Irish Examiner view: Recording war crimes evidence

The German Bundestag commemorates Boris Romantschenko on Tuesday. The Buchenwald survivor was killed in a bombing raid in Ukraine. Picture: Kay Nietfeld/dpa via AP

When the Russians do something that Hitler’s SS could not by ending the life of a 96-year-old who survived four death camps as part of their campaign of so-called ‘deNazification’, we are in some ways lucky to be able to learn, and discuss, this appalling act by a nation that has fallen into barbarism.

That the story of Boris Romantschenko, veteran of Buchenwald and Bergen-Belsen, names in the catalogue of concentration camp infamy, can be told is one of the reasons that Vladimir Putin’s insane invasion is doomed to failure.

Mr Romantschenko died when Russian artillery shelled a block of flats where he and other civilians lived in Kharkiv. His story was brought to the world by his relatives.

Chilling description

Other accounts depend on the work of journalists and a chilling description by the last of the international reporters, Mstyslav Chernov and photographer Evgeniy Maloletka of Associated Press, from the blockaded city of Mariupol, has emerged of their rescue by Ukrainian soldiers.

“If they catch you, they will get you on camera and they will make you say that everything you filmed is a lie,” an officer told them. “All your efforts and everything you have done will be in vain.”

Without observers, occupying armies can behave with impunity. With evidence, public opinion will inevitably swing against aggressors. War crimes are taking place in Ukraine. Russians must eventually be held to account as the Nazis were at Nuremberg. The testimonies are mounting.