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BUCHAREST - Vandals have knocked over more than 100 gravestones at a Jewish cemetery in Bucharest, causing nearly $1 million in damages, Jewish community officials said on Friday.
The attack at the 20th century cemetery containing graves of victims of the Holocaust and Jewish soldiers, took place during the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah.
"It's worse than in 1977 when an earthquake destroyed many gravestones," said Aurel Vainer, a Romanian Jewish community leader.
Romania has struggled to come to terms with its role in the Nazi extermination of Jews during World War Two.
It denied any participation in the Holocaust until an international commission chaired by Nobel Peace Prize laureate
Elie Wiesel said in 2004 that Romanian authorities had killed up to 380,000 Jews in territories under their control.
Under pro-Nazi Marshal Ian Antonescu, Romania became a German ally in 1940 but switched sides just before the war ended.
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