Shvartsman delivers speech in remembrance of the victims of National Socialism
The German Bundestag commemorated the victims of National Socialism at a Ceremony of Remembrance on Wednesday, 29 January 2025. This year’s Ceremony of Remembrance marked the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp on 27 January 1945. Speeches were given by Holocaust survivor Roman Shvartsman and Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
Shvartsman survived the Bershad ghetto as a child
Roman Shvartsman was born in Bershad, to the north of Odesa in Ukraine, in 1936. As a child, he was deported to the Bershad ghetto in the summer of 1941 because of his Jewish faith. In March 1944, the Red Army liberated the German- and Romanian-controlled ghetto. Today, Shvartsman is chairman of the Ukrainian Association of Jews – Former Prisoners of Ghetto and Nazi Concentration Camps, among other positions.
Bärbel Bas, President of the German Bundestag, previously welcomed Shvartsman to the Bundestag’s plenary chamber on 22 October 2022. “For 30 years, you have been active on behalf of the Jewish survivors of the ghettos and concentration camps in Ukraine, especially in your home city, and you have worked tirelessly to ensure that the victims of the Holocaust are not forgotten, that their stories continue to be told and they receive a fitting commemoration,” the President of the Bundestag said, thanking Shvartsman.