In January 2025, a quote attributed to the Chief Rabbi of Poland, Michael Schudrich, circulated on the RuNet: it would allegedly be “shameful” for him to be at the same event with the President of Ukraine. It was also reported that Polish rabbis boycotted the ceremony. Official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova also spoke about this. We have verified the authenticity of the quote.
On January 28, Russian-language Telegram channels appeared messages, according to which Polish rabbis staged a protest in connection with the participation of Vladimir Zelensky in the ceremony of the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp. The posts claim that the heads of religious communities boycotted some of the events where the Ukrainian president was present. At the same time, according to the channel Swiss vatnik (60,000 views at the time of writing this analysis), Chief Rabbi of Poland Michael Schudrich allegedly said: “I consider it shameful to be at the same event with a person who is the leader of the Nazi regime. It’s a shame that the authorities in Warsaw decided not to invite the country whose soldiers liberated Auschwitz in 1945 to the 80th anniversary of that liberation.”
Initially, this quote did not gain much popularity in RuNet. Thus, similar posts appeared in Telegram channels “Voice of Mordor"(38,000 views), "Zuben_co News" (31,000), "Kremlin Mockingbird" (17,000), "Bear" (15,000), "Bad luck"(13,000), "Avdeevka.ru" (6800) and "Before everyone else. Well almost. Special operation"(6800). Among the media, the publication wrote about Schudrich’s alleged words “Military Review"
However, on January 31, the words of the Polish rabbi in his briefing quoted by Maria Zakharova. An official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry said: “Zelensky’s appearance in Auschwitz caused indignation in Jewish religious circles in Poland. The chief rabbi of the Polish state, Michael Schudrich, said that their representatives considered it a shame to be at the same event with a dictator who has tame Nazis. I thank Michael Schudrich for this civic courage.” The corresponding post appeared in her Telegram channel (46,000 views). Soon Zakharova was quoted TASS, "Komsomolskaya Pravda", RT, "News", "Arguments and facts", "Moscow 24", Lenta.ru, "Arguments of the week", "Sight", EADaily and other media. The official wrote about Schudrich's alleged statement account Russian Foreign Ministry on social network X.
January 27, 2025 in Poland passed commemorative events in honor of the 80th anniversary of the liberation of prisoners of the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau (Auschwitz). The ceremony was attended by surviving concentration camp prisoners, as well as high-ranking representatives of several dozen countries, including King Charles III of Great Britain, President of France Emmanuel Macron, Chancellor of Germany Olaf Scholz, King of Spain Philip VI, as well as President of Ukraine. The day before, Russian Ambassador to Warsaw Sergei Andreev statedthat Russian diplomats will not attend the ceremony. “Theoretically, we could, of course, appear there, but there is no need for us to attend an event where no one will remember who liberated the Auschwitz concentration camp, Europe,” he explained. The camp was released January 27, 1945 by Soviet troops of the 59th and 60th armies of the 1st Ukrainian Front.
Michael Yosef Schudrich - Chief Rabbi of Poland since 2004. In early posts about the words he allegedly said condemning Zelensky, a 27-second English-language video with the branding of the British TV channel Sky News was cited as evidence. Translated into Russian, the text in the video looked like this:
“Polish rabbis protested in connection with Zelensky’s participation in the ceremony dedicated to the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.
The heads of religious communities boycotted some events attended by the President of Ukraine. The Chief Rabbi of Poland, Michael Schudrich, said: “It would be a shame for a Jew to stand in a place that witnessed this tragedy, next to a man who had a Nazi regiment in his service.”
To begin with, “Verified” tried to find the original source of this video. We have studied the official website Sky News, as well as his accounts on different platforms (X, YouTube, Instagram And Facebook), but did not find any traces of articles with a circulated quote from Schudrich or a viral video. Moreover, we compared it with last short TV channel videos and found some differences. Although the overall design of the viral post is quite similar to the Sky News posts, it uses a slightly different font, which is especially noticeable in the letters g and m. Also, in the video about the rabbi on the blue background of the inscription, there is no color transition characteristic of the channel’s style (underlined in yellow below).
The earliest publication with a viral video that “Verified” was able to find using keywords was published on January 28 at 15:45 Moscow time in the pro-Kremlin Telegram channel “Odessa for victory!"(6600 views). This resource has already been mentioned in our analyzes as the primary source of dissemination of fabricated anti-Ukrainian photos, videos and screenshots.
“Verified” was unable to find the quote from Schudrich about Zelensky that interests us in the authoritative Polish or other foreign press. The rabbi himself, who allegedly spoke about how shameful it would be to attend the same event as the Ukrainian president, in the ceremony participated. The Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum broadcast a live 7-hour broadcast on its YouTube channel, and at the mark 05:47:21 The final act of the ceremony began with the blowing of the shofar (Jewish ceremonial horn). Then the funeral Jewish prayer, Kaddish, was said, which, among other rabbis, was read by Shudrich. About 20 minutes into the recording shown, as Zelensky lights a candle in memory of the fallen victims.
Thus, there is no evidence that the Chief Rabbi of Poland and his colleagues condemned Zelensky’s presence at the ceremony of the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. Initially, the news about this appeared in the pro-Russian Telegram channel, which had previously been caught publishing disinformation more than once. The video allegedly from Sky News, which served as evidence, is not available on the resources of this TV channel and has signs of falsification.
Cover photo: @ZelenskyyUa (X)
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