thursday he did not intend to offend Jews when he compared the slaughter of pigs with swine fever to the Nazi death camp Auschwitz.
Petre Daea attempted to clarify remarks made in a televised interview this week in which he said the incineration of thousands of sick pigs was "very hard work, it's like Auschwitz."
In a statement on Thursday, Daea, a Social Democrat, apologized, saying he respected "all members of the Jewish community" and was merely trying to highlight difficulties faced by pig farmers who have to incinerate livestock.
Several centrist opposition parties – including the Liberal Party and the Save Romania Union – have called for Daea to resign.
Israel's embassy in Romania expressed "dismay and disappointment" over the remarks, Thursday, saying the death of 6 million Jews in the Holocaust "should never be forgotten, trivialized or minimalized."
"We hope … that such an association was made by Minister Daea because of the lack of in-depth information on what the Holocaust and Auschwitz are, without the intention of dishonoring the memory of millions of victims."
Romania's Anti-Discrimination Council said it would summon Daea to explain the comments.
The chairman of the ruling Social Democratic Party, Liviu Dragnea, apologized to the Jewish community, saying the Holocaust was "a tragedy that should never be repeated." He added that Daea had not meant to be offensive, and urged him to avoid expressions "which can deeply offend."
Romania has only in recent years started to come to terms with its role in the extermination of Jews, admitting for the first time in 2003 that it took part in the genocide. Sensitivity toward the Holocaust and knowledge of it remain patchy.
Romania was an ally of Nazi Germany until August 1944, when it changed sides. Much of the Jewish property seized during the war was later nationalized by the communist dictatorship that ruled the country after the war.
According to a 2004 report by a commission headed by Holocaust survivor and Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel, between 280,000 and 380,000 Romanian and Ukrainian Jews were killed by civilian and military authorities in Romania and areas they controlled during the war.
Romania had a prewar Jewish population of about 800,000 but fewer than 11,000 Jews now live in the EU member state, which has a total population of around 20 million.
