LOS ANGELES.–Commemorating the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Nazi Auschwitz-Bikenau death camp in Poland, Russian President Vladimir Putin, 72, asked why Russian officials and WW II survivors were not invited since no country suffered more casualties fighting Hitler’s Third Reich than Russia or the old Soviet Union. Putin asked why the country that sacrificed the most in WW II to stop the Nazi war machine was not included in the 80th year commemoration? German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Britain’s King Charles, French President Emmanuel Maron, Polish President Andrzej Duda and many other foreign dignitaries attended the event. “This is such a strange, shameful thing to do,” Putin told Russian state TV. Whatever misgiving the Western Alliance has about Putin’s war in Ukraine, there’s no excuse for not inviting Russian officials and survivors to the events, since no country sacrificed more than the Soviets.
Liberating numerous Nazi death camps in 1944-1945, the Red army cleared many concentration camps, including Majdanek, Aushwitz, Stuthof, Sacsenhausen and Ravensbruck, while U.S. troops liberated Buchenwald and other camps while British troop liberated Bergen-Belsen and other camps. Russia lost some 28 millions military and civilians battling the Nazis between 1939 and 1945. It was the Red Army that liberated Berlin April 30, 1945, when Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun committed suicide in the Fuhrerbunker, officially endin WW II, six-year Nazi rampage in Europe. Hitler had exterminated 6 million European Jews, but, unknown to most, 4.5 million Soviet civilians, 3.3 million Soviet POWs, 1.8 millions polls, 500,000 Romani, 15,000 homosexuals, 80,000 Free Masons, 270,000 disabled and others totaling 17 million. Horrors of Nazi systematic, scientific extermination camps are unequalled in human history.
Putin wanted to know why the Russian were excluded from the 80th anniversary of liberation to Auschwitz-Birkenau. “You can treat the head of the Russian state, me, in any way you want—no one is asking for any invitation. But if you had thought about it, you could have been a lot more subtle, probably better translated as sensitive. Hilter’s war on the Eastern Front with the Russia accounted for the mass casualties but also by the Germans, eventually depleting the German military. “I am against turning the page, saying ‘that was long ago,” Scholz said at the 80th commemoration of liberating Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp. “We keep alive the memory of the civilization breakdown of the Shoah [Holocaust] committed by Germans, which we pass down to each generation in our country again and again: Our responsibility will not end,” Scholz said about remembering for posterity the horrors of Hitler’s Third Reich.
Excluding Russia was an outrageous omission by members of the 80th anniversary planning committee, knowing the key role the Soviets played in ending the Nazi regime. No other country sacrificed more of its population than Russia to end a collective nightmare on humanity imposed on the world by Germany. How ironic that groups like Hamas and Iran, which believes in Hitler’s Final Solution to murder all European Jews, still hold the same fanatical views on genocide. When Hamas massacred 1,200 Israelis and took another 250 hostage Oct. 7, 2023, they invoked the Holocaust as inspiration. Hamas believes it has a right to exterminate all Jews in Israel because they falsely claim Jews occupy their land. Arabs living in the Holy Land before Israel’s independence, never held one inch of sovereign land. Arabs living in the region lived under Ottoman control for over 500 years.
Putin has every right to question the egregious omission of Russia from the 80th anniversary of Aushwitz-Birkenau’s liberation for at least one million Jews and others exterminated in the Nazi death camp. Putin said if Soviet soldiers could not attend due to death or infirmary, heath or age, at least their ancestors could have been included to mark the camp’s liberation. Inviting Zelensky, whose country Ukraine were Nazi collaborators, was especially insulting, attesting to the vindictiveness of the Western Alliance in prosecuting the Ukraine War against the Kremlin. Things have changed since 78-year-old Donald Trump came to office Jan. 20, knowing that he seeks an end to the Ukraine War. Ukraine has lost the war, something 82-year-old former President Joe Biden and Zelensky refuse to admit. Russia continues to gain territory in Ukraine.
No one sacrificed more to stop the Nazi war machine than the Soviet Union. Putin had every right to question the exclusion of Russia at the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp. History shows that together with 6 million Jews, Nazis slaughtered in death camps 11 million others viewed as undesirable to Hitler’s global ambition of world domination. History must reflect the facts of WW II accurately, noting that the Soviets played the biggest role in defeating Hitler and eventually liberating the death camps than any other country. Excluding the Kremlin from participating in the Aushwitz-Birkenau events not only punishes Putin but it perverts the history of how the Nazi war machine was defeated in WW II. Excluding Russia was a disgraceful act by the Western Alliance, trying to sanitize and distort the real history of WW II.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
