"Liberation of Auschwitz"

On January 27, 1945 units of the 59th and 60th armies of the 1st Ukrainian front of the Soviet Red Army under the command of Marshal Ivan Konev liberated a major Nazi death camp in Oświęcim – Auschwitz (Poland). The whole world was in shock when the grim reality of the Nazi extermination machine came to light. More than 1,1 million people – mostly Jews – and many other nationalities, including Soviet prisoners of war, perished in Auschwitz. This is imprinted in historical memory of the mankind and every victim of this horrendous crime against humanity shall never be forgotten. January 27 has been rightfully designated by the United Nations General Assembly as a symbolic day of sorrow - International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

This day is marked in Ireland by a ceremony organised by the “Holocaust Education Ireland”. Regrettably, this year the event has been overshadowed by a public discord over issues not related to the Holocaust, including, among others, whether or not the Israeli Ambassador has been invited. The president of “Holocaust Education Ireland” tried to play it down by saying that all ambassadors have been invited and that HEI wanted to stay out of politics. That is not true - Ambassador of Russia was not invited and that has been the case since the conflict in Ukraine started. It does not matter whose that petty and misplaced idea was - HEI or the Irish government. What matters is that it is wrong and disrespectful to the memory of the Soviet soldiers who fought and died to liberate Auschwitz and crush the Third Reich. It is self-demeaning on the part of HEI to act in a manner that edits history according to the political fashion of the day. We will always resolutely oppose such attempts by remembering all victims of German Nazism and every Soviet and Allied soldier who lost life in the fight against this evil. Taking the stand in defence of historical truth and against neo-Nazi revanchism has an added importance today as we approach the 80th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic war and the end of the World War II.