Boris Romantschenko Wiki – Biography
Boris Romantschenko, a Ukrainian man who survived the Nazi Holocaust during World War Two, has been killed during a Russian attack on the eastern city of Kharkiv.
Romantschenko died during the Russian shelling of his apartment block on Friday, relatives said.
Age
He was 96 years old
Holocaust Survivor Killed by Russian Shelling
For over three weeks, Russian forces have been relentlessly shelling Kharkiv, which lies just 30 miles (50km) from the border.
At least 500 civilians have now been killed there, Ukrainian officials say.
Police said one of the victims had been identified as a nine-year-old boy.
The Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora Memorials Foundation said it was “deeply disturbed” by Mr Romantschenko’s death.
The organization, Mr Romantschenko was vice-president, announced the news after being informed by his family and said he had “worked intensely on the memory of Nazi crimes.”
“We mourn the loss of a close friend. We wish his son and granddaughter, who brought us the sad news, a lot of strength in these difficult times,” the foundation’s statement added.
Mr Romantschenko’s death comes more than three weeks after President Vladimir Putin sought to justify his invasion to the Russian people by telling them his goal is to”de-Nazify Ukraine.”
Western leaders have condemned these claims and pointed out that Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, is Jewish.
Early Life
Mr Romantschenko was born in the northeastern city of Bondari on 20 January 1926.
He was rounded up by Nazi troops after the invasion of the Soviet Union and deported to Germany in 1942, where he was forced to do hard labour, the foundation said.
After a failed escape attempt in 1943, he was sent to the Buchenwald concentration camp, where some 56,545 people were murdered before its liberation in 1945 by the allies.
He also spent time in the subcamp of Mittelbau-Dora and the infamous Bergen Belsen and Peenemünde camps.
He returned to Buchenwald in 2012 to celebrate the 67th anniversary of the camp’s liberation by US troops, where he recited the pledge made by survivors to create “a new world where peace and freedom reign.”
The Nazi regime murdered over six million Jewish people across Europe between 1941 and 1945.
