Bucharest, Jan 31 /Agerpres/ - An exhibition dedicated to the commemoration of 80 years since the deportation of ethnic German Romanians to USSR forced labor camps, which also showcases documents from the archives of the National Council for the Study of Securitate Archives (CNSAS), opened on Friday at the Goethe Institute in Bucharest.

'The exhibition is the first in the CNSAS calendar of tribute events for the deportees conscripted for the Soviet Union's rebuilding work. 80 years is a round number, which does not heal and doesn't allow us to forget either. The documents are part of the CNSAS archival resource (...) and are structured by general themes, from the moment the orders were issued, statistics as to the number of people in each locality, artifices the ethnic Germans resorted to at that time in the attempt to escape deportation and, last but not least, letters from the camps,' member of the CNSAS College Laura Cornea said at the opening of the exhibition.

The exhibition titled 'Not To Forget... 80 Years Since the Deportation of Ethnic Germans from Romania' is open for free visits until next Friday, at the Goethe Institute.

According to CNSAS College member Germina Nagat, the 1945 decree ordering the deportation of a vast community of ethnic Germans to URSS reconstruction work represented 'an act of human rights violation', an 'abusive' approach, with long-term consequences in the history of Romania.

The German community at that time was 'solid', 'perfectly integrated', and had made 'an extraordinary contribution' to the history of our country, Nagat explained. AGERPRES (RO - author: Iulia Carciog, editor: Claudia Stanescu; EN - editor: Simona Klodnischi)