Ukraine marks 80 years since the tragedy in Babiy Yar

On September 29 and 30, 1941, Nazi occupants and local collaborators massacred 34,000 Jews in Kyiv, near the Babiy Yar ravine. The total number of people murdered in Babiy Yar during the years of Nazi occupation surpasses 100,000. This tragedy is dubbed ‘Holocaust by Bullets’.

Some of the memorial events were organised by the government; others were managed by community initiatives or private persons.

Thus, the 6th Memory March took place in Kyiv on October 3, when thousands of people traced the route from the place where Jewish people were summoned on September 29, 1941, up to Babiy Yar. Participants of the March laid flowers on the Menorah monument, lit candles, and pronounced a funeral prayer.

The Memory March was organized by a Jewish businessman Yevgeniy Gorodetskiy. This year, thanks to his support, 50 pupils of Zaporizhya Jewish gymnasium ‘Alef’ participated in the Memory March. The very gymnasium whose pupils performed at the Chanukah 2007 concert in Zaporizhya in front of the group of guests from the UK headed by Phil & Norma Hunter.

On October 5, one of Kyiv cinemas hosted a film festival titled ‘Holocaust. We remember!’ that was organized by the Jewish Confederation of Ukraine and the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress.

On October 6, the State historical memorial reserve ‘Babiy Yar’ hosted memorial events dedicated to 80 years since the tragedy. The events were attended by the President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelenskiy and heads of foreign delegations, such as the President of Israel Isaac Herzog, President of Germany Frank-Walter Steinmeier, rabbis, other religious leaders, ambassadors and representatives of diplomatic corps, and also experts, scientists and philanthropists from all around the world who are involved in Holocaust studies and research. Among them, there was Father Patrick Desbois, a renowned French researcher of Holocaust, the author of the term ‘Holocaust by Bullets’.

A range of these events was attended by Igor Levenshtein, President of Charity Fund ‘People Who Care’.