A survivor of the former German concentration camp Auschwitz has described her horror at Russia's war against Ukraine.
Speaking on Friday at the commemoration of the 78th anniversary of the liberation of the camp, 89-year-old Zdzislawa Wlodarczyk said: "The Russian troops who liberated us here are now waging war in Ukraine. Why? Why is there such a policy?"
Auschwitz Memorial director Piotr Cywiński also drew parallels with the Ukraine war. "Once again, innocent people are being killed en masse in Europe. Unable to conquer Ukraine, Russia has decided to destroy it."
Similar to the Nazi era, he said, the causes now are sick megalomania and greed for power, only the whole thing is "written in Russian." Indifference means nothing other than giving permission to the murderers, he said.
This year's commemoration focused on the planning, implementation and expansion of the system of genocide in the concentration and extermination camp. "The camp was thought out, planned, designed, sketched, drawn and expanded. Architects, planners, designers and surveyors worked on it," Cywiński said.
While Auschwitz's function as an extermination camp was already apparent by 1942, the operation took on an industrial scale in 1943. In the spring of that year, the Germans completed construction of four facilities at Auschwitz-Birkenau in current day Oświęcim in Poland, which included gas chambers and crematoria for disposing of corpses.
The name Auschwitz has burned itself into the consciousness of the world as a synonym for the Holocaust and the epitome of evil. There alone, the Nazis killed more than 1 million people, mostly Jews. Throughout Europe, they murdered about 6 million Jews during the Shoah, as the Holocaust is known in Hebrew.
Poland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki used the anniversary of Auschwitz's liberation to call for resistance against what he called renewed genocide in Ukraine.
"Out of respect for the victims of the Holocaust and with the wisdom we have gained from this tragedy, today we must stand up resolutely and together against the criminal demons who are committing genocide in Eastern Europe," Morawiecki wrote on Facebook on Friday.
"Solidarity and consistent support for Ukraine are the effective means to prevent history from coming full circle," Morawiecki wrote.
