Red Army soldiers with prisoners of Nazi concentration camp, 1945. Source: Wikimedia Commons
As European leaders gathered at Auschwitz to commemorate 80 years since its liberation, they upheld a revisionist narrative that downplays the role of the Red Army in defeating Nazism
On January 27, 1945, soldiers of the Soviet Red Army liberated Auschwitz, the Nazi concentration camp where over one million people—overwhelmingly Jews—were murdered. Eighty years later, European leaders gathered in Poland, now home to the Auschwitz memorial, to hear survivor testimonies and reaffirm the commitment to ensuring such atrocities never happen again.
Yet this year’s commemoration came with a blazing omission. Despite the USSR’s vital role in defeating Nazi Germany and its allies—at the cost of over 20 million Soviets’ lives—there were no representatives of the Russian Federation at Auschwitz. In its pursuit of punishing Russia for the war in Ukraine, the European Union (EU) has virtually erased the Red Army’s contributions from the narrative. Leaders like Ursula von der Leyen and Giorgia Meloni issued statements of remembrance while avoiding any mention of the USSR. Only left politicians dared to talk about the full picture in their messages on the day of remembrance.
These events have to be read as part of a broad revisionist trend spreading through Europe, in which far-right parties, such as Meloni’s Brothers of Italy and France’s National Rally, are using anti-communist tropes to rewrite history. This trend has taken root among mainstream parties as well. Just days before Holocaust remembrance day, the European Parliament adopted a resolution condemning Russia for “exploiting the narrative of the ‘liberation of Europe from Nazism.’” The text of the resolution also criticized the restoration of Lenin’s monuments in Ukraine and called for a “pan-European” memorial for “victims of the 20th century totalitarian regimes,” a vocabulary that aims to equate fascism and communism.
In what can only be described as a severe case of historical amnesia, the parliamentaries proposed a ban on “both Nazi and Soviet communist symbols” across the EU. As some have pointed out, implementing such a ban would complicate commemorations like the one on Monday, given the prominence of Soviet uniforms in archival photographs of liberation.
While the EU is entertaining itself with erasing communism’s role in defeating Nazism in World War II, it seems to have learned extremely little from the Holocaust itself. The first phase of a ceasefire in Gaza had not even begun when Polish authorities announced they would allow Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to attend the Auschwitz commemoration—despite an International Criminal Court warrant for his arrest on war crimes charges. Though Netanyahu ended up not attending himself, the mere possibility highlights Europe’s willingness to overlook crimes against humanity if committed by its current allies.
“Laying claim to the memory of one genocide in order to justify another genocide is morally and politically unacceptable,” historian Enzo Traverso said in a recent interview with Jacobin, commenting on Europe’s reactions to the genocide in Gaza. “The memory of Auschwitz should be mobilized to impede new genocides, not to justify them.”
By refusing to acknowledge the full history of Nazism’s defeat in 1945—especially the contributions of the Red Army and communist movements—Europe only fuels the rise of the far-right. Parties like Alternative for Germany (AfD), National Rally and Brothers of Italy may avoid explicit antisemitism in their platforms, but their policies thrive on the same hatred and violence that drove the Holocaust. As these parties gain electoral ground, the slogan “Never again is now” is becoming increasingly difficult to believe.
Protesters hold up a banner reading “NO” with the O shaped like an Adolf Hitler caricature during a demonstration against right-wing extremism, U.S. President Donald Trump, and right-wing billionaire Elon Musk on January 25, 2025 in Berlin, Germany. (Photo: Omer Messinger/Getty Images)
“We must not forget the tragic lesson of our past,” said Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk. “Evil, violence and contempt cannot triumph anew.”
Billionaire enterpreneur Elon Muskinsisted at a far-right rally in Germany over the weekend that the European country must move “beyond the past” and leave behind the memory of one of the deadliest genocides in history—but as leaders on the continent marked the 80th anniversary of the Auschwitz concentration camp liberation on Monday, several made clear that Musk’s advice was not welcome.
