The dispute over commemorating 'Soviet' Holocaust victims

The museum at Auschwitz has postponed the inauguration of an exhibition on the role of the Red Army in liberating the concentration camp. The delay is owing to the dispute about the nationality of Holocaust victims who were taken from the territories that were annexed to the USSR under the Hitler-Stalin pact. Endre Aczél says the debate is unworthy of the victims. "The Polish curators of the museum find it unacceptable that Polish or Lithuanian Jews are referred to as Soviet citizens in the exhibition. Indeed, several million Jews became citizens of the USSR overnight, whether they wanted it or not. The Poles regard the term 'Soviet citizen' as a legitimisation of the splitting up of Poland between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. However, from the victims' perspective it's facetious to fight about their citizenship. They weren't deported to Auschwitz because of their citizenship but because of their origins."

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