Russia excluded from Auschwitz liberation celebrations

The “liberators” of Auschwitz are not invited to the anniversary of the infamous Nazi concentration camp. “In connection with the aggression against a free and independent Ukraine, representatives of the Russian Federation were not invited to participate in the celebration of the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz this year,” which will take place this Friday, Petr Savitsky said. museum representative.

Until now, Russia has always participated in the ceremonies held annually on January 27, and its representative spoke at the main ceremony. According to the Polish director of the museum, Piotr Cywinski, it was obvious that he could not “sign any letter to the Russian ambassador in the tone of an invitation” in the context of the conflict.

“I hope this changes in the future, but we have a long way to go. (…) Russia will need an extremely long time and very deep introspection after this conflict to return to the living rooms of the civilized world,” he also said, quoted by the PAP news agency.

On the day of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, the museum called the Russian attack “an act of barbarism.” “This act of barbarism will be judged by history, and its authors, hopefully, by the International Court of Justice,” the museum said in a Twitter post.

Built in occupied Poland, Auschwitz-Birkenau is a symbol of the genocide carried out by Nazi Germany against six million European Jews, one million of whom died in camps between 1940 and 1945, and more than 100,000 non-Jews.

This camp, where about 80,000 non-Jewish Poles, 25,000 Gypsies and 20,000 Soviet soldiers also perished, was liberated by the Red Army on January 27, 1945.