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Ukrainian Auschwitz survivor, 96, says Hitler and Stalin couldn't kill her and she will outlive 'asshole' Putin too

Apr 24, 2022, 18:19 IST
Business Insider
Anastasia Gulej from Kyiv visits the Berge-Belsen concentration camp memorial.Julian Stratenschulte/picture alliance via Getty Images
  • Anastasia Gulej, a 96-year-old Auschwitz survivor, lived through the Nazi Holocaust and Stalinism.
  • At a Holocaust memorial event, she said that she survived those dictatorships and will outlive Putin too.
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A 96-year-old Holocaust survivor who had to flee from Ukraine after Russian troops invaded her homeland has condemned Russian President Vladimir Putin's offensive as a "genocide," MailOnline reported.

Anastasia Gulej made the comment during a speech at an event, which took place earlier this month, to commemorate the 77th anniversary of the liberation of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, according to Metro.

Gulej, who was imprisoned at Bergen-Belsen, in northern Germany, for four months, was also at Auschwitz death camp at the same time as the famous Jewish diarist Anne Frank. At least 1.1 million people, primarily Jews, died in Auschwitz.

Having survived the Nazi Holocaust and the Soviet Union's Stalinism, Gulej vowed during the speech to outlive Putin.

"I survived Hitler, survived Stalin, and I will survive this asshole Putin too," Gulej said, per MailOnline.

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The Holocaust survivor compared Putin's actions in Ukraine to those of the Nazis.

"I have no words for what the Hitler admirers from the Kremlin did in Bucha and Mariupol," she said, according to MailOnline.

A view of the destruction in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol under the control of Russian military and pro-Russian separatists, on April 19, 2022.Leon Klein/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Bucha, near Kyiv, and Mariupol in eastern Ukraine have seen some of the war's worst Russian atrocities. Experts are gathering evidence of alleged war crimes in both locations, CBC News reported.

Hundreds of citizens were massacred in Bucha, with an analysis of satellite images by the New York Times showing the city's streets strewn with dead bodies. The besieged city of Mariupol, where over 21,000 people have been killed, has been devastated by Russian shelling.

The famous Jewish diarist Anne Frank who was transported to Auschwitz in 1944, before she died in the Bergen-Belsen death camp.ullstein bild/ullstein bild via Getty Images

Gulej has now escaped war-torn Ukraine. MailOnline reported that she decided to flee to Germany with her adult children because her home was near an airport — a military target for Russian missiles.

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More than 5 million people have fled Ukraine in the nearly two months since Russia's full-fledged invasion began, according to the United Nations.

A biography of Gulej was slated to be published last month, Metro reported, has been delayed to include an additional chapter about her escape from Ukraine.

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