The Story of Roman Shvartsman as a Voice of Memory and Resistance

“Hitler wanted to kill me because I was Jewish. Now Putin wants to kill me because I am Ukrainian” — The Story of Roman Shvartsman as a Voice of Memory and Resistance

On January 27, 2025 — International Holocaust Remembrance Day — one speech stood out in the halls of the German Bundestag. It was delivered by Roman Shvartsman, a Ukrainian who survived the Holocaust as a child and has spent nearly 90 years bearing witness to one of the darkest chapters of the 20th century. In his address, he drew a direct parallel between Hitler and Putin. His words were not just memories — they were a warning to the world: history is repeating itself.

“Back then, Hitler wanted to kill me because I was Jewish. Now Putin wants to kill me because I am Ukrainian.”

These words sounded like both a verdict and an alarm. Not only about the past, but also about the present. Russia, which invaded Ukraine, is destroying civilian populations, demolishing cities, deporting children, and bringing an ideology of hatred to the occupied territories — just as the Third Reich once did.

Memory as a Weapon Against Forgetting

Roman Shvartsman has devoted his life to ensuring the world never forgets what people are capable of when blinded by ideology. He founded dozens of Holocaust memorials across southern Ukraine — in Odesa, Domanivka, Balta, Bohdanivka — places where Jews were massacred during the Nazi occupation. Today, many of these same regions are once again on fire — this time from Russian bombs.

In his Bundestag speech, Shvartsman reminded the world that the lessons of history are not just in textbooks. When we ignore them, tragedies recur.

War Tourism as a Path to Understanding

War Tours was created not for entertainment but as a tool for education and remembrance. We take people to places where history speaks through ruins, trenches, museums, and memorials. Where you can not only see, but feel how fragile peace is — and how easily it can be destroyed.

Roman Shvartsman is a symbol of how personal pain can become a national memory. A memory we strive to share with everyone who visits Ukraine. Memory tourism is not only about the past. It’s about a present being shaped right now. It’s about awareness born not in comfort, but in direct confrontation with truth.

When we show tourists old Jewish ghettos or battlefields near Kyiv or Kharkiv, we’re not just giving a tour — we’re continuing the mission of people like Shvartsman. Because he reminds us: evil always returns in new forms if we don’t name it out loud.

Why Does Shvartsman Compare Putin to Hitler?

This is not emotional rhetoric — it’s a historical diagnosis. Both sought (and seek) to exterminate people for who they are: Jews, Ukrainians, dissidents. Both justified their violence with fabricated myths of “external enemies.” Both aimed to erase nations, cultures, and freedoms.

This is not exaggeration. It is the conclusion of someone who saw fascism firsthand — and now sees it again. This time, from the east, in the form of the “Russian world.”

To Remember Is to Resist

Roman Shvartsman is not just a witness to history. He is its continuation. His words are a reminder that Ukraine today is not only a battlefield, but a field of memory. And those who come here to see, hear, and understand — become part of this resistance.