Auschwitz-Birkenau: Russia Banned from Participating in 80th Anniversary of Liberation over Invasion of Ukraine

Russia will not be allowed to participate in next year’s commemoration marking 80 years since the Red Army liberated the Nazi death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau, the museum announced Monday.

The Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum, located in Oswiecim, Poland, has made the decision to exclude Russia from the event for the third consecutive year, following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Since the invasion, Poland, a NATO and European Union member, has been a firm supporter of Ukraine in its defence against Russian aggression.

Piotr Cywinski, the director of the museum, released a statement explaining the decision to bar Russia from the ceremony.

He emphasised that while the event is primarily to honor the victims of the Holocaust, it also serves as a celebration of freedom, making it inappropriate to include a country currently engaged in military aggression.

“It’s the anniversary of the liberation [of the camp]. We remember the victims, but we also celebrate liberty there,” Cywinski said. “It’s difficult to imagine the presence of Russia, which clearly does not understand the value of liberty.”

Historically, Russia has been a key participant in the annual liberation ceremonies, which take place on January 27 each year. The date marks the day in 1945 when Soviet troops liberated the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and extermination camp, one of the most notorious symbols of Nazi atrocities during World War II.

The Soviet Union’s role in liberating the camp had long been recognised, and Russian officials traditionally took part in the ceremonies alongside representatives from other countries.

However, the invasion of Ukraine has shifted this dynamic. The museum condemned Russia’s attack on Ukraine as a “barbaric act,” drawing a sharp line between the Soviet Union’s role in ending Nazi terror and contemporary Russia’s aggression against a neighbouring country.

The decision to exclude Russia from such a significant historical event reflects not only Poland’s political stance but also broader international condemnation of Moscow’s actions.

Auschwitz-Birkenau is a symbol of Nazi Germany’s genocide during World War II, particularly the Holocaust, in which six million European Jews were systematically murdered. Around one million of those Jews were killed at Auschwitz between 1940 and 1945, along with more than 100,000 other victims, including Polish political prisoners, Romani people, Soviet POWs, and other groups targeted by the Nazis.

As one of the most infamous concentration and extermination camps, Auschwitz-Birkenau has become a global symbol of the horrors of war, the extremities of human cruelty, and the importance of remembering history to prevent its repetition.

The Red Army’s liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau was a crucial moment in the final months of World War II, as Allied forces closed in on Nazi Germany from both the eastern and western fronts.

Soviet soldiers found around 7,000 prisoners who had been left behind when the Nazis evacuated the camp in an effort to cover up evidence of their crimes. The soldiers liberated those who had survived starvation, forced labour, medical experimentation, and the systematic mass killings that characterised the camp.

For decades, the presence of Russian officials at Auschwitz commemorations was a reminder of the Soviet Union’s role in defeating Nazi Germany and liberating concentration camps. Yet in the current geopolitical climate, marked by Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine and Poland’s vocal support of Ukraine, the participation of Russian representatives has become untenable.

The museum’s decision to exclude Russia from the 2024 commemoration thus underscores the tension between remembering historical events and addressing contemporary political realities. It reflects Poland’s clear position on the ongoing war in Ukraine and highlights how current events can reshape the ways in which nations engage with historical memory.

The Soviet Union & Stalin’s Gulag: Hitler’s inspiration?

The dead bodies of prisoners, murdered by the secret police, lie inside a prison camp. Ternopil, Ukraine. July 10, 1941.

The Soviet Gulag, a system of forced labour camps that operated primarily during the reign of Joseph Stalin, was notorious for its harsh conditions, brutality, and widespread death.

Between the 1930s and 1950s, millions of people were imprisoned in the Gulag, which became a central instrument of Soviet repression.

The exact number of deaths within the system has been debated due to the secrecy of Soviet records and the lack of transparency in official reports. However, estimates place the death toll in the Gulag camps at between 1.5 million and 2 million people.

During Stalin’s purges in the late 1930s, the Gulag system expanded dramatically, and the death toll surged as a result of extreme labour conditions, starvation, disease, and executions.

Mortality rates varied over time, with particularly deadly periods in the late 1930s and during World War II, when food shortages and harsh winters exacerbated the already brutal conditions. In 1942 alone, approximately 25% of Gulag prisoners perished due to starvation and exposure.

Scholarly estimates of the number of people who passed through the Gulag range from 15 million to 18 million individuals over the life of the system, with millions more affected indirectly through forced deportations and other repressive measures.

Although the camps were officially closed after Stalin’s death in 1953, the trauma of the Gulag left lasting scars on Soviet society.

While the exact death toll may never be known with complete certainty, the human cost of the Soviet Gulag was enormous, reflecting the system’s role as a tool of political terror and repression. It remains one of the darkest chapters in Soviet history.

Main Image: By xiquinhosilva https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=76102385