The Embassy of the Russian Federation in the State of Israel took note and carefully studied the article by lawyer Ariel Bulshtein "The USSR knew about the Nazi atrocities in Auschwitz but did nothing," published online in Israel Hayom on January 27, 2025.
For me as an official representative of Russia, which is the legal successor of the USSR, whose multinational army liberated the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp on January 27, 1945, this confrontational publication raises serious questions from the point of view of both objectivity and historical accuracy.
The most blatant example of slander, and in fact, distortion of historical truth, is the author's outrageous assertion that the Soviet command was aware of the Nazi crimes in Auschwitz but deliberately did not take measures to save the prisoners of this death camp earlier because of their Jewish origin. This horrific thesis not only ignores historical realities, fact and truth, but also directly accuses the leadership of the USSR of inaction for some fraudulent reasons. At the same time, the cost of incredible efforts and human sacrifice for liberating Poland and saving prisoners of concentration camps there – including not only Auschwitz, but also Treblinka, Belzec, Sobibor, Majdanek and others – is being hushed up.
In the course of his speculations, Mr. Bulshtein does not hesitate to state that "most researchers of the Second World War believe that Auschwitz could have been liberated many months before January 1945." At the same time, the one and only source he refers to is Mr. Yaakov Falkov. It is clear as day, that the biased "expert" deliberately ignores the military circumstances of the winter of 1944-1945, when Soviet troops moved towards Auschwitz as quickly as possible while encountering fierce resistance from the Wehrmacht. Furthermore, it is striking how the "researcher" fantastically twists the facts and claims that during the liberation of the largest Nazi death machine, the USSR did not use aviation and artillery in order to save the lives of prisoners, as a result of which 231 Soviet soldiers gave their lives during the direct liberation of Auschwitz.
In his unconcealed desire to belittle the role of the Soviet Union and tarnish its leadership, Mr. Bulshtein calls the officers of the Red Army "cruel people who went through Stalin's repressions, killed and sent 'enemies of the people' to the GULAG camps." At the same time, he does not even mention the fact that up to 500 thousand citizens of Jewish nationality fought in the ranks of the Red Army, and a large number of Soviet citizens were held in Auschwitz. For unknown reasons, other characteristics of the heroes-liberators who gave freedom to the peoples of Europe and put an end to the tragedy of the Holocaust are not mentioned in the article.
Particularly outrageous was the date chosen for the publication of the material. Let me recall that in 2005, with the active support of Russia, the UN declared January 27 – the day the victorious Red Army liberated Auschwitz – International Holocaust Remembrance Day. On the same day this year, Russia, together with the Israeli veterans, commemorated the 81st anniversary of the lifting of the siege of Leningrad, whose doctors were the first to provide medical assistance to the exhausted prisoners of the death camp.
History requires objectivity. Unfortunately, the article by Mr. Bulshtein was an unsuccessful attempt to revise the role of the USSR in the liberation of Europe from Nazism and sets a dangerous precedent that threatens historical memory. It was the victorious multinational Red Army that liberated Auschwitz, it was the Soviet soldiers who were the first to see the horrors of that death machine and brought them to the world. Any steps to place responsibility for the crimes committed by Nazi Germany on the Soviet Union, even under the guise of dubious scientific research or some kind of inaction, are an insult to millions of war victims, including those who survived the horrors of the death camp. Distortion of facts to suit the current political situation is absolutely unacceptable and should be condemned by any sane person. I am deeply convinced that any scientific discussion should be conducted by specialists and among professional historians – and not used as an instrument of public agitation on the verge of provocation.
Anatoly Viktorov is the Ambassador of Russia to Israel.
