The director of Poland’s Auschwitz Museum has said it is “hard to imagine” the presence of a Russian delegation at next year’s commemoration marking 80 years since the death camp was liberated by the Red Army.
Russia has been excluded from attending anniversary commemorations at the site of the former German Nazi death camp in southern Poland since Moscow launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Piotr Cywiński, director of the Auschwitz Museum, said: “It is hard to imagine the presence of Russia, which clearly does not understand the value of freedom.”
He added: “Such [a] presence would be cynical. I would like it to be possible again someday, but let's be serious—it certainly won't be in the next four months."
The German Nazis murdered some 1.1 million people in Auschwitz, mostly Jews, but also Poles, Roma and Sinti, Soviet prisoners of war, and people of other nationalities, before the Red Army liberated the camp on January 27, 1945.
Piotr Cywiński, director of the Auschwitz Museum, said: “It is hard to imagine the presence of Russia, which clearly does not understand the value of freedom.”
He added: “Such [a] presence would be cynical. I would like it to be possible again someday, but let's be serious—it certainly won't be in the next four months."
The German Nazis murdered some 1.1 million people in Auschwitz, mostly Jews, but also Poles, Roma and Sinti, Soviet prisoners of war, and people of other nationalities, before the Red Army liberated the camp on January 27, 1945.
More In Society MORE...