A 96-year-old who survived four Nazi concentration camps was killed during Russian attack in Kharkiv, memorial group says

• A Holocaust survivor was killed in an attack by Russian forces, a memorial group said.
• Boris Romantschenko, who survived four concentration camps, died last Friday.

A 96-year-old Holocaust survivor was killed last week following an "attack" by Russian forces in Kharkiv, Ukraine, the Buchenwald Memorial foundation announced in a statement Monday morning.

The foundation said they are "deeply dismayed" following the news that Boris Romantschenko was killed in his attack at his apartment home last Friday, according to his relatives.

Romantschenko survived four concentration camps in Buchenwald, Dora, Bergen-Belsen and Peenemünde, the statement said.

"Boris Romantschenko campaigned intensively for the memory of the Nazi crimes and was Vice President of the Buchenwald-Dora International Committee," the statement said.

—Stift. Gedenkstätten Buchenwald und Mittelbau-Dora (@Buchenwald_Dora) March 21, 2022

According to the statement, Romantschenko read "Buchenwald's oath to build a new world of peace and freedom" at a 2012 commemoration event recognizing the anniversary of liberation from the concentration camp.

"The horrific death of Boris Romantschenko shows how threatening the war in Ukraine is for the concentration camp survivors," the foundation said. "Together with 30 other memorials, the Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora Memorials Foundation has set up an aid network for former victims of Nazi persecution in Ukraine."

Russian President Vladimir Putin launched an invasion against Ukraine in late February, claiming that he wanted to prevent the genocide of Russian speakers and calling for the "de-Nazification" of the country whose leader is Jewish.

Earlier this month, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Russian forces bombed a Holocaust memorial site, Babyn Yar, killing multiple people.

"To the world: what is the point of saying 'never again' for 80 years, if the world stays silent when a bomb drops on the same site of Babyn Yar?" Zelenskyy tweeted.