Germany honors Ukrainian survivor of Nazi camps

BERLIN (AP) — Germany's parliament paid tribute on Tuesday to Boris Romanchenko, who survived several Nazi concentration camps during World War II and died last week during an attack on the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv. He was 96 years old.

The Buchenwald concentration camp memorial said on Monday that Romanchenko, who survived Buchenwald in addition to the Peenemuende, Dora and Bergen-Belsen camps, was killed on Friday. According to her granddaughter, the multi-storey building in which she lived was hit by a shell.

Romanchenko was dedicated to keeping alive the memory of the crimes committed by the Nazis and was vice-president of the Buchenwald-Dora International Committee, he added.

At the start of the German parliament session on Tuesday, the vice-president of the House, Katrin Goering-Eckardt, reminded Romanchenko.

He was taken to Dortmund, Germany, as a forced worker in 1942 and was sent to concentration camps after an escape attempt in 1943. Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941.

“His death reminds us that Germany has a special historical responsibility towards Ukraine,” said Goering-Eckardt. “Boris Romanchenko is one of thousands killed in Ukraine. Every life that has been skewed reminds us that we must do everything we can to stop this cruel war that violates international law and to help the people of and in Ukraine.”

The legislators observed a minute's silence in memory of Romanchenko and the other victims of the war.

Romanchenko “survived four concentration camps and has been killed in the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine,” said Finance Minister Christian Lindner. “Their fate shows us both the criminal nature of Russian politics and why Germany stands in solidarity with Ukraine, why we must be in solidarity.”