Musk’s comments on “‘the need to forget German guilt for Nazi crimes’ sounded all too familiar and ominous,” said Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk on Sunday. “Especially only hours before the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.”
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on the social media platform X, “I couldn’t agree more.”
The country’s ambassador to Israel said that while Musk claimed German children are treated as “guilty of the sins” of the Nazis during World War II, the government simply wants “them to grow up informed and responsible and to apply the lessons of Germany’s past.”
As Common Dreams reported, the Tesla CEO and key adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump made the remarks at a rally for Alternative for Germany (AfD) on Saturday, five weeks before Germans are set to vote in federal elections.
AfD is currently polling at 19%, trailing the center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU), which is in first place at 28%. But leaders across Europe, including Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, French President Emmanuel Macron, and Scholz have warned that Musk appears to be angling for the spread of far-right ideologies—including neo-Nazism—in European countries.
The AfD has been designated a “suspected extremist” group by Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, and one of its candidates for public office last year said that “not all” Nazis who worked for Adolf Hitler’s government were criminals.
The party has been ostracized in Germany, with other political groups including the CDU ruling out the formation of a coalition government with the AfD, but last week CDU leader Friedrich Merz said he would push for tougher anti-immigration proposals even if they were submitted by the AfD.
Scholz, who represents the Social Democrats, toldStuttgarter Zeitung in response to Merz’s comments that “the firewall to the AfD must not crumble.”
As Tusk oversaw the liberation of Auschwitz anniversary on Monday, International Holocaust Remembrance Day, he alluded to Musk’s comments at the AfD rally.
“We must not forget the tragic lesson of our past,” he said on X, which is owned by Musk. “Evil, violence, and contempt cannot triumph anew.”
Musk’s comments came days after he appeared to flash a Nazi salute twice at an event for Trump’s inauguration.
In the U.S. on Sunday, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker addressed Musk’s remarks at the AfD rally on CNN, asking why Trump hadn’t spoken out against them.
“President Trump ought to be calling that out,” said the Democratic governor. “If he doesn’t agree with Elon Musk, if he doesn’t agree with two Sieg Heils at his own rally, and backing a party that backs Nazis, then he ought to say so. Why isn’t Donald Trump speaking out?”
Planes queuing for takeoff at Heathrow airport in Britain. Credit: david pearson / Alamy Stock Photo
A forest twice the size of Greater London would need to be planted in the UK to cancel out the extra emissions from the expansion of Heathrow, Gatwick and Luton airports, Carbon Brief analysis reveals.
New runaways at these airports surrounding London would result in cumulative emissions of around 92m tonnes of extra carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) by 2050, if the number of flights increases in line with their operating company targets.
If the UK is to remain on track for net-zero, it would need to cut emissions further in other sectors of the economy or remove an equivalent amount from the atmosphere.
For example, offsetting these emissions would require more than 300,000 hectares of trees to be planted within just a few years. This equates to all the trees planted in the UK since 2000.
The Labour government is set to back all three airport expansions, according to mediareporting ahead of a speech by chancellor Rachel Reeves this week.
This is in spite of opposition from within the Labour party and the government’s climate advisors recommending against airport expansion.
Reeves has stressed that “sustainable aviation fuels” (SAFs) and electric planes could help to offset these emissions.
However, such technologies are still in the early stages of deployment and previous Carbon Brief analysis suggests the role of SAFs in achieving net-zero may be limited.
Two Londons
Reeves is expected to reveal plans for a third runway at Heathrow in a speech on Wednesday.
This, alongside suggestions she will also announce her support for the expansion of Gatwick and Luton airports, has prompted days of political debate over the friction between the government’s climate and economic plans.
Reeves sees the expansion of airports as a key part of the government’s “growth strategy”. However, senior Labour politicians, notably energy secretary Ed Miliband, have previously opposed such expansions on environmental grounds.
