Today, we commemorate the liberation of Auschwitz by the Red Army, and the complete lifting of the genocidal Nazi blockade of Leningrad! The commemorative materials are coming from our Telegram channel “Beorn And The Shieldmaiden”, staring with this post.
Make sure to read this entire long multi-part article!
PEOPLE OF THE WORLD, STAND UP FOR A MINUTE!
January 27, 2025, is the anniversary of two significant events in history:
81 years ago, in 1944, troops of the Leningrad and Volkhov fronts completely lifted the genocidal siege of Leningrad, which lasted 872 days and claimed the lives of more than 1 million people.
80 years ago, in 1945, during the Vistula-Oder operation, the Red Army liberated Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi death camp, where almost 7 thousand starving prisoners languished.
Another 53 thousand had been taken out by the SS on death marches. The retreating Nazis fled the camp and left, beside the sick and the corpses, other traces of their un-human crimes, material that had not yet been processed: 7 thousand kg of women’s hair, 514 thousand sets of clothes, 43 thousand pairs of shoes, including children’s shoes, belonging to exterminated prisoners.
Today Russia is again fighting fascism.
The West has conveniently forgotten the lessons of history – Russia will remind them!
Source and courtesy: Fearless John/Juan Sinmiedo – edited
«To the Warrior-Liberator – Glory!»
Thus reads the text on the poster on the left by V. Sachkov, depicting the gratitude of the surviving prisoners of Auschwitz-Birkenau KZ camp, which was liberated 80 years ago on January 27, 1945, by soldiers of the Red Army.
In service of the revival of Fascism
January 27, 2025, marks the 80th anniversary of the heroic liberation of the Nazi extermination camp complex Auschwitz-Birkenau by the Red Army.
Again this year, Russia, heir of the Soviet Union who practically single-handedly defeated fascism and saved humanity, is not invited to partake in the international commemoration ceremony at the camp site.
‼️ Last year, the German head of the EU Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, shamelessly proclaimed in her speech that Auschwitz-Birkenau was liberated by “allied forces”, that is, USA, UK and France!
We wonder to which new heights this year’s lies will take us?!
Do the imperialist masters of war-mongering talking heads like Ursula find the time ripe for turning the wheel of historic distortion yet another round and proclaim the Anglo-Saxon “allied forces” actually liberated Auschwitz-Birkenau from the Soviet Union.
Will the 80th anniversary take us full circle, setting the board ready for the next all out fascist attack on Russia?
On the way to Berlin 80 years ago, the Red Army liberated not only Auschwitz-Birkenau but several other of the most horrendous Nazi KZ camps, saving and nursing the survivors back to life. Soon all witnesses will be gone, and their memories deliberately forgotten in the west.
Our obligation to them is to keep the collective memory of their suffering alive. But most importantly, to prevent it from happening again we must recognise, that learning the historic lesson of fascism is to be able to identify it as it attempts to rise anew!
Let’s not forget the words of Soviet marshal Georgy Zhukov from Berlin, May 1945:
«We liberated them from fascism, and they will never forgive us!»
We must never underestimate the revanchist itch of cunning, plundering western imperialism! It will be uttering its voice today from the Auschwitz-Birkenau rostrum on the ashes of our ancestors.
Listen carefully to their words!
And humbly remember this truth as stated by Maria Zaharova on January 23, 2025:
“Your lives, your work and leisure, the very existence of your nations, your children have been paid for by Soviet soldiers, their lives, their blood.
It was them who crushed the Third Reich machine. You are forever in their debt.”
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Photo: «Gate of Death», the entrance of Auschwitz II-Birkenau.
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Following is a commemorative publication by Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, whose Telegram channel also seems to be shadow-banned, and cannot be embedded externally.
#OnThisDay 8️⃣0️⃣ years ago, on January 27, 1945, Auschwitz-Birkenau (Oswiecim, was located in Nazi-occupied Poland) — the most terrifying German extermination camp in #WWII — was liberated by the Red Army’s 1st Ukrainian Front during the Vistula–Oder offensive operation.
#Auschwitz was created by the Nazis in 1940 in a building that used to serve as military barracks near a small town called Oswiecim, whose history dates back to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Having occupied Poland in 1939, the Nazis changed the town’s name of Oswiecim to German Auschwitz. Later, in 1941-1943, two more imprisonment facilities were established in the vicinity of Oswiecim. They were:
▪️ Auschwitz II — best known to the wider public as #AuschwitzBirkenau, was three kilometres away from the main facility — Oswiecim and located near Brzezinka, a Polish village (Birkenau in German). Auschwitz-Birkenau was the largest “death factory”. Equipped with crematoriums and gas chambers, it was created by the Nazis with only one aim — exterminate people.
