In the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, a Holocaust survivor was killed when Russian forces shelled his apartment building, a memorial foundation confirmed on Monday.
Boris Romanchenko was 96 and had survived his way through four different Nazi concentration camps. On Friday, he died after an attack from Russian forces burned his building, according to the Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora Memorials Foundation.
The foundation shared that Romanchenko was born in northeastern Ukraine and was deported to Dortmund, Germany, in 1942.
He attempted to escape his captors there but failed, resulting in being sent to four camps, Buchenwald, Peenemünde, Mittelbau, and Bergen-Belsen. Surviving at the camps was no small feat, with a combined 100,000 people being killed during World War II at Buchenwald and Bergen-Belsen.
Following the war, Romanchenko returned to Ukraine and had even served on a committee for Holocaust survivors, the group said.
"We mourn the loss of a close friend," the foundation said. "We wish his son and granddaughter, who gave us the sad news, a lot of strength in these difficult times."
Romanchenko was not the only Holocaust survivor in Ukraine. The nonprofit Jewish United Fund shared there are an estimated 10,000, most of whom are homebound.
Kharkiv has been under constant bombardment from Russia since its invasion began a month ago. The city's emergency services office said that 500 people had been confirmed dead, found in the rubble of destroyed residential buildings, NBC News reported.
Near the beginning of the invasion, Russian forces were heavily criticized for damaging a Holocaust memorial in Kyiv, the BBC reported.
Ukrainian officials have not taken Romanchenko's death lightly, with Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba calling it an "unspeakable crime."
"Survived Hitler, murdered by Putin," Kuleba wrote on Twitter
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