Indifference kills. That Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskyy’s message to the world on Friday as Ukraine’s first Jewish head of state marked International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
“Today, as always, Ukraine honors the memory of millions of victims of the Holocaust. We know and do not forget that indifference kills with hatred. Indifference and hatred can at all times create evil only together,” the Ukrainian leader said. , addressing U. S. and European diplomats attending the memorial service amid Russia’s ongoing war against their country.
Friday marked the 78th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp from Nazi Germany in Poland, and Zelenskyy spoke at the Bathroughn Yar memorial near Kiev, the site of one of the deadliest atrocities committed during World War II. Nazi.
“We repeat it even more forcefully than before: never return to hatred, never return to indifference,” Zelenskyy said. “The more the nations of the world triumph over indifference, the less room there will be in the world for hatred. “
Zelenskyy’s message contrasts with that of Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose war with Ukraine has entered its 12th month.
On Friday, Putin repeated a false claim he has long used to justify his invasion of the neighboring nation, suggesting that “neo-Nazis” allied with Zelenskyy were committing crimes in regions of Ukraine.
“Forgetting history classes leads to the repetition of terrible tragedies,” Putin said. “This is evidenced through crimes against civilians, ethnic cleansing and punitive movements organized by neo-Nazis in Ukraine. It opposes this evil that our are bravely fighting.
Supporters of Putin’s army operation claimed that Ukraine’s remedy of Russian speakers in the country was comparable to Nazi Germany’s moves. These claims have been refuted by the Ukrainian government, its foreign partners, and Ukraine’s own Jewish community, of which Zelensky himself is a member. .
The Auschwitz Museum in Poland, citing Russia’s ongoing attack on Ukraine, chose to invite Russian representatives to its official rite on Friday marking the day the Soviet Union’s then-Red Army freed prisoners from the Nazi death camp Auschwitz.
“Russia will want an incredibly long and deep examination after this clash to return to the meetings of the civilized world,” museum spokesman Pyotr Sawicki said at the site of the former camp.
“For us,” Russia’s leader Rabbi Berel Lazar told AFP, “this is obviously a humiliation, because we know perfectly well the role of the Red Army in the liberation of Auschwitz and in the victory over Nazism. “
“These politicians have no position on Holocaust Day,” Lazar added.