Russia not invited to ceremony marking Auschwitz liberation

Warsaw, Jan 28: For the first time, Russia was not invited to an annual ceremony marking the liberation of the former Auschwitz-Birkenau Nazi death camp in Poland.

Friday's event marked the 78th anniversary of the Soviet army liberating the concentration and extermination camp in German-occupied Poland, where more than one million people were murdered by the Nazis.

Auschwitz-Birkenau was created as a part of the Holocaust, a process that started with discrimination against Jewish people, and ended with six million Jews being killed because of who they were.

In total, 1.1 million people died in the camp, around one million Jews from across Europe as well as Poles, Soviet POWs, Roma and Sinti.

The event was attended by a group of 18 Auschwitz and Holocaust survivors, as well as Polish President Andrzej Duda and Second Gentleman of the US, Doug Emhoff.

Russia is usually represented at the ceremony, as the camp in occupied Poland was liberated by the Soviet Army.

But this time in the wake of Russia's ongoing war against Ukraine, the Auschwitz-Birkenau museum declined to invite Russian officials and its director, Piotr M. A. Cywinski, likened Moscow's invasion to the horrors of the Holocaust.

In his address at the event, Cywinski said: "It is difficult for us to stand here. More difficult than before. First, war violates treaties, then borders, finally people. Civilian victims, dehumanised, terrorised, humiliated, they do not die by chance. They are taken hostage by wartime megalomania.

"The Warsaw district of Wola, Zamojszczyzna, Oradour and Lidice, now bear different names: Bucha, Irpin, Hostomel, Mariupol and Donetsk (all war-affected regions in Ukraine). Similar sick megalomania, similar lust for power. And almost same-sounding myths of exceptionalism, of greatness, of primacy, but written in Russian.

"Being silent means giving voice to the perpetrators, staying neutral means reaching out to the rapist, remaining indifferent is tantamount to condoning murder. And today, before our very eyes, our memory is putting us to the test..."

At the event, Auschwitz survivors also expressed their fears over the fallout of the war in Ukraine.