MOSCOW, April 18 (UPI) -- A news announcer on Russian state television commented on air that Jews brought the Holocaust on themselves.
When an interview guest told Evelyn Zakamskaya it was surprising to learn Jewish organizations support Maidan, the Ukrainian protest movement, saying, “They do not realize that they are, with their own hands, closer to a Holocaust,” Zakamskaya responded, “they also advanced the first,” a suggestion Jews were responsible for the World War II Holocaust.
John Aravosis of Americablog confirmed the show’s transcript with a Russian speaker at BuzzFeed, who called it “accurate, if incomplete.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin has condemned rising anti-Semitism in Ukraine, saying at a recent press conference Moscow is concerned with “the rampage of reactionary forces, nationalist and anti-Semitic forces going on in certain parts of Ukraine, including Kiev.”
Ira Forman, the White House special envoy on anti-Semitism, doubted Putin’s comments, saying, “We have no indication that what President Putin has been saying about anti-Semitism has been a true reflection of what’s happening on the ground.”
[Americablog] [Haaretz]
