Russian representatives have been barred from attending ceremonies marking the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Nazi concentration camp by the Russian Red Army, the Auschwitz museum administration said today, saying the presence of Russian representatives at the event “would be cynical” given Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
He is the third consecutive exclusion of Russian representatives from these events following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the Auschwitz museum announced today.
Until the invasion of Ukraine, Russia has always participated in the ceremonies held every year on January 27, the day Soviet soldiers arrived at the gates of the Nazi camp, where they found around 7,000 survivors.
“It is difficult to imagine Russia’s presence”
“This is an anniversary of the liberation (of the camp). We commemorate the victims, but we also celebrate freedom there. It is difficult to imagine the presence of Russia, which clearly does not understand the value of freedom,” Pyotr Shiminski, director of the memorial site at the former Nazi camp, said in a press release.
The Auschwitz Museum administration described the Russian invasion of Ukraine as an “act of barbarity.”
Built in occupied Poland, Auschwitz-Birkenau is the symbol of the genocide of six million European Jews by Nazi Germany, one million of whom were murdered at the camp between 1940 and 1945, along with more than 100,000 non-Jews.
About 80,000 non-Jewish Poles, 25,000 Roma and 20,000 Soviet soldiers were also murdered there by the German Nazis.
Source: AMPE
