The tremendous contribution of the Soviet Union to defeating the Third Reich during the Second World War is often downplayed or even turned upside down by some Western countries. Last year, Poland accused the USSR, which liberated the country from the Nazis in 1945, of actually starting the war along with Germany.
The fifth World Holocaust Forum, devoted to the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp, was marked, among other things, by a speech by US Vice President Mike Pence, who praised the “resilience of the Jewish people” and the courage of those who liberated the camp's prisoners. However, he did so in an awkward way… without referring to the liberators, who are more than well-known when it comes to the Second World War, by name.
“When soldiers opened the gates of Auschwitz on January 27, 1945, they found 7,000 half-starved, half-naked prisoners, hundreds of boxes of camp records that documented the greatest mass murder in history”, the politician said.
It's unclear why exactly Pence failed to mention that those “soldiers” belonged to the Soviet Red Army, specifically the 100th Infantry Division and the 60th Army of the 1st Ukrainian Front. The American VP's “forgetfulness” was all the more ironic in light of his own call to “fulfil an obligation of remembrance” and never forget those who died in the Holocaust.
He did, however, remember to hail the heroism of “all the Allied forces” for their effort in…
