The events marking the 78th anniversary of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp liberation by the Red Army will be held on Friday without Russian participation, Russian Ambassador to Poland Sergey Andreev told Russian reporters on Wednesday.
"We have not received any invitations," he said, stressing that "for the second year now, speeches from Russian and Israeli ambassadors have not been included in the program of the event."
"Nevertheless, our consul in Krakow will hold the ceremony at the memorial to fallen prisoners and at the city cemetery of Auschwitz, where our soldiers fallen during the liberation of the city and the camp are buried," said the ambassador.
According to Andreev, in addition to not inviting the Russian side to the anniversary, the museum closed the Russian exhibit "with reference to the fact that due to sanctions, including in the banking sphere, the Victory Museum cannot transfer money for the maintenance and servicing of the exhibit according to the usual procedure."
"It was possible to find ways if you wanted to. To begin with, they should have sent an agreement to extend the maintenance of the exposition. They did not send it to Moscow, citing difficulties due to sanctions and our retaliatory measures. In May, the Victory Museum offered to look for alternative ways, in other currencies, through other banks, but they replied that it did not suit them," explained the ambassador.
The museum, which organizes the day of remembrance at the site of the former concentration camp, for the second year decided to hold the event in a limited format with a small group of guests and former prisoners. The ceremony will be webcast live.
History of Auschwitz
The Nazis gas chambers at Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp were used by the Nazis to exterminate over 1 million Jewish and Soviet prisoners of war and members of the Polish intelligentsia. According to various estimates, between 1.5 and 2 million people of different nationalities died in the camp, including about 15,000 Soviet citizens.
The year 1942 was a key year in establishing the function of the Auschwitz camp as an extermination center. In the spring of that year, the Germans began the mass deportation of Jews to Auschwitz; the camp authorities decided to create two makeshift gas chambers next to Auschwitz II - Birkenau camp; mass graves were dug next to them, and then the bodies of the victims were simply burned in the open air. At the unloading ramp, SS doctors made selections among the deported Jews. After Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler visited Auschwitz in July 1942, the construction of four crematoriums with gas chambers started, which were commissioned the following spring.
Auschwitz-Birkenau was liberated by the Red Army on January 27, 1945. Over 200 Soviet soldiers and officers died in the battles to liberate the camp and the neighboring town of Auschwitz.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: Michael Pace/Pixabay
Based on materials from TASS