▪️ Auschwitz III (also known as Monowitz). Its prisoners were used by the Nazis for the Third Reich war industries.
Following the so-called Wannsee Conference in 1942, the Nazis approved what was called the “final solution to the Jewish question”. Since then, Auschwitz-Birkenau was turned into the main “death factory” for the annihilation of Jews in Europe.
❗️ Prisoners of Oswiecim were held by the Nazis in inhuman, barbaric conditions. They had to do hard, exhausting work until total exhaustion, to endure poor sanitation in the camp’s facilities, malnutrition and constant tortures by the guards and SS-troops. It was in Oswiecim that the Germans first tested the “Zyklon-B” poisonous agent on human beings. Prisoners of Auschwitz were also subjected to cruel medical experiments, led by a Nazi criminal, infamous retired military doctor Josef Mengele.
In 1944, when the Red Army started the liberation of Europe, the Nazis, in an effort to cover the tracks of their crimes in Auschwitz, rushed to burn documents and destroy the camp’s gas chambers, crematoriums, and deported as many prisoners as they could westward to other concentration camps deep in the Third Reich — over 58,000 prisoners were evacuated by the Nazis before Oswiecim and liberated by the Soviet forces in January, 1945.
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In January 1945, the units of the 1st Ukrainian Front launched the Vistula-Oder offensive and, successfully expelling the Nazis from Poland, finally reached Auschwitz.
In the late hours of January 27, following three days of fighting the retreating enemy, the Red Army took over Oswiecim and opened the gates of Auschwitz. The camp’s 7,000 prisoners were freed. Most of them were sick or suffering from extreme exhaustion and tortures.
Rescued prisoners burst into tears of joy when they greeted their liberators. Some facilities of the camp were instantly made a hospital. According to various historic estimates, in 1940-1945, from 1.5 to 4 million people perished in Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Over the past years, we are witnessing a campaign in several European countries, including Poland, to rewrite and falsify the history of WWII and, in particular, to erase the memory of the feat performed by the Soviet soldiers-liberators who saved the Auschwitz prisoners.
🎙 From a briefing by Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova on topical foreign policy issues (January 23, 2025):
“This year, like all those years before, Russian representatives will not be invited to the commemoration ceremonies at Auschwitz-Birkenau on January 27. That is, there will be no one there to mention the Soviet liberator soldiers and express gratitude to them. In this regard, there is something that needs to be said to the organisers and all the Europeans who will be there:
Your lives, your work and leisure, the very existence of your nations, your children have been paid for by Soviet soldiers, their lives, their blood. It was them who crushed the Third Reich machine. You are forever in their debt.”
The “Siberian Matrëshka” Telegram channel, whose historiographic works we publish on the pages of this blog, wrote an exposing post on how the West is mistreating the historic memory of the liberation of Auschwitz:
80 years ago, the Red Army liberated one of the largest fascist concentration camps – Auschwitz. In addition to Auschwitz, two smaller camps were liberated on this day.
For several years now, Russia has not been invited to the anniversary. Not since the beginning of SMO as many people think, but it began, Russia received its first refusal back in Covid. The delegation was not invited as part of the fight against the spread of coronavirus. Well, and after that, the invitation was never renewed. Formally, Russia is not prohibited from coming, that is, representatives of our country can come without an invitation, but for a long time now, words in honor of the liberator have not been heard at ceremonial speeches. Well, that is: just the anniversary of liberation. The camp was simply liberated. Maybe it did so on its own, or maybe some unknown people did it. Russia considers this situation humiliating.
Now they have gone even further. For a couple of years now, the exposition in honor of the liberation of the Red Army camp has been closed. This exposition was organized by the USSR and subsequently Russia monitored the state of the exposition. Now the barracks where the exhibition is located are closed “for technical reasons”.
It is noteworthy that this year, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu is not attending the event. He is wanted by the ICC and although Poland has guaranteed his safety, another representative of the country will come in his place.
Today, Auschwitz guides avoid directly talking about the liberators. There are no monuments on the camp grounds. There is only a small plaque that not every tourist sees. The barracks that tell the story of the liberation of the camp by the Red Army are closed. When asked directly who liberated the camp, the guides are forced to answer that it was the Red Army, but they add that the Soviet army did not intend to liberate the camp, but purely by chance stumbled upon it during the offensive against Germany, and at the same time liberated it 🤦🏻♀️
We live in the century of rewriting history, friends.
