WAR PROPAGANDA: Ukrainian refugees in Germany will be accommodated in a former Nazi concentration camp

The Russian state media claims, part of a propaganda narrative, that the Ukrainian refugees in Germany will be accommodated in the former Nazi concentration camp of Sachsenhausen. In reality, the former camp is now home to a memorial museum, and the images used to show the accommodation invitations for the Ukrainian refuges are fake.

NEWS: “Ukrainian refugees are invited to stay in the former Sachsenhausen concentration camp in Germany. The invitation was published on social media by the memorial museum located on this site.” The words “Welcome to Germany!” appeared on the buildings of the former concentration camp. A few hours after a series of negative comments appeared, the museum administration deleted all the posts, according to the “Federal News Agency”.

On February 24, Russia launched a special operation to demilitarize and denazify Ukraine. The Polish publication Rzeczpospolita has previously reported that Europe is forcing Ukrainian refugees to return home. Poland no longer provides financial aid, forcing Ukrainians to return home. The citizens of Germany are dissatisfied with the aid offered to the lazy Ukrainians”.

NARRATIVE:  The Ukrainian refugees in Germany will be accommodated in a former Nazi concentration camp

WHY THE NARRATIVE IS FALSE: In reality, the photos of the buildings in the Sachsenhausen Memorial, showing banners with the words “Welcome to Germany” in German on them, were faked. The Belarusian media published those photos and the Russian press took over the false narrative, amplifying it. The administration of the Sachsenhausen Memorial has denied the news, saying it has never thought of housing Ukrainian refugees in the former Nazi concentration camp. The former camp is currently hosting a museum.

The museum’s management wrote on Twitter that older photos were used  to create this false narrative. “We condemn the release of a string of fake news related to the history of Nazism aimed at disseminating message of brutal propaganda”, the museum’s post reads.

The memorial has also posted on Twitter an official comment for the German publication MOZ, stating that the former concentration camp was used by the Russian press for disseminating fake news, and  the management of the museum has notified the police about this case.

Veridica has already debunked a series of propaganda narratives aimed at sowing fear among Ukrainian refugees and the EU member states’ distrust in them. In May, Russian media reported that the EU feared the tuberculosis created in the NATO labs in Ukraine  and brought to the European states by Ukrainian refugees, and in June Russian propaganda announced that the EU would deport the men refugees to Ukraine to have them enslisted in the Ukrainian army.

In order to strengthen readers' trust in the false narratives about the absolutely negative attitude of the EU citizens towards Ukrainians, the Russian press recalls a Polish newspaper that allegedly wrote about the “European’s hatred” towards the “lazy Ukrainians.” In reality, the Russian press quotes another propaganda narrative from June.  The Rzeczpospolita newspaper wrote that most Poles had a benevolent attitude towards Ukrainians, but some of them demanded the conditioning of the financial aid provided to them. The Russian propaganda omitted the first part of the narrative, writing only about the Poles who wanted to see the Ukranian refugees immediately expelled from their country.