MOSCOW, January 27. /TASS/. The Soviet people made the biggest contribution to foiling Nazi plans to eradicate and subjugate the Jewish people and other ethnicities, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said in a message to the participants of events to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day and the 78th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp by the Red Army.
"In 1945, it was predominantly the Soviet people that put an end to the barbaric plans of the Nazis, defended the freedom and independence of the Motherland, and saved the Jewish people and other nations from utter annihilation," the president wrote.
"Today, on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, we remember one of the most dramatic moments of the Second World War: when the prisoners of the Auschwitz-Birkenau (Oswiecim) concentration camp were liberated. And of course, we mourn the millions of innocent people that were killed - the Jewish people and members of other nationalities - that were shot dead, tortured, and died from starvation or illnesses," Putin went on to say.
A day before this significant date, the Russian president met in the Kremlin with Russia’s Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar and President of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia Alexander Boroda. He said Russia is strongly against forgetting crimes of this magnitude and is ensuring that nothing like this ever happens to mankind again. Putin also said that the majority of Jewish people killed by the Nazis were Soviet citizens "and we share this pain."
During the Second World War, around 6 million Jews and people of other nationalities were exterminated in Nazi concentration camps. The Soviet Army liberated the notorious Auschwitz death camp on January 27, 1945. By the decision of the UN General Assembly, this day has been marked across the world as International Holocaust Remembrance Day since 2005.