On International Day of the Liberation of Nazi concentration camps

(from the briefing by Russian Foreign Ministry
Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, April 5, 2023)

On April 11, the world marks the International Day of the Liberation of Nazi concentration camps. This commemorative date was not chosen arbitrarily. In fact, it was on April 11, 1945, that prisoners of the Buchenwald camp in Germany staged a rebellion and held the camp until the arrival of the US Third Army.

An extensive network of concentration camps was created in Germany and on the occupied territories. Millions of prisoners from European countries and the Soviet Union, prisoners of war and civilians, were held in the camps in inhumane conditions.

Let us remember Auschwitz, Dachau, Majdanek, Mauthausen, Sachsenhausen, Ravensbrück, Treblinka, Stutthof – the death camps where people were exterminated in horrendous ways. On the Soviet territory, there were Salaspils, Alytus, the Ninth Fort of the Kaunas Fortress and Azarychy, where tens of thousands of – I’d like to simply say “people” – victims were held captive. The prisoners were exploited in hard labour, used as expendables in horrific medical experiments, burnt in crematoriums and killed in gas chambers.

I don’t know what was worse. I don’t have a scale. When they were herded together into barracks and burnt alive or herded together into gas chambers and killed with gas. Or when they, like outdated mechanisms, were taken apart, with teeth, hair and skin collected in separate piles. I don’t even know what was worse for them. I know it was a catastrophe for the humankind. According to some estimates, 11 million out of 18 million prisoners of Nazi concentration camps were exterminated.

Liberation began in 1944 when on July 3, the Red Army rescued prisoners of the Majdanek camp near Lublin (Poland) from death. It was only then that the entire catastrophe and the gruesome scale of Nazi crimes became exposed.

Until then, many had doubts or, as they like to say these days, “had not watched television” (of course, there was no television, and the media was different). But the explanation was the same: they “did not see,” “did not know,” “did not read,” “did not hear,” “did not listen” and “did not look deeper.” Afterwards, everyone gasped with horror.

Many lived tranquil and uneventful lives in direct proximity, literally face to face, in their lovely and beautiful homes. They knew exactly what was built behind those fences and realised that people were only confined there and never released. They knew very well that the smoke rising above those places did not just come from thermal stations; in fact, those were prisoners turned by Nazis into black smoke. They knew that and remained silent. It was nice and convenient that way. As I said in the beginning of the briefing, many people today prefer to ignore terrorist attacks, grief and deaths. Or they believe what they are shown and what has nothing to do with reality. They are not asking questions because it is more convenient that way. They believe that everything will work out in the end.

Human conscience cannot be exterminated. It is inexterminable. A moment will come for many in the West who prefer not to see, not to hear or read, when they will no longer be able to turn a blind eye and the truth will reveal itself in its entirety. And millions of people will ask questions. I am certain that this moment will come, and those who were silent will have to answer. They will even have to answer to themselves, because it will be impossible to live with it.

I want to finish this topic by reminding you that the system of concentration camps in Germany was eliminated after the defeat of the Nazis and condemned by the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg as a crime against humanity.

I would like to quote poet Alexander Sobolev. He and composer Vano Muradeli wrote a song called The Buchenwald Alarm Bell, which became a symbol of the fight for peace.

Hundreds of thousands burnt alive

Line up, line up,

In rows, shoulder to shoulder.

International columns

Speak to us

***

People of the world, stand up for a minute!

Listen, listen

It booms from all sides

There sounds in Buchenwald

A bell ringing.