Russians have the temerity to compare themselves to Jews persecuted by the Nazis, while their bombs kill off Ukraine’s last Holocaust survivors, said EU High Representative Josep Borrell as Holocaust Remembrance Day approaches.
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EU High Representative Josep Borrell released a statement on the eve of International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Thursday. The commemoration of the victims of Shoah annually falls on January 27, the day the Auschwitz death camp and its surviving prisoners were liberated.
He writes in the statement, how in the face of “the barbarous acts committed during the Holocaust, which stain the conscience of mankind forever”, the nations of the world signed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to ensure they will never occur again.
Nonetheless in the statement consisting of several paragraphs outlining the necessity to provide education on the horrors of the Holocaust in order to combat not only antisemitism but also prejudice and oppression at large, one paragraph stands out.
“And yet, during the past year, some of the Holocaust’s last survivors have been killed in Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, alongside the many victims of multiple war crimes, at the doorstep of the European Union,” reads Borrell’s statement.
“In 2023, more than ever, there are two words that should resonate in our minds: never again,” concluded the head of EU diplomacy.
This is not the only time Mr Borrell has referred to the Holocaust in the context of the ongoing Russian aggression against Ukraine in recent days.
The previous week, Borrell also addressed the Russian regime’s manipulation of the truth to justify its illegal war of aggression, which in his own words has reached another “unacceptable and disgustingly low point”.
Borrell had been referring to the words of Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov, who accused the West of seeking a “final solution” for Russia.
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These comments are “entirely misplaced, disrespectful and trample on the memory of the six million Jewish people, and other victims, who were systematically murdered in the Holocaust. This adds to previous antisemitic remarks of Minister Lavrov,” said Borrell.
He adds that “there is no parallel between the crimes of Nazi Germany and the international help for Ukraine in defending its territory and people against unjustified aggression. Russia has invaded a sovereign neighbouring country, targets and kills civilians there on a daily basis, with the stated aim to destroy the country and the Ukrainian nation.”
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Indeed, Commissioner Borrell should here be applauded for having the strength and determination to address the disgusting lies spread by Lavrov and his goons, such as his spokesperson Maria Zakharova.
Perhaps aside from lambasting the Kremlin for having the nerve to present themselves as the ones being persecuted while the Russian forces have been found to have committed atrocities amounting to genocide, he should be calling from the rooftops that if anyone in this situation deserves to be compared to the Nazi Germans in World War Two, it is Z-Russians and their leaders themselves.