Russia focuses on the Soviet victims of WW2 as the authorities have not been invited to the Aushwitz ceremony

There is a dramatic monument over 40 meters on the edge of St. Petersburg. At the top is a mother’s figure with her children.

Below, depicted in bronze, there are real stories of human suffering.

In the bottom of some stages, an eternal flame surrounded by Nazi concentration and fleeing camps burns.

Auschwitz, Sobibor, Belzec, Treblinka…

Synonyms of Holocost.

Yet it is not a Holocost monument. Its official title is “is a memorial for Soviet citizens who were victims of Nazi massacre”.

I listen to a tour guide because she tells a group of school children about Travlinka -2 Extermination Camp. There the Nazis killed 900,000 Jews.

She says, “Treblinka -2 was a death camp where a large number of people were killed in the gas chambers,” she says, without specifying that most of the victims were Jews.

Russian President Vladimir Putin unveiled the memorial on 27 January last year: a date for Russia with a double historical significance. In 1944, on this day, Soviet forces broke about 900-day siege of Leningrad. Absolutely a year later Red Army entered the door of the Aushwitz Death Camp,

It is due to the liberation of the Red Army’s Aushevitz that January 27 was later declared the International Holocaust Remember Day.

But when he opened the memorial for the Soviet citizens, Vladimir Putin spoke not about the Holocaust, but the “massacre of the Soviet people”.

He argued that the purpose of the Nazis was “to seize the rich natural resources and regions of our country as well as to drive away most of its citizens”.

It is not that Russia is silent on the Holocaust. In the 80th anniversary run-up of the liberation of Aushwitz, there have been many frequent incidents across the country.

But there is a change in meditation in Russia today, how the Soviet people had to face the World War Two, including the Russian people away from Holocost. More than 27 million Soviet citizens were killed, known here as a great patriotic war.

This change in emphasis has not been noticed by anyone.

The Israeli ambassador to Moscow Simone Helperin told me, “Nobody argues that millions of victims were victims during the Second World War.”

“But an industrial plan to kill, eliminate, eradicate a race from the face of the earth: It was against Jewish people. I think it is important to remember that Holocost was designed as a massacre of Jewish people. . “

Historian and researcher Contentein Pakhaliyuk suggests, “It is not that (Russian officials) do not want to speak about Holocaust or Jews.”

“This idea is about presenting Russians as victims, to feel that we are suffering: victims of Western powers, suffering in history. This is the main idea of ​​this story.”

Contantin lives abroad and works. Back home is declared a “foreign agent”, a label is often used to punish critics of Russian authorities.

He argues that the story of Russia has become particularly stronger as the victims of Russia’s war in Ukraine.

“If you are a victim, you can’t take responsibility,” says Mr. Pakhakalauk.

Holocost had very little public discussion in the Soviet Union and what was the systematic murder of European Jews by Hitler.

On the Soviet region had some monuments or planets that refer to Jewish victims, on large -scale execution sites of the Jews by the Nazis on the Soviet region.

It began to change after the collapse of communism. Russian officials began to proudly talk about their country’s historical role in defeating Hitler and saving Jewish people from escaping.

Twenty years ago, President Putin was invited to Poland to participate in events marking the 60th anniversary of Aushwitz’s liberation.

Speaking in Krako on 27 January 2005, he noted:

“The Nazis chose Poland as the site of the employed collective destruction of the people, above the Jews, we see Holocaust not only as a national tragedy for the Jewish people but also as a catastrophe for all humanity.”

“It is our duty to remember Holocost,” he said.

Since then, Russia’s relations with Poland, Europe and West have normally increased rapidly, especially after a full -scale invasion of Russia in 2022.

Russian officials have not been withdrawn in Poland for the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Aushwitz Camp.

“This is the anniversary of liberation. We remember the victims, but we also celebrate freedom,” the Director of the Aushevitz Museum Piyoter Cyvinsky wrote last September. “It is difficult to imagine the presence of Russia, which does not clearly understand the value of freedom.”

The decision not to expand the invitation for Moscow is condemned by one of the most influential Jewish leaders in Russia.

“Russia is aggressive for not inviting Russia, not inviting Russia, memory of liberals and his contribution to victory over fascism,” was recently a press conference in Moscow, president of the Federation of Jewish communities, Russia’s Federation of Jewish communities.

“This is a very bad sign because memory is important and there are common values ​​that help defeat fascism. Despite their differences, the countries of the Anti-Hitler coalition united to a general victory to various political systems and ideologies for a general victory Managed to do it. “

Meanwhile, the Jewish groups are doing here that they can do to remind the Russians of the past so that it is never repeated.

“Russian Jewish Congress Executive Director Anna Boxykaya says,” The right wing is growing everywhere. The number of Holocost Daniers is increasing. ”

“This is why it is important to tell people about the events that happened more than 80 years ago.”