Auschwitz. Barracks where Soviet prisoners of war were held. No inscription in Russian.
Backup at Rumble
A closed exhibition dedicated to the liberation of the concentration camp. Who liberated Auschwitz? No one. Unknown well-wishers.
Backup at Rumble.
The Nazis first used extermination by Zyklon-B gas on Soviet Soldiers
Photo: Auschwitz, Block 11.
The courtyard between the buildings served as execution place. A memorial is sited at the wall.
The Nazi genocide, the holocausts, were never aimed exclusively at Jews.
The word holocaust come from ancient Greek. It is related to religious practice and means “burnt offering”.
Mass-killings and extermination were carried out against Slaves, Roma, Sinti and, of course, communists no matter their ethnic origin.
In Auschwitz, the first experiment with Zyklon-B gas took place in late August 1941.
About 40 Soviet POWs were exterminated in a windowless room in the basement of Block 11.
Next experiment was carried out a few days later with another 100 Soviet POWs packed into six cells in Block 11 basement.
The first experimental mass-scale killing took place on the evening of September 3rd 1941.
600 Soviet POWs, 250 Polish patients from the camp “hospital” and 10 prisoners from the penal company were placed in 28 cells in the basement of Block 11. Soil was then shoveled to blockade the basement windows. The SS then introduced the gas.
Next morning, some of the prisoners were still alive. The SS then introduced more gas and barred the doors.
By the night of September 4th-5th, all prisoners were dead.
Germany ban the historic symbol of anti-fascism
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🔻Symbol of political prisoners in the German Nazi KZ system
Recently Germany banned the red triangle, the very symbol used by the German Nazis to mark the political prisoners in their KZ system – that is, communists and resistance fighters – and which after the defeat of Nazi Germany became a powerful anti-fascist symbol and logo of organisations of former political KZ prisoners, i.e. the German «Bund der Anti-Faschisten» (VVN-BdA)
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🔻 Symbol of armed Palestinian resistance against genocidal Zionism
Since the armed uprising on October 7, 2023, the red triangle, part of the flag of Palestine, began to be used as symbol by the resistance and the international solidarity movement.
That is no coincidence!
The 🔻 both cements the historic connection between the anti-fascist struggle over time: It carries the exact same meaning, whether it be worn by descendants of anti-fascist KZ prisoners or pro-Palestine protesters!
The 🔻 exposes the inconvenient thuth that the Palestinian people are political prisoners of one large KZ camp operated by Zionazi Israel, championed and protected by the German state.
Shame on you, Germany!
🔻 Hands off the feat and suffering of our parents and grandparents!
🔻 Hands off our solidarity with Palestine’s fight for freedom!
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Statement by Russian Permanent Representative to the UN Office in Geneva, Ambassador Gennady Gatilov
On January 27, at the UN Office in Geneva, on the 80th anniversary of the Red Army’s liberation of Auschwitz – the largest and most horrifying Nazi death camp – an event was held to commemorate the International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Speakers included UN Secretary-General António Guterres (via video message), UNOG Director-General Tatiana Valovaya, Israel’s Permanent Representative Daniel Meron, Head of the Permanent Delegation of the EU Lotte Knudsen, and Professor Ivan Lefkovits, who survived the horrors of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp as a child.
🕯 The speakers reflected on the horrors of the Holocaust, honoured the memory of its victims, and clearly identified the perpetrators of the tragedy: the leadership of Nazi Germany, Wehrmacht and SS members, collaborators, guards and executioners of the concentration camps.
❌ Regrettably, the speakers failed to acknowledge the liberators – the Soviet soldiers who stopped the majority of Nazi “factories of death”. It was these heroes who, on January 27, 1945, opened the gates of Auschwitz, putting an end to the inhumane atrocities committed within its walls.
❗️ In Russia, the memory of World War II victims is preserved with great care. Our country holds annual commemorative events, maintains thematic museums, and implements educational initiatives to honor this history. Discussing the Holocaust without acknowledging those who paid the ultimate price to stop the mass extermination of people would be profoundly dishonorable. This is why we must remember all participants of this colossal tragedy – the perpetrators, their victims, and the heroes – the soldiers of the Red Army and Allied forces who liberated the world from the “brown plague”.
