In a profound dialogue recently held at the Central Museum of the Great Patriotic War, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chief Rabbi of Russia Berl Lazar, and the Museum’s Head Alexander Shkolnik, delved into the extent of the Holocaust and the resurgence of antisemitism.
This conversation was documented and published by journalist Andrey Kolesnikov in the Russian daily, Kommersant last week.
During the discussion, Putin was keen on emphasizing the gravity of historical events. He approached Lazar to shed light on the number of Holocaust victims.
Lazar responded, “We know it’s definitely more than six million. The most heart-wrenching part is the death of the children. Antisemitism wasn’t just prevalent then; we’re witnessing its surge again in Europe, especially in Germany, and even in neighboring countries.”
Rabbi thanks Putin for ‘focus on perils of Nazism’
Lazar went on to laud Putin’s persistent focus on the perils of Nazism. “The battle is not just against the overt manifestations in the political realm but fundamentally against its ideology. Nazism, in essence, is the gravest ideology the world can witness,” he asserted. He further expressed gratitude towards Putin for his unyielding stance against this menace, emphasizing that there’s no room for compromise.
Linking past atrocities to present scenarios, Putin steered the conversation towards the ongoing conflict with Ukraine. “It’s crucial to see the parallels between the past horrors and the present,” Putin pointed out, questioning the number of Jews that were annihilated by the Nazis in Ukrainian territories during the wars.
Rabbi Lazar, though unsure of the exact figures, mentioned, “In many cities, before the Nazis could even impose their reign, collaborators and locals had already made them Judenfrei [free of Jews].” Putin resonated with this, nodding in agreement.
Alexander Shkolnik presented a staggering statistic: “12.7 million civilian citizens of the Soviet Union perished during World War II.” When Putin inquired about the number of Jews exterminated in Ukraine by both Nazis and collaborators, Shkolnik could not provide an exact count. However, Putin passionately responded with his claim: “That’s approximately 1.5 million Jews in Ukraine during the Holocaust. If we consider the total six million Jews annihilated by the Nazis, this figure constitutes a quarter of the victims.”
Putin highlights Ukrainian role in Nazi massacres
Highlighting the role of Ukrainians in these massacres, Shkolnik mentioned their active participation in Nazi-led units. Putin fervently added, “These weren’t just Nazis leading the extermination. Collaborators, like [Stepan] Bandera and others, were issuing directives.” In a surprising turn, Putin revealed that even the German SS troops hesitated to partake in these mass repressions, instead delegating it to local nationalists and antisemites.
In conclusion, Putin reiterated his initial concern, “We must thwart any attempts at glorifying Nazism. It begs the question: Who are the icons of today’s Ukrainian regime?”
In a recent TV interview, Putin, without substantial evidence, insinuated that the West placed Volodymyr Zelensky, a Jew, as Ukraine’s president to camouflage the resurgence of Nazism. In defending its intervention in Ukraine, Moscow contends that Kyiv’s governance is enacting a “genocide” against Russian-speakers, a claim that Kyiv and the West dismiss as an unwarranted justification for the conflict.
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