Russian representatives were not invited to the events marking the 78th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau by the Red Army due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the museum management announced today.

“Due to the attack on a free and independent Ukraine, representatives of the Russian Federation were not invited to the celebration of the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz this year,” which will be held this Friday, – Piotr Savitsky, a spokesman for the museum. , AFP reported.

Until now, Russia has always participated in the ceremonies held annually on January 27, and the representative of Russia delivered a speech at the main ceremony.

According to museum director Pyotr Chivinsky, it was obvious that he could not sign the letter of invitation to the Russian ambassador at the height of the war in Ukraine.

“I hope this will change in the future, but we have a long way to go. (…) Russia will need an extremely long time and very deep introspection after this conflict to return to the living rooms of the civilized world,” he said, according to the PAP news agency.

On the day that Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine on February 24, the museum called the Russian attack an “act of barbarism” that “History will judge, and those responsible, hopefully, at the International Criminal Court.”

Built in Nazi-occupied Poland, Auschwitz-Birkenau is a symbol of the genocide perpetrated by Nazi Germany against six million European Jews, one million of whom died in camps between 1940 and 1945.

The camp, which also killed about 80,000 non-Jewish Poles, 25,000 Gypsies and 20,000 Soviet soldiers, was liberated by the Red Army on January 27, 1945.

RES-EMP source