Issie Veisfeld says his decades-long quest for Romania to take responsibility for its part in the Holocaust has come to a successful end.

"The latest news is that Romania now accepts full responsibility for the destruction of what was once a thriving Jewish community of over 800,000 people,” said the president of the Association of Romanian Jewish Survivors of the Holocaust.

Veisfeld said the Communist dictatorship that ruled Romania from 1945 to 1989 denied the country’s responsibility in the Holocaust, during which some 400,000 Romanian Jews died. Some 13,266 Jews died in one pogrom in Iasi, where Veisfeld then lived.

Nearly 10 years ago, Veisfeld presented a brief to then-Romanian president Emil Constantinescu, suggesting several ways Romania could acknowledge its role. Constantinescu had already apologized to the Jewish people.

Since then, Veisfeld said Romania has acted on all his suggestions, including:

• The establishment of a commission to teach the Holocaust in schools;

• An official day of mourning;

• The removal of all statues and street names honouring wartime Romanian leader Ion Antonescu, who perpetrated massacres;

• The cancellation of all pensions to ministers who served under Antonescu;

• The sending of Romanian teachers to Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust memorial, where they learned how to teach about the Holocaust.

Veisfeld also thanked various media and community leaders who covered his quest and directly helped, including Justice Minister Irwin Cotler, Father John Walsh, Canadian Jewish Congress legal advisor Eric Vernon, as well as The Suburban and other media.