With all of the fulmination about President Obama’s declining to attend the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, I don’t think there’s enough consideration of why some of the countries whose heads of state will be in attendance are commemorating the event at all. After all, it was the Red Army that liberated Auschwitz. Putin has declined to attend because of his busy schedule. I can understand why Israel might want to commemorate the liberation.
However, Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Italy (among others) all sent their own citizens to the death camps. Those murdered at Auschwitz were mostly Germans, Poles, and Russians. I know that the prevailing view in Europe is that “the Nazis” were responsible for the murders in death camps. Quite to the contrary I think that France and the Netherlands in particular eagerly sent their Jewish fellow citizens to die in them. I’m not sure why they would be commemorating the liberation. So that they don’t forget? They’ve already forgotten.