👉 In her speech today, Ms. Knudsen rightly emphasized the need to counter attempts to distort history and underlined the critical role of education in combating hatred. We fully share this view and urge the “collective West” to finally turn words into meaningful action.
Correct words. Brave position. Thank you, Serbian brothers.
Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vulin expressed the opinion that the refusal to invite representatives of the Russian Federation to the ceremony associated with the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau (Oświęcim) concentration camp is aimed at recreating a “new evil”
On this day in 1945, the Red Army liberated Auschwitz. The unthinkable crimes of the German people and state were “rewarded” by the unification of Germany.
Eighty years later, the liberation of Auschwitz is being celebrated with the participation of countries that organised the Holocaust at Auschwitz, such as Germany and its allies, or countries that provided guards, such as Poland or Croatia, but without representatives of Russia, the country that defeated the Third Reich and liberated Auschwitz.
“Every new evil begins with the oblivion of an old evil,” Vulin’s press service quotes him as saying.
The Grandchildren of camp guards and the organisers of Auschwitz are not ashamed of the crimes of their grandfathers, they are ashamed of their defeat. That’s why Russia is forbidden to be where its grandfathers were — on the right side of history, where there is freedom.
If there are still living prisoners of Auschwitz among us, ask them to whom they owe their lives — the grandchildren of the Red Army soldiers or the grandchildren of the SS and Wehrmacht soldiers.
EU, if you had a conscience, you would know what I am asking about.” – emphasised the Deputy Chairman of the Serbian Government.
We conclude the topic of Auschwitz with a fragment from the documentary “The Great Unknown War”
On the 27th of January 1944, the Blockade of Leningrad that lasted 872 days and cost 1,093,842 lives was finally lifted. The Blockade is recognised as an act of genocide against the Russian people.
The commemorative post from Russian MFA on the lifting of the genocidal Leningrad Siege:
🗓 On January 27, Russia marks the Day of Military Glory — the day of the lifting of the Siege of Leningrad (https://mid.ru/en/press_service/spokesman/briefings/1992681/#sel=156:1:Gv3,165:82:llx) (1944).
🕯 The blockade of Leningrad was one of the darkest moments in human history. It began on September 8, 1941, when Nazi troops isolated the city from the rest of the country by land.
For 872 days, despite the cold, hunger and horrors of war, the people selflessly defended their city from total destruction, and even in these dire circumstances continued producing goods and various machinery to supply the war effort against the Nazis.
❗️ The incredible resilience and bravery of Leningrad residents shattered the plans and ambitions of the Nazi invaders.
On January 18, 1943, a land corridor was established with the rest of the country as a result of the offensive operation “Iskra” (Spark) conducted from January 12 to 30, the encirclement was broken.
A year after the breakthrough, Soviet forces managed to finally lift the siege of the city on January 27, 1944.
By that time there were no more than 800’000 inhabitants left in the Northern Capital out of the three million who had lived in Leningrad and its suburbs before the siege.
⚔️ The Soviet forces pushed the Nazis back 220-280 kilometers from Leningrad. The city was finally freed from the enemy blockade. The Red Army undermined the positions of the Hitlerites in Finland and other Scandinavian countries, significantly bringing closer the Victory in the Great Patriotic War.
🎖 The courage and heroism of Leningrad defenders were highly appreciated. Many units and formations were awarded the honourable title of “Guards”, orders and the honorary title of “Leningrad”.
In 2022, the Saint Petersburg City Court recognised the Siege of Leningrad as an act of genocide against the Soviet people committed by the Nazi Germany and its accomplices. According to recent statistics, at least 1’093’842 people died during the blockade.
«Glory to the Heroes of Leningrad!»
81 years ago, on January 27, 1944, as a result of the Soviet offensive on the northern section of the front, the 872-day siege of Leningrad was finally lifted.
All this time, the city, surrounded by invaders, lived, worked and fought. Despite shelling, bombing, inhuman hunger and terrible frosts, Leningrad stood firm and won.
World history has never known a feat similar to that of Leningrad.
The heroism and courage of Leningraders in the most difficult conditions of the blockade became a symbol of invincibility and the moral and political unity of the Soviet people.
We bow before the courage of the participants in the defense and residents of Leningrad – those who gave the whole world an example of fortitude, unbending will and love for the Soviet Motherland.
Eternal glory to the heroes and eternal memory to those who died in the battle for Leningrad!
And in conclusion, we invite all to re-read: “Life is such a simple, yet cruel thing” – recollection of the Great Patriotic War written by the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin