Wiesenthal center criticizes Shimon Peres for thanking Romania for helping the Jews 

Simon Wiesenthal center criticized on Friday, the Israeli President Shimon Peres who thanked the Romanian people for saving the Jews in the past, claiming that the President should have condemned the Romanians for the tens of thousands of Jews who died during World War II, Associated Press reads.

Shimon Peres conducted an official visit in Bucharest and this was the first visit of a Israeli President in Romania since the creation of the Jewish state. During the common conference with his Romanian counterpart, Peres thanked Romania that, during the Communist period, it helped about 400,000 Romanian Jews to emigrate in Israel.

Peres did not mention the role Romania had in the Holocaust, AP reads. On Friday, director of the Israeli branch of the Wiesenthal center, Efraim Zuroff criticized the Israeli President for his declarations and said that he should have condemned the Romanian people for the acts of violence against the Jews in the Second World War.