For her part, the chancellor told BBC News that she thought “sustainable aviation and economic growth go hand in hand”.
Carbon Brief has used estimates of passenger numbers from the airports’ planning applications, combined with assumptions used by UK government advisors the Climate Change Committee (CCC), to calculate emissions from the three expansions.
As the chart below shows, the CCC assumes aviation emissions fall in the coming years due to technological and efficiency improvements.
However, the expansion of Heathrow, Gatwick and Luton would drive an uptick in emissions around 2040 as the projects are completed, if the expected number of extra flights take off and if there are no additional improvements in aircraft efficiency.
This would amount to an additional 92MtCO2e being emitted cumulatively by 2050.
In order to remain on track for the UK’s net-zero target, these emissions would need to be avoided by additional technological innovations in the aviation sector, balanced by faster cuts in other parts of the economy – or removed from the atmosphere after being emitted.
Annual UK aviation emissions, MtCO2e. The blue line indicates the trajectory for emissions set out by the CCC. The three red lines indicate the additional emissions that would result from the expansion of Heathrow, Gatwick and Luton airports, plus the resulting flights. The airport expansions are assumed to follow approximate timelines based on their respective planning applications, with some dates assumed based on the views of AEF. The Heathrow expansion is assumed to be in operation in 2035 and at full capacity by 2040. The Gatwick expansion is assumed to be operational in 2028 and at full capacity by 2038. The Luton expansion is assumed to be operational in 2033 and at full capacity by 2043. Sources: DESNZ, CCC, AEF, airport planning documents.
Aviation is generally viewed as a difficult sector to decarbonise, due to the lack of cheap and effective technologies to cut emissions from planes.
This is why campaigners and researchers frequently stress demand reduction as the most effective way to cut aviation emissions.
The UK’s net-zero plans already allow for aviation to be one of the final sectors producing sizable volumes of emissions in 2050, when most of the economy has decarbonised.
One strategy to remove the excess emissions from the additional Heathrow, Gatwick and Luton flights would be to plant more trees. However, this would be a significant undertaking, as Carbon Brief analysis shows.
It would require planting around 301,000 hectares of new forest by around 2028 so that the trees are large enough by the middle of the century to absorb significant amounts of CO2.
This is equivalent to around twice the size of Greater London, which covers 157,000 hectares. It is 10 times higher than the UK’s most recent annual tree-planting target and equates to all of the trees planted in the past 24 years across the country.
More passengers
Government advisors at the CCC have recommended that there should be no more than a 25% growth in the number of air passengers from 2018 levels, in order to meet the UK’s net-zero goal by 2050.
This amounts to an increase from 292 million passengers to 365 million by 2050. The number of UK flights collapsed during Covid-19 lockdowns and has been slow to recover to pre-pandemic levels, but the number of air passengers in 2023 reached 273 million.
The CCC has consistentlystressed that there should be “no net increase” in airport capacity if the UK is to reach net-zero by the middle of the century, meaning any expansion is “balanced by reductions in capacity elsewhere”. It has also stated there should be no airport expansion without a UK-wide framework for managing capacity.
The committee criticised the previous Conservative government for setting “no plans” to limit growth in passenger numbers in its “jet-zero” strategy, which envisaged demand for flying increasing by 70% out to 2050.
Airport expansion at Heathrow, Gatwick and Luton would help bring the total number of passengers at these three sites up to 243 million in 2050, according to the airports’ own planning applications, compiled by the Aviation Environment Federation (AEF).
This amounts to an additional 100m passengers passing through these airports, compared to 2018 levels. This would bring the total number of UK passengers to 392 million – equivalent to a 34% increase in UK airport traffic – meaning that growth at Heathrow, Gatwick and Luton alone would be enough to breach the CCC’s guidance.
