Putin Sets Soviet ‘Genocide’ Memorial Day, Sidestepping Jewish Victims

Russia moved to formalize a new day of remembrance for “the genocide of the Soviet people” under Nazi occupation, with President Vladimir Putin signing a decree establishing April 19 as the annual commemoration. The measure, reported this week, emphasizes crimes against Soviet civilians and prisoners and references extermination and concentration camps. Yet the text, as summarized by state outlets and official statements, avoids explicitly naming the Jewish people—the primary victims of Nazi racial genocide—prompting criticism from Jewish groups and historians.

The date was chosen in reference to an April 19, 1943, legal act cited by the Duma’s defense committee, which underpins the Soviet-era pursuit of Nazi criminals. Official coverage highlighted atrocities at camps such as Maly Trostenets, Dachau, Sachsenhausen and Buchenwald, with casualty figures framed through a Soviet lens. Scholars noted that this presentation obscures the fact that the Jewish people comprised the majority of those murdered in several of these sites and in the Nazi program as a whole.

Observers see the move as part of a broader narrative that centers Soviet suffering while downplaying the unique, targeted destruction of European Jewry. The symbolism of April 19 also intersects with Jewish memory: the date marks the outbreak of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. For communities in Israel and the diaspora, the omission lands at a time of rising antisemitism in Europe and beyond and is being watched closely for its potential impact on public memory and education.

(JPost/VFI News)

“Remember the days of old; consider the years of many generations.” – Deuteronomy 32:7