Russia Admonishes Attempts to Rewrite Auschwitz History / Sputnik International

Moscow has expressed surprise about Poland's assertion that the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp was liberated by Ukraine.

Russian Ambassador to the UN Vitaly Churkin warned against revising history, as it pertained to the liberation of the infamous death camp Auschwitz, the Russian TV channel RT reports.

Churkin made the remarks after an eyebrow-raising claim by Polish Foreign Minister Grzegorz Schetyna, who said that the camp had allegedly been liberated by Ukrainian troops from the First Ukrainian Front.

Speaking at a UN conference commemorating the liberation of the camp in New York on Wednesday, Churkin reminded that it was Soviet Army soldiers who liberated Auschwitz concentration camp.

He added that the Red Army gave the First Ukrainian Front its moniker "as it liberated Ukraine from the Nazis before reaching Poland through battles."

"Like all other parts of the Red Army, [the front] was multinational and consisted of Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians, Georgians, Armenians, Azerbaijanis, representatives of the peoples of Central Asia, and many others [from the] more than 100 ethnic groups of the Soviet Union," Churkin said.

Asking his Polish counterpart Bogusław Winid to tell the Polish Foreign Minister about his mistake, Churkin expressed hope that Schetyna "didn’t intend to offend so many peoples."

Complete story at - Russia Admonishes Attempts to Rewrite Auschwitz History / Sputnik International

Auschwitz commandant’s grandson leads fight against Europe’s neo-Nazis

Rainer Hoess was 12 years old when he learned he was the grandson of a man who oversaw the murder of a million people as commandant of the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz.

Growing up in post-war Germany, Hoess failed to understand why his school gardener — a Holocaust survivor — was consistently harsh towards to him, until a teacher revealed the terrible truth.

“I knew nothing about Auschwitz, I knew nothing about my family, I only knew that my grandfather was in the war like thousands of other grandfathers were,” Hoess told AFP.

Rudolf Hoess was the longest-serving commandant of the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp in occupied Poland that became an enduring symbol of Nazi Germany’s genocide of European Jews.

“For a 12-year-old boy it’s huge information,” his grandson said.

Now aged 48, Hoess has turned his family burden into the driving force of a full-time commitment to fighting right-wing extremism.

Complete story at - Auschwitz commandant’s grandson leads fight against Europe’s neo-Nazis