(In reality, more than 20 UK airports have plans for more capacity and some already have unused capacity, so it is unlikely that expansion would be limited to three airports around London.)
SAF concerns
The CCC leaves some flexibility in its advice to the government, allowing for future capacity growth, if “the carbon intensity of aviation is outperforming the government’s emissions reduction pathway”.
Essentially, if clean technologies slash aviation emissions faster than expected, then there will be space for more flights within a pathway to net-zero by 2050.
This has been alluded to by Reeves in recent days. She has stated that a “lot has changed in terms of aviation” and reportedly based an internal proposal to expand Heathrow on the use of “sustainable aviation fuels” (SAFs).
In reality, there has been very limited progress in developing SAFs or any other technologies to decarbonise planes in the UK. In 2023, the CCC chastised the Conservative government for “rel[ying] heavily on nascent technologies”.
Government modelling has shown SAFs will have a limited impact on cutting UK aviation emissions. Experts have pointed to the issues with the supply of materials for making SAFs and noted that none of the five SAF plants originally pegged to start construction in the UK this year are being built yet.
Methodology
This analysis is based on the CCC’s sixth carbon budget “balanced pathway” for the aviation sector, combined with data obtained from AEF on the expected increase in passenger numbers from the expansion of Heathrow, Gatwick and Luton airports.
The CCC pathway assumes that the emissions per passenger fall from 0.14 tCO2 in 2020 to 0.06tCO2 in 2050, accounting for the rollout of SAF and more efficient aircraft. It also assumes that no net expansion of airport capacity occurs.
Therefore, in this analysis, the three airport expansions are considered additional to the emissions included within the CCC pathway.
To calculate the additional emissions from the expansion of the three airports, the additional passenger numbers this would facilitate are multiplied by the emissions intensity per passenger in each year of the CCC pathway.
The additional passenger numbers from each airport are added to a Department for Transport pathway that assumes no further expansion. Each airport expansion is assumed to ramp up linearly from the year of operation to the year of operation at full additional capacity.
Based on the airport planning applications and AEF, it is assumed that:
The Heathrow expansion will be operational by 2035 and operating at full capacity by 2040.
The Gatwick expansion will be operational by 2028 and operating at full capacity by 2038.
The Luton expansion will be operational by 2033 and operating at full capacity by 2043.
The calculated CO2 removals from planting trees are based on assumptions used by the CCC’s sixth carbon budget “balanced pathway”, in which there is a 2:1 ratio of conifers to broadleaves planted across the country.
The CO2 removals per hectare for conifers and broadleaves are taken from the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH), whose numbers are also used by the CCC.
Based on these numbers, the cumulative emissions removed per hectare of forest after 22 years – from the start of airport expansion in 2028 to 2050 – is 304tCO2. Dividing this value by the total additional cumulative emissions from the airport expansion (92 MtCO2), gives a total area required of 301,000ha. Given that Greater London is 157,200ha, this corresponds to approximately two (1.91) times the area of Greater London.
Historical UK aviation emissions are taken from the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) up to 2022. For 2023 and 2024, the emissions are estimated based on percentage annual changes in UK jet fuel use, which are then applied to the emissions from 2022.
Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, MP John McDonnell (front, fourth from left) and Khalid Abdalla (front row third from right) join people taking part in a national march for Palestine on Whitehall in central London, January 20, 2025
PEACE campaigners vowed to “break the climate of fear” fed by intensified police repression in a weekend rally to defend protest rights.
Hundreds gathered in Bethnal Green’s Atrium to discuss the Metropolitan Police’s mass detentions of marchers, including the violent arrest of chief steward Chris Nineham, at a Palestine solidarity demonstration on January 18, and the subsequent decision to charge Mr Nineham, Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) director Ben Jamal and others with public order offences.
Mr Jamal said the policing that day was “an escalation of repression by the state against our movement.
