96-Year-Old Ukrainian Holocaust Survivor Killed In Own Home By Russian Shelling

A holocaust survivor has been killed in his home in Kharkiv following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Boris Romanchenko died at the age of 96 after having survived the genocide of millions of Jews between 1941 and 1945 and going on to live a long life in which he worked to honour those who had lost their lives.

A memorial account for the Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora concentration camps announced Romantschenko had been killed on Friday 18 March, in his home in Ukraine's second-largest city, which has been a big target for Russian troops since their invasion last month.

The post, which has been translated, explained the 96-year-old had survived time in Buchenwald, Peenemünde, Dora and Bergen-Belsen concentration camps prior to their liberation and that he had been killed 'in a blast at his home'.

"We are stunned," the memorial account wrote.

The account quoted Romantschenko's granddaughter in saying the elderly man had lived in a multi-storey residential building which had been targeted by a Russian shell.

A number of residential and public properties have been destroyed by Russian troops since the start of the war, forcing residents to have to abandon their homes.

Romanchenko was credited at having worked 'intensively on the memory of Nazi crimes', and an image posted by the account showed him reading 'the Buchenwald oath' to mark the anniversary of the liberation of the Buchenwald concentration camp on 11 April 1945.

The oath read: "Creating a new world where peace and freedom reign."

Last week, Kharkiv's mayor Mayor Ihor Terekhov said more than 600 buildings had already been destroyed in Kharkiv since the start of the invasion, including 'schools, nurseries, hospitals [and] clinics'.

In a televised interview cited by Reuters, he commented: "The Russian army is constantly shelling [us] from the ground and the air."

Prior to the war, Kharkiv was home to 1.4 million people, and while many have fled the city there are hundreds of thousands of people who have chosen to stay.

As of 17 March, Kharkiv police said 250 civilians have been killed in Kharkiv, including 13 children, since the start of the war.

Two of the residents who have chosen to stay in the area are husband and wife Svitlana and Sasha.

The couple told BBC News they only manage to get two hours of sleep a night due to the relentless shelling, likening any moments of silence they get to being 'like thaw in spring'.

If you would like to donate to the Red Cross Emergency Appeal, which will help provide food, medicines and basic medical supplies, shelter and water to those in Ukraine, click here for more information 

Topics: Ukraine, Russia, Viral, Life, Politics

Emily Brown

Emily Brown is UNILAD Editorial Lead at LADbible Group. She first began delivering news when she was just 11 years old - with a paper route - before graduating with a BA Hons in English Language in the Media from Lancaster University. Emily joined UNILAD in 2018 to cover breaking news, trending stories and longer form features. She went on to become Community Desk Lead, commissioning and writing human interest stories from across the globe, before moving to the role of Editorial Lead. Emily now works alongside the UNILAD Editor to ensure the page delivers accurate, interesting and high quality content.