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27 Jan, 10:42

Putin honors memory of Holocaust victims

In his address, the president stressed that Russian citizens are the descendants and successors of the generation of victors and expressed gratitude to all who remain committed to preserving historical truth and combating neo-Nazi revanchism

MOSCOW, January 27. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin paid tribute to the memory of Holocaust victims and reminded that in 1945, the Red Army freed the Auschwitz concentration camp, revealing to humanity the truth about Nazi crimes, in an address read by Russian Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar during a ceremony marking International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

"The International Holocaust Remembrance Day is a ceremonial occasion of immense moral and humanistic significance. In January 1945, the Red Army freed the Auschwitz concentration camp, unveiling to humanity the horrific crimes committed by the Nazis and their collaborators, who annihilated millions of Jews, Russians, Roma, and people of other ethnicities. We will always remember that it was the Soviet soldiers who defeated this terrible, absolute evil and achieved a victory whose greatness will forever be engraved in world history," the message states.

The president stressed that Russian citizens are the descendants and successors of the generation of victors and expressed gratitude to all who remain committed to preserving historical truth and combating neo-Nazi revanchism. "We will continue to firmly and resolutely oppose any attempts to distort the legal and moral verdict delivered to the Nazi executioners and their accomplices. We will do everything to defend people's right to ethnic, linguistic, and spiritual identity and to prevent the spread of anti-Semitism, Russophobia, and other racist ideologies," he said.

Putin expressed hope that Russia's Jewish community and the organizers of traditional memorial events commemorating International Holocaust Remembrance Day "will continue their multifaceted efforts aimed at promoting the values of humanism, harmony, and civil peace."

January 27 is International Holocaust Remembrance Day. This date was chosen to commemorate the day in 1945 when Soviet troops liberated Auschwitz, a concentration camp located in Poland. During the camp's operation, more than 1.1 million people were killed there, including around 1 million Jews.