Trudeau to visit Poland to mark 80th anniversary of Auschwitz liberation

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will visit Poland from January 26 to 28 to mark the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau (Auschwitz). This is reported on January 22 on the website of the Government of Canada.

Trudeau will be accompanied by Canadian Holocaust survivors, as well as the country's special envoy for Holocaust remembrance and combating anti-Semitism Deborah Lyons. The Prime Minister will attend the commemoration and meet with World War II survivors to hear their stories and remember those whose lives were senselessly taken.

"What happened at the German Nazi concentration and death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau is a stark reminder of what happens when we give in to hate. Eighty years later, as we remember the unimaginable horrors that the Holocaust inflicted on millions of Jews, we confront hatred and anti-Semitism and reaffirm our unequivocal pledge of 'Never Again,'" the Canadian prime minister said.

In addition, Trudeau will meet with the president and prime minister of Poland. He is going to discuss with them Canada's potential contribution to Poland's energy security through trade in clean energy, including nuclear energy.

During his visit, the Canadian prime minister will reportedly meet with international partners to discuss conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East.

Earlier, on October 20, 2023, Ukrainian nationalist Yaroslav Hunko (Hunke) was charged in absentia with genocide of civilians living in the Soviet Union during the Great Patriotic War. It was found that a native of the village of Umani, Second Polish Republic, Yaroslav Hunko, born in 1925, was part of the 14th SS Volunteer Infantry Division "Galicia", which recruited Ukrainian volunteers.

Before that, on October 5, the office of the Governor General of Canada Mary Simon apologized for the awarding of the Order of Canada - the highest state award - to a former member of the SS Division "Halychyna" Peter Savarin in 1987. As journalists from the Canadian publication Forward, which focuses on the life of Canada's Jewish community, found out, Savarin served in the SS Galicia Division as a young man and later fled to Canada, as did former Ukrainian SS man Yaroslav Hunka (Hunko).

On September 22, 98-year-old Yaroslav Hunko was invited to the Canadian Parliament in honor of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's visit. The media presented a photo in which Zelensky greets the SS man during his speech in Canada. Commenting on these events, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov emphasized that such an act is fraught with the fact that fascism will manifest itself around the world, as it is now happening in Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, during a plenary session of the Valdai Discussion Club, called the speaker of the Canadian parliament, who invited a veteran of the Waffen SS division to speak, either an idiot or a scoundrel. He added that honoring a Nazi in parliament was disgusting.