A Ukrainian Holocaust survivor made an impassioned plea to German lawmakers Wednesday to do more to fight Russia’s “new war of extermination”, as Germany marks 80 years since the liberation of Auschwitz.
“Back then Hitler wanted to kill me because I am Jew,” said Roman Schwarzman, 88. “Now Putin wants to kill me because I am a Ukrainian.”
JOIN US ON TELEGRAM
Follow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official.
Schwarzman, born in the town of Berschad in western Ukraine, was invited to address the Bundestag for its yearly session marking the liberation of the Auschwitz camp in what was Nazi-occupied Poland.
This year’s commemoration comes at a time when both Germany’s culture of Holocaust remembrance and its support for Ukraine have become hot political topics ahead of an early general election next month.
Addressing a packed chamber, Schwarzman began by relating the suffering of his family in Berschad’s ghetto before telling lawmakers of his experiences of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine over the past three years.
Schwarzman, the president of Ukraine’s association for concentration camp and ghetto survivors, said he had first-hand experience of “Russian terror” when a missile hit his building in Odesa in December 2023, leaving everything inside his apartment smashed to pieces.
“I have already been able to escape extermination once,” he said, referring to the Holocaust.
‘Madiar’s Birds’ Find Key to Defeating Russia’s ‘Invulnerable’ Fiber-Optic FPV Drones
“Now I am an old man and must once again live with the fear that my children and grandchildren could fall victim to a war of extermination.”
Germany has been Ukraine’s second-biggest provider of support after the United States but this aid has come in for criticism, notably from the far-right, Moscow-friendly Alternative for Germany (AfD).
“I implore you to arm us, so that Putin ends this war,” Schwarzman said.
‘Humiliation, pain, hunger’
Schwarzman spoke movingly of his family’s experiences after Berschad was occupied by the Nazis and their wartime Romanian allies.
They spent “two and half years full of humiliation, pain, lice and constant hunger” behind barbed wire in the ghetto. He said he was reduced to begging for the water the occupiers used to wash their meat with and recalled “its delicious taste of fat”.
“It’s been more than 80 years but I still remember the taste of this water,” he said.
He had to bury his older brother, who was shot by the Germans while performing forced labour, and said that after the war keeping the victims’ memory alive became his “life’s work”.
Turning to the Ukraine invasion, Schwarzman said his country “must not be forced to bend the knee to Russia”, warning that “those who believe Putin will be happy with just Ukraine are wrong”.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz has said Germany is committed to supporting Ukraine but has refused to send long-range Taurus missiles that Kyiv has requested, fearing Germany could be dragged into the conflict.
Schwarzman said Ukraine needed “long-range missiles in order to disable Russian airfields and rocket depots which are used to attack us every day”.
“Ukraine will do all it can to ensure the war does not reach you,” he said, to applause from MPs.
Wednesday’s event comes in the middle of a heated campaign for a snap general election next month, during which Germany’s culture of remembrance for the Holocaust has become a point of contention: The AfD looks set for its best ever result and has pushed back against Holocaust commemoration.
You can also highlight the text and press Ctrl + Enter
