A monument in Romania's capital Bucharest has been unveiled commemorating the 300,000 Jews and gypsies who were killed there during the Second World War.

President Traian Basescu said Romania was duty-bound to acknowledge the genocide and remember its victims. Holocaust survivors were present at the ceremony.

Under Communist rule, Romania ignored its role in the Holocaust and the mood of general denial remained after the fall of Communism at the beginning of the 1990s. Only in recent years, have ideas gradually changed.

One reason for the change is research into Romania's war years published in 2003 by a committee of historians led by Nobel laureate and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel.

photo: Victims' names on the Bucharest monument (EPA)