Representatives of authorities, public leaders and the clergy honored Babi Yar victims
Yesterday, at the National Historical Memorial Reserve ‘Babi Yar’, Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, members of the government, MPs of Ukraine, the leadership of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, members of the public, national, diplomatic corps and hierarchs of Churches and leaders of religious organizations participated in mourning events dedicated to the 74th anniversary of the beginning of shootings and commemoration of the victims of this tragedy.
At that time, just in two days, 29-30 September, over 34,000 men, women and children were shot there.
“Babi Yar is a place of one of the greatest world’s tragedies where Jews were killed because they were Jews. Where Ukrainians, Roma, Poleswere killed. Where the Nazis were simply destroying human dignity and life because of their imperial ambitions,” said Arseniy Yatsenyuk and stressed that the attempts of radical forces of various sorts to foment ethnic strife in Ukraine are doomed to failure.
“We honor and we remember. As the Ukrainian power, we will never allow the repetition of such tragedies and will mercilessly suppress any attempts at anti-Semitism, racial hatred, any attempts at mockery of the rights and freedoms of man and citizen,” the head of governmentsaid.
Given that next year marks the 75th anniversary of the terrible tragedy, the Prime Minister said that the government together with the President decided to set up the Organizing Committee for preparation of the commemoration of Babi Yar tragedy on global level, the Voice of Ukraine reports.
Background. During the German occupation of Kyiv in 1941-1943, Babi Yar was the site of mass executions of civilians and Soviet prisoners of warby German invaders. Jews and Roma were subjected to mass extermination by ethnicity,as well as partyand Soviet activists, underground activists, members of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, hostages, curfew violators and others. Only over two days, on September 29 and 30, 1941, almost 34 thousandJews were shot. According to various sources, during the German occupation from 70 thousand to 200 thousand people were shot in Babi Yar.
