Remembrance Day for the Victims of Genocide Crimes: A Look at the Events of the War in Ukraine by Historian Piotr Cywiński, Director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum

Today is the International Day of Commemoration and Dignity of the Victims of the Crime of Genocide. It is the day to remember people who died just because they had a certain nationality or a certain religion. Now we, Ukrainians, also pay a very high price for the right to live on our land and speak our language.

But are the crimes committed by the Russian army against the civilian population of Ukraine genocide from a legal point of view? Dr. Piotr Cywiński, a well-known Polish historian, gives the answer to this question. He is the director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum and the President of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation in Poland. In autumn, he took part in the Forum of Oral History of Ukraine, which was held on the initiative of the Museum of Civilian Voices of the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation. 

“If they say that Ukrainians are not a separate nation, that Ukraine has no right to exist, this means that the intention is to obliterate, to destroy physically, or at least in the minds of people, the entire Ukrainian nation. And this, together with the committed atrocities, gives grounds, at least, to consider the case of genocide by the international court in The Hague. Every genocide is a crime against humanity. But is a crime against humanity genocide? The tribunal should condemn it,” says Piotr Cywiński.

Mr Cywiński also emphasizes that certain questions should be answered not by a historian, and not even by a lawyer, but by the court in the first place.

“According to my viewpoint, as a historian, a real in-depth study of this situation should include not only some specific cases or orders carried out by the Russian army, such as torturing civilians, children, raping women, theft and so on. This should rather be considered together with what the masterminds of these actions say, and what the politicians, who have drawn the vector of this war, say,” underlines Mr. Cywiński.

He also adds that he would really like to wait and see the situation when the international court takes a position on classifying and calling those crimes, which were committed in Ukraine, by their right names. Read more in Piotr Cywiński’s interview at the link
https://civilvoicesmuseum.org/stories/pjotr-civinskij-zapisati-svidchennya-ta-zberegti-naivazhlivishe-zaraz-cej-material-v-maibutnomu-vidigraye-gigantsku-rol
Every war story matters. To preserve the memory for a better future, tell your story on the portal of the Museum of Civilian Voices of the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation https://civilvoicesmuseum.org/ or via the toll-free hotline 0 (800) 509 001.