In a statement on Wednesday, the European Jewish Congress said it was shocked by comments made by the Russian foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, who had compared Western governments’ support for Ukraine to Hitler’s Final Solution, which resulted in the murder of six million Jews.
“We are shocked and appalled by this shameful comparison drawn by Minister Lavrov between the actions of a coalition of democratic countries and Hitler’s persecution and murder of six million Jews in the Shoah,” EJC President Ariel Muzicant said. “This is Holocaust distortion at its most basic level and we call on Mr. Lavrov to unequivocably apologize and withdraw these comments.”
Earlier on Wednesday, Lavrov accused the United States and Europe of seeking a “final solution” to “the Russia question” comparable to Adolf Hitler’s plan to wipe out the Jews in World War II, drawing anger from Israel, Germany and some of Moscow’s other Western adversaries, according to The Times of Israel.
“Just as Napoleon mobilized practically all of Europe against the Russian Empire, just as Hitler mobilized and captured… the majority of European countries and sent them against the Soviet Union, now the United States has organized a coalition,” Lavrov said at an annual press conference.
“The task is the same: the final solution of the ‘Russian question.’ Just as Hitler wanted to finally solve the Jewish question,” he added
“This is not the first time the minister has used Holocaust equivalence and Hitler references,” Musicant pointed out. “This must stop. As we mark in the coming days International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the day that the Red Army liberated Auschwitz, the memory of Holocaust victims must never be used in such an appalling manner.”
In May 2022, Lavrov claimed that Nazi leader Adolf Hitler “had Jewish blood,” trying to justify Russia’s portrayal of Ukraine as “Nazi” despite the fact that its president is of Jewish ethnic origin.
