And then, at auschwitz, putin recived a medal from the same jews who are vicitmising him:
http://www.iht.com/bin/print_ipub.php?file=/articles/2005/01/27/news/camp.htmlLeaders mark the Auschwitz liberation
By Judy Dempsey International Herald Tribune
Friday, January 28, 2005
AUSCHWITZ, Poland Leaders from more than 40 countries gathered Thursday for an emotional ceremony to remember the victims of the Holocaust on the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration camp by Soviet troops.
The ceremony here was held close to the railway sidings where tens of thousands of Jews, Gypsies, Slavs and homosexuals had been transported to their deaths in one of the most notorious of the Nazi concentration camps. The sides of the railways tracks were lined Thursday by big, bright candles.
The survivors, many in their 80s, sat patiently Thursday in the open air despite the freezing temperatures and a biting snow storm that persisted during the afternoon ceremonies.
It was the largest ever gathering of survivors for an Auschwitz anniversary and the ceremonies, attended by Europe's leaders and royalty, underscored how this could be the last time an anniversary will be attended by survivors. More than 1,000 had been invited. The ceremony ended with the haunting sounds of train whistles, conveying the sense of wagons arriving and inmates descending into the camp.
"President Bush has said of the Holocaust, 'there will come a time when the eyewitnesses are gone,"' said Vice President Dick Cheney, who earlier had spoken at a ceremony in the Juliusz Slowackiego theater in Krakow, some 60 kilometers, about 40 miles, west of Auschwitz.
"That is why we are bound by conscience to remember what happened and to whom it happened," he said.
The survivors were covered in thick blankets, fur hats and woolen coats while Polish soldiers served them hot drinks to keep them warm during the three-hour ceremony.
They had arrived - along with the prime ministers, presidents, princes and princesses from across Europe - amid a massive security operation. More than 3,000 police officers were mobilized to stand watch along the road that connects Krakow to Auschwitz.
The road, which wound its way along forests shrouded in snow, fields covered in white and small villages, had been sealed off to public transportation and traffic from the early hours of the morning. Villagers peered out from windows to see the cavalcade of police cars, buses and official cars passing through this part of the Polish countryside.
Among those who addressed the gathering in Auschwitz were survivors of the camp that had been set up in 1939 and which by 1942 had become the biggest center for the mass extermination of European Jews. More than 1.5 million people, mostly Jews, were killed in Auschwitz.
When Soviet troops reached the camp on Jan. 27, 1945, there were only 7,000 survivors, many barely alive. The Nazis had driven most of the prisoners who could still walk through the snow on a "death march" toward camps farther west.
Wladyslaw Bartoszewski, a former Polish foreign minister who for decades had sought reconciliation between Germans and Poles, spoke on behalf of Polish prisoners. Simone Weil, the French lawmaker, represented Jews. Romani Rose from Germany's Council of Romas, made a short speech on behalf of European Gypsies.
Rose specifically thanked the German president, Horst Köhler, for asking him to attend the ceremony at Auschwitz. Köhler, representing the country that perpetrated the Holocaust, was not invited to speak.
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, representing the liberators of Auschwitz, used the occasion to warn against compromising with terrorists.
Dressed in a thick black coat, Putin praised the "valor of the Soviet soldiers who lost 600,000 lives for the liberation of Poland. We will never forget that the Soviet Union paid an enormous price of 27 million lives for that great victory."
However, Putin also warned about making any compromises with terrorism.
"We shall not only remember the past but also be aware of all the threats of the modern world," he said. "Terrorism is among them and it is no less dangerous and cunning than fascism. And it is equally cruel: It has already claimed thousands of innocent lives."
With little emotion, Putin said the Holocaust showed just as "there were no 'good' and 'bad' fascists, there cannot be 'good' and 'bad' terrorists. Any double standards here are absolutely unacceptable and deadly dangerous for the civilization."
Toward the close of the ceremony and as darkness started to fall, the chief rabbi of Russia, Berel Lazar, presented Putin and the Polish president, Aleksander Kwasniewski, each
with a special medal. The rabbi praised Russia's role in liberating Auschwitz and liberating Europe from fascism and praised Poland for improving its ties with its small Jewish community and in hosting the ceremony.Earlier at the Juliusz Slowackiego theater, Putin, who was one of the main speakers along with Cheney, Kwasniewski and President Moshe Katzav of Israel, won long applause after he acknowledged the persistence of anti-Semitism in Russia.
"Even in our country, in Russia, which did more than any to combat fascism, did most to save the Jews, even in our country, we sometimes unfortunately see manifestations of this problem and I, too, am ashamed of that," said Putin.
He was referring to a letter, recently signed by 500 Russians, including nationalist members of the Duma, demanding that all Jewish organizations be outlawed and officials who supported them be punished. The letter also accused Jews of fomenting ethnic hatred and provoking anti-Semitism.
"Anti-Semitism has returned to Russia," said Moshe Kantor, chairman of the board of governors of the European Jewish Congress and one of the main organizers of the anniversary ceremonies. Kantor, a Russian industrialist specializing in the aeronautics and space, said in an interview there existed in Russia "a consortium of economic and political interests" behind the letter. It was no coincidence the letter had been drawn up just before the Auschwitz anniversary, he added.The ceremonies Thursday began with a forum organized by the European Jewish Congress that brought together young people from around the world, Auschwitz survivors and former Soviet soldiers who freed the camp.
Anatoly Shapiro, who commanded the Russian unit that captured Auschwitz 60 years ago, won loud applause when he said: "I would like to say to all the people of the earth: Unite, and do not permit this evil that was committed."
Shapiro, 92, had made a recorded video since he was too ill to travel from his home in New York.
Three other former Soviet soldiers, their suit jackets decorated with medals and ribbons, stood in a theater box to take applause and then appeared on stage where Kwasniewski presented them with medals.
Kwasniewski said the lessons learned from Auschwitz had to be constantly repeated and not only during special ceremonies.
"The world has not always heeded the sad lesson of Nazi crimes," he said, vowing to "ensure that future generations never forget."
Kwasniewski had earlier said on Polish radio: "When I see ethnic purges in the Balkans or what is happening in some African countries, I have to note that, unfortunately, the message of Auschwitz has not been heeded.
"We must constantly remind each other of the message, not only when there are ceremonies like the one today."
In Strasbourg, France, the European Parliament president, Josep Borrell, said it was important never to forget what happened during World War II, when the Nazi regime under Adolf Hitler killed millions of Jews, homosexuals, Slavs, Gypsies and handicapped people.
"Everyone is surprised such a thing happened, but it did," Borrell said. "It's difficult to pay just memory to it. It is a battle against the weakness of memory, something which should never happen again. "If we forget history, we are condemned to repeat it."