Holocaust survivors in war-torn Ukraine curse Putin; wish for him to die
Meanwhile, leading groups representing Holocaust survivors have also condemned Putin's claim that the 'denazification' of Ukraine was one reason for the invasion.
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FollowHolocaust survivors who endured Nazi leader Adolf Hitler's invasion of Soviet-era Ukraine in 1941 have sent a strong message to Vladimir Putin, demanding the Russian President to call off the war in the eastern European country. In June 1941, Hitler had ordered the surprise invasion of Ukraine, and by the end of November majority of the nation was under Nazi control.
According to reports, an estimated 1.5 million Ukrainian Jews lost their lives between 1941 and 1944 as the Nazis engaged in mass killings to implement their racial policies. In Kyiv's Babyn Yar alone, around 34,000 Jews were killed over two days in September 1941 - a mass shooting that has been termed as one of the worst massacres of the entire Holocaust.
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A Russian attack on a television tower in Kyiv hit the Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial on Tuesday. And now, even as Russian forces continue to wage war on Ukraine, Kyiv residents who survived the 1941 invasion have appealed to Putin to call off the invasion.Â
In a video that has gone viral on social media, several Holocaust survivors have said the current Russian onslaught has brought back horrifying memories of World War 2. Three Holocaust survivors have asked Putin to end this horror and went to the extent of cursing the Russian President for his actions.
A woman who identified herself as Romanova Valentyna Yosypivna said, "On 22 June 1941, I faced the war and was attacked by bombs in Kyiv. My relatives died in Babyn Yar. On 24 February 2022, Kyiv is under bomb attacks and shelling again."
"Putin! Take away your army! Get out of Ukraine! We want peace," she added.
Meanwhile, a man, who identifies himself as Oleg Yakovych, can then be heard saying he was born in Kyiv in 1940. "My relatives died in Babyn Yar. Now I am hiding in a bomb shelter, and we are under enemies' bombs," he added.
"Putin, get out of Kyiv and Ukraine. We want peace," he reiterated as the crowd at the bomb shelter began chanting peace slogans.
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Another elderly woman, who identified herself as Lukash Tamara Oleksiivna, said she was born in Kyiv just before the war in 1939. She said that while all her relatives from her mother's side were killed in Babyn Yar in 1941, she found herself hiding from Russians in 2022.
"This year, it is a horror. Putin, I wish for you to die. Leave us, you b*****d," she is heard as saying.
Meanwhile, leading groups representing Holocaust survivors have also condemned Putin's claim that the 'denazification' of Ukraine was one reason for the invasion.
"The signatories of this appeal denounce the use of the words' denazification' and 'genocide' to justify the attack on Ukraine," reads the statement sent to AFP on Wednesday.
"We cannot accept that these words are tarnished in this way," it added.
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The statement was reportedly signed by representatives from the committees of several former Nazi concentration camps, including the International Auschwitz Committee and those of Dachau, Buchenwald-Dora and Ravensbrueck. The signatories come from more than ten countries.
In his speech announcing the start of the Russian invasion on 24 February, Putin said one of the aims was the "denazification of Ukraine." He also said he wanted to protect the Russian-speakers in Ukraine from what he termed a "genocide from the regime in Kyiv."
But the statement from the groups reportedly said, "The war waged against Ukraine endangers the very existence of this country as well as peace in Europe."
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