Date: 27 January 2023
Place: Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center
Remembering the 6 million: President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky visits Babyn Yar to mark the International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
The event was organized by The Federation of Jewish Communities of Ukraine jointly with the Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center and the National Historic-Memorial Reserve Babyn Yar with the participation of state representatives.
The event will take place in one of Europe's most prominent Holocaust memorials - Babyn Yar, which was partly damaged amid the brutal shelling of Kyiv, in March 2022.
The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky along with ambassadors of different countries will take part in a prayer service and candle lighting ceremony.
The ceremony, organized by Rabbi Raphael Rutman - Executive Vice Chairman of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Ukraine will begin with remarks from President Zelensky followed by the ambassadors. Then the President and all the Ambassadors will light a special memorial candle. The ceremony will be ended with a special memorial prayer said by Rabbi Rutman.
Ambassadors that will be in attendance will be from Germany, USA, UK, Canada, Japan, Italy, Switzerland, Poland, Belgium, Spain, Austria, the Head of the Delegation of the European Union to Ukraine, the head of the UN delegation to Ukraine.
On January 27 1945, the liberation of the Nazi death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau in Auschwitz began. During the Second World War, over 6 million Jews were murdered as a result of the Holocaust, of which 1.5 million people were killed on the territory of modern Ukraine.
Babyn Yar became a terrible symbol of the Holocaust by Bullets and one of the largest mass graves in Eastern Europe. In just two days, September 29 and 30, 1941, the Nazis shot 33,771 Jews in a pit.
«Nowadays, it is more important than ever to remind ourselves of the universal lessons of the Holocaust, as the war in Ukraine has disturbing echoes of the 1930-40s. We must never forget the horrendous crime against humanity that occurred years ago, we must stop the Holocaust history from being distorted and misappropriated. All the nations should unite in the face of the terror and prevent history from repeating itself» - stated Rabbi Mayer Stambler, Chairman of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Ukraine.