“Very clearly in my view, the police sought to provoke scenes of disorder on the streets. They began arresting people very early for the crime of standing in the wrong bit of Whitehall at the wrong moment. They brought empty coaches to transport to police stations those they intended to arrest… despite the fact that every single one of our protests has been peaceful and has had a low rate of arrest.”
The PSC leader said police intended to create “a scene of chaos and disorder that would create the political climate to enable [Home Secretary] Yvette Cooper to go into Parliament and announce she was banning all future marches.
“They did not succeed… [because] this is a peaceful and disciplined movement.”
The Metropolitan Police deny having tried to provoke disorder and referred the Morning Star to a previous statement accusing marchers of “a deliberate effort, involving organisers of the demonstration,” to breach the conditions they had imposed on the march, which included blocking a protest outside the BBC.
World leaders have gathered for the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland. One of their main goals is to align their responses to geopolitical shocks such as floods and wildfires that hamper trade, investment and more.
The meeting also supposedly aims to find ways to stimulate economic growth to improve living standards, foster a just and inclusive energy transition, achieve security and cooperation amidst conflicts, and accelerate the economic response to an “intelligent age” of AI.
But, a new report from Oxfam International, published on the first day of the meeting in Davos, highlights how global inequality is more rampant than ever. The report, written by a team of policy campaigners and inequality research advisers outlines how billionaire wealth rose sharply in 2024 worldwide, with the pace of the increase three times faster than in 2023.
The World Economic Forum lists extreme weather as one of the top global risks. But, as world leaders convene in Davos, the high-profile anti-climate stances of some of them stand in stark opposition to any meaningful progress for climate action.
The Oxfam report highlights the exploitation involved in creating and sustaining wealth and outlines how, as inequalities deepen, vulnerable communities are disproportionately affected. The most vulnerable – overwhelmingly women, people of colour, Indigenous groups and low-wage workers – are caught in a cycle of insufficient wages, limited services and minimal political influence.
The report also highlights how wealth inequality is often intertwined with historical processes of extraction — both within countries (for example, through weak labour protections that lowers wages) and between countries (through trade, finance, and resource exploitation).
The climate connection
Other research has also shown how inequality is deeply interwoven with climate breakdown. Each crisis exacerbates the other. Historically, the richest nations – and within them, the wealthiest people – have contributed the most to greenhouse gas emissions.
Meanwhile, lower-income countries that bear little responsibility for global heating suffer the most. These countries, already burdened by debt and systemic inequality, have fewer resources to protect communities from extreme weather, crop failures and infrastructure damage. This makes day-to-day survival a struggle for billions.
When climate change exacerbates existing inequalities, marginalised communities are denied basic human rights. For instance, droughts reduce crop yields and deplete water sources, so more people — often women and children — have to ration supplies or go without. This directly infringes on their rights to food, safe drinking water and sanitation.
In these ways, without climate action, the warming planet threatens to widen inequalities by affecting the poorest people most severely. A 2020 World Bank report estimated that an additional 68 to 135 million people could be pushed into poverty by 2030 because of climate change. French researchers identified that climate change also slows down the economic catch-up of poorer countries.
The reality on the ground is bleak. Floods in Pakistan displaced thousands and affected more than 33 million people in 2023. That’s ten times more than the total population of Los Angeles where, when the recent wildfires struck, 170,000 people had to be evacuated.
Around the world, climate movements continue. Law suits that demand climate action are transforming governance. High-level negotiations like the UN’s annual climate summit carry on seeking progress, although the processes could be improved to accelerate change.
What can Davos do? World leaders need to look at how wealth and power can be redistributed (reparations for climate damages is one way to do this) and low-income, climate-vulnerable nations can be better represented in global decision-making.
Without this kind of change, there’s a risk climate action will perpetuate the same structural imbalances that first enabled environmental exploitation. Only by tackling both climate injustice and economic inequality together can the world prevent further climate disasters and ensure a more equitable future.
