Context - since over 70% of parliament belongs to Russophobic parties, formally independent Auschwitz Council was pushed to not invite Russians. To avoid huge scandal, the Council decided to not invite anyone, and instead sent a note to embassies informing of ceremony and half heartedly asked for coming. At the last possible moment to complicate arranging high level visits, though EU countries were unofficially notified earlier.Poland-Russia row sours Auschwitz commemoration
A political row has erupted between Poland and Russia ahead of a ceremony marking 70 years since the liberation of Auschwitz death camp.
This will be the last big anniversary in which the remaining elderly survivors will be able to come and pay their respects at the camp.
It was where, in occupied Poland between 1940-45, Nazi Germany murdered one million men, women and children simply for being Jews.
Russian President Vladimir Putin attended the last big anniversary 10 years ago, as representative of the largest country that emerged from the collapse of the Soviet Union. Soviet soldiers liberated the camp on 27 January, 1945.
But Russia's annexation of Crimea and its support for separatist rebels fighting in eastern Ukraine put the ceremony's organisers, the Auschwitz Council, in a difficult position.
Poland has been one of the sharpest critics of Russia's intervention in Ukraine.
A 2005 picture of the main gates at Auschwitz The notorious "work makes you free" sign at Auschwitz
"The Poles were explicitly not thrilled about the prospect of Putin coming," Konstanty Gebert, columnist for the leading daily Gazeta Wyborcza told the BBC.
Ukrainians credited
The Council decided to send an open invitation to embassies, rather than to individual heads of state and government.
"Had the Russians said 'well our president is coming' that would be it, Putin would be at Auschwitz. But Putin chose to be offended at not having been specifically invited, as I assume the Poles knew he would be, therefore avoiding an embarrassing situation," Mr Gebert said.
"It would have been incongruous to have Putin in Auschwitz with his recent track record. In general the presence of Russia at Auschwitz ceremonies is not only indispensable but also highly desirable, and it needs to be placed within the historical context both then and now," he added.
Dozens of the Nazi killers at Auschwitz escaped justice after the war
Russia, like most invited nations, is sending a lower-ranked official and will be represented by the Kremlin's chief of staff, Sergei Ivanov.
This unusual diplomacy deteriorated into a public spat when a Polish radio station asked the country's foreign minister, Grzegorz Schetyna whether it was petty not to invite Mr Putin.
He decided to answer by crediting the Ukrainians for liberating Auschwitz, rather than the Soviet Union's Red Army.
'Anti-Russia hysteria'
Moscow was incensed, saying it was time to stop "ridiculing history" and engaging in "anti-Russia hysteria". Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Mr Schetyna's comments were "blasphemous and cynical".
He pointed out Auschwitz was liberated by a Red Army consisting of Russians, Ukrainians, Chechens, Georgians and Tatars.
Auschwitz was liberated by the Red Army's First Ukrainian Front, which certainly included both Ukrainians and Russians. Maj Anatoly Shapiro, a Ukrainian Jew, led the battalion that fought its way into the camp.
On Friday Mr Schetyna insisted he was right because, as he said, it was "obvious" that a multi-ethnic Red Army liberated Auschwitz, but it had in fact been a Ukrainian officer, Igor Pobirchenko, whose tank was the first to break through the camp's gates.
For many this political bickering is unseemly.
"The bottom line is, this is really about remembering the past, much more than about debating the present, let alone the future, and it really should be about the survivors and not about present-day politicians," Mr Gebert said.
"If the spotlight gets removed from this or that president, it might just accidentally fall on some of the incredibly brave men who are still alive today and survived the hell Nazi Germany had created there," he added.
Then usual right wing idiot, foreign minister Grzegorz Schetyna decided to join the fray and announced Auschwitz wasn't liberated by Russians, but by Ukrainians. Why? Because it was liberated by "Ukrainian Front". You could expect it was just a strike of right wing ignorance, but he supposedly has a history degree making it even worse. In case someone doesn't know - Baltic/Bielorussian/Ukrainian fronts were called such in 1943, 2 years before liberation, depending on where they operated, not on nationality.
Schetyna tried to defend his barking by claiming one of the first soldiers to break the gate of the camp was Ukrainian. Far cry from 'only Ukrainians', eh? Sadly, historians checked and it turns out he was a Jew. Oops. In fact, if you check the list of 900 dead in the battle around the camp, you will find Georgian colonel, Russian and Armenian officers, Kazakh and Tatar soldiers, but remarkably little Ukrainians.
Why is this important? Because Ukraine was invited instead supposedly for taking part in liberation of the camp. Take a guess how many representatives of 22 nations represented on the above list were invited? None. Only countries affiliated with EU or museum foundation. Oh, and Vatican, as usual, large numbers of bishops were invited to partake in free buffet, too.
Though, to be fair, Ukrainians were represented in battle of the camp - as SS camp guards and members of SS Ukrainian divisions, brigades and ROA Nazi aligned units fighting against Soviets, but it's as inconvenient politically today as the Wolyn massacre so not one politician or historian dared to squeak about it.
Then there is family of Witold Pilecki, Polish underground resistance officer who voluntarily infiltrated the death camp risking death at every step to organize resistance cells there and to gather intelligence for resistance command. He was author of first report about Holocaust sent to London in 1941 (and summarily dismissed as bald lies). They were not invited either because fuck them, the right wingers care only about photo-op instead of actually honouring actual event.
Why I am (sadly) not surprised about all this?
