Against the backdrop of the January 23, 2020 conference in Jerusalem marking the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, and amid the escalating deadly attacks by the Syrian regime and its allies, Russia and Iran, on the Idlib and Aleppo districts in northwestern Syria, Ibrahim Al-'Alwash, a columnist for the oppositionist weekly 'Enab Baladi, posted an article titled "The Syrian Auschwitz." In the article, he wrote that what the Syrian civilians are suffering today resembles what was done to the Jews in Nazi Germany, and that Russia is the one presiding over this "Syrian Auschwitz." Having learned the Nazi methods, Russian President Vladimir Putin is now eagerly using them to crush the Syrians, he said. Al-'Alwash also criticized the world for commemorating the liberation of Auschwitz while ignoring the massacres that Russia and the Assad regime are perpetrating in Syria. He concluded that, just as Auschwitz did not cause the Jews to endorse Nazism and abandon their struggle against it, the "Syrian Auschwitz" will not cause the Syrians to accept the Assad regime or forgive those who have tormented them.
Ibrahim Al-'Alwash (Source: Al-Quds Al-Arabi, London)
The following are translated excerpts from his article:[1]
"Russian President Vladimir Putin attended the events [in Jerusalem] marking the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp. At the same time, he is sponsoring the great Syrian Auschwitz, which is currently taking place in broad daylight in northern Syria, and involves the expulsion of half a million Syrians who have been cast into the desert along with their wives and children, in the bitter cold of December and January. This is in addition to six million who have already been driven [from their homes since the beginning of the war], and a million who have been killed or injured [in Syria] by Russia, Iran and the Syrian regime. Putin is [in fact] proud of these actions, and regards them as heroism, although he is targeting civilians and systematically butchering them with his planes and missiles, in the guise of fighting terror.
"[Putin] is torturing families and leaving children to die in the bitter cold. News agencies and social media are full of pictures of children trudging through the mud in the cold and the rain, and families fleeing the Russian airstrikes with their meagre belongings, having been driven from their villages and homes for the second or third time [since the start of the war]. They are headed to temporary camps, [but] those are also bombarded, forcing their residents to leave them for other camps. The images of the displaced and persecuted Syrians may be the closest thing today to [the sight of] the victims of Auschwitz, who were driven from their homes and sent from one torture camp to another until finally meeting their death!!
"Nazi Germany build the Auschwitz death camp and perpetrated heinous massacres there against the Jews. It tortured them and their families, and perfected technologies of mass murder, from crematoria and gas [chambers] to death by starvation, for it regarded [the Jews] as lacking any human rights. This is exactly how the Russians are treating the Syrians today, when they spare no advanced weapon or even chemical agent [in killing them], while their crimes are broadcast in the digital [media]. All this, in order to suppress the Syrian revolution and cause the Syrians to reembrace the fascism of the Assad regime, the torture, and the killing of their children – [and all] under the pretext of a struggle against the West that disrespects Russia.
"The events marking the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz are being held [in Jerusalem], not far from Syria, where Russia is presiding over its own [version of] Auschwitz using all its military might in the cruelest possible manner. The civilized world, which has passed laws regarding human rights, is ashamed of the crimes that were committed in Auschwitz but ignores the Syrian victims who are experiencing torture [only] a few hundred kilometers from the place where the commemoration events… are being held.
"The Syrian Auschwitz has now lasted longer than the Jewish Auschwitz, because the massacre of Syrians has been ongoing for about nine years. The Syrian regime was the one who started it. Then the Iranians joined in, with the backing of the Russian veto. But soon enough, in September 2015, Russia [too] joined in the open killing of Syrians. Putin began employing his Nazi methods, eager and determined to pulverize the Syrians, exactly as the German Nazis did to the Jews during World War II.
"Although the Israeli government, headed by Netanyahu, is party to the efforts to keep Assad in power, in coordination with the Russians, and to preserve his fascist regime, we nevertheless feel sympathy for the innocent victims of Auschwitz, who, just like the Syrians, were treated like objects and their human rights were ignored. The Russian regime internalized the operation methods of the German Nazis, and is now re-employing them, using the surplus weapons that have piled up in its warehouses to destroy Syria and expel its people… The 40 world leaders who attended the January 23, 2020 event marking the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz did not even bother to hint to the Russians that they must stop bombing Syrian civilians, at least for the few hours of the ceremony!...
"The Syrian Auschwitz will not cause the Syrians to believe in Assad's fascism, in Iran's fascism or in the Russian Nazism, just as the Jewish Auschwitz did not cause the Jews to love the German Nazism, accept it and stop considering their humanity and their families. [Nor] did it extinguish their willingness to sacrifice for the sake of their revival and for the sake of promoting the fight against Nazism…
"The Syrians will not keep silent or forgive those who are tormenting them, no matter how powerful they are and no matter what lies and false claims are spread by their media. The Syrians will force the world to regard the Syrian massacre as a crime against humanity and to establish museums and judicial bodies to pursue those involved in [this crime], all over the world. They will not allow anyone who took part in the Syrian Auschwitz to escape with interests [intact], or even his life!"
[1] Enabbaladi.net, January 26, 2020.
