Sergei Lavrov’s allegation that Hitler was half-Jewish enrages Israel

JERUSALEM (Parliament Politics Magazine) – Foreign minister of Israel has slammed Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s statements that Nazi leader Adolf Hitler “had Jewish blood” as “unforgivable.”

Despite the fact that Ukraine’s president is Jewish, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov made the remarks in an attempt to legitimise Russia’s characterisation of Ukraine as “Nazi.”

The Russian envoy was summoned by Israel’s foreign ministry for “clarification” and an apology.

During World War II, Nazi Germany slaughtered six million Jews in the Holocaust.

Mr. Lavrov made the statements in an interview with Zona Bianca, an Italian television programme, on Sunday, just days after Israel commemorated Holocaust Remembrance Day, one of the most serious days on the Israeli calendar.

Upon being questioned on how Russia could claim to be working to “de-Nazify” Ukraine when President Volodymyr Zelensky was Jewish, Mr Lavrov responded, “So what if Zelensky is Jewish.”

That fact did not rule out the presence of Nazi elements in Ukraine. Some of the worst anti-Semites were Jews, he added, and he believed Hitler also had Jewish blood.

Mr Lavrov’s statement enraged Israel’s foreign minister, who accused him of anti-Semitism.

Dani Dayan, the director of Israel’s Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial, also condemned Mr Lavrov. 

He said in his tweet, the majority of Mr Lavrov’s views were delusional, absurd, dangerous, and deserving of any censure.  Lavrov dealt with the Holocaust’s reversal: making the victims into criminals, based on the promotion of the entirely false idea that Hitler was a Jew.

According to Jon Donnison of the BBC in Jerusalem, the outpouring of support underlines how unconscionable and deeply upsetting Mr Lavrov’s remarks will be to Jews in Israel and around the world. Israel, which has a big Russian community, has attempted to act as a mediator between Russia and Ukraine on several occasions in recent months.

However, he claims that the Israeli government has been criticised for not being tough enough on President Putin. Mr. Lavrov’s remarks will put Israel’s relations with Russia to the test, and while they may offend some, they reflect a common narrative among Kremlin loyalists, according to the correspondent.

For decades, there have been unconfirmed accusations that Hitler’s unidentified paternal grandfather was Jewish, fueled by Hitler’s lawyer Hans Frank’s assertion.

Frank said in his memoir, released in 1953, that Hitler had ordered him to look into rumours that he had Jewish lineage. Though the theory, which has gained traction among conspiracy theorists, has been disregarded by mainstream historians, Frank claims to have discovered evidence suggesting Hitler’s grandfather was Jewish.

Russia has stated repeatedly that one of its goals in the war against Ukraine is to “de-Nazify” the country, implying that the Ukrainian government is immersed in Nazi ideology.

Israel has been in the forefront of international mediation attempts to try to stop the conflict, as it has close ties with both Ukraine and Russia.