Russia will not be represented at the celebrations marking the 78th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau, the site museum announced on Wednesday (January 25).
“In view of the aggression against a free and independent Ukraine, the representatives of the Russian Federation have not been invited to attend this year’s celebration of the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz,” which is scheduled to take place this Friday, he told Agence France-Presse, Piotr Sawicki , spokesman for the museum.
The extermination camp was liberated by the Red Army on January 27, 1945. Until now, Russia had always taken part in the celebrations, held annually on January 27, with its representative speaking at the main ceremony.
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The invasion of Ukraine, an “act of barbarism”
According to the museum’s director, Piotr Cywinski, it was obvious that he “could not sign a letter to the Russian ambassador in the tone of invitation” in connection with the conflict.
“I hope that will change in the future, but we still have a long way to go. (…) After this conflict, Russia will need an extremely long time and a very deep introspection to return to the living rooms of the civilized world,” he said, quoted by the Polish agency PAP.
On the day Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, the museum called the Russian attack “an act of barbarism, [qui] will be judged by history and its authors – hopefully – by the International Court of Justice,” the museum wrote on Twitter.
Built in occupied Poland, Auschwitz-Birkenau is the symbol of the genocide perpetrated by Nazi Germany against six million European Jews. A million Jews were killed in the camp between 1940 and 1945. In addition, around 80,000 non-Jewish Poles, 25,000 Roma and 20,000 Soviet soldiers died there.
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