Commemorating Holocaust Victims in Ukraine
On January 27, Ukrainians, alongside the international community, commemorate the victims of the Holocaust.
International Holocaust Remembrance Day, observed annually on January 27, was established by a UN General Assembly resolution on November 1, 2005 (Resolution No. 60/7).
On January 27, 1945, troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front liberated one of the largest Nazi death camps – Auschwitz-Birkenau.
According to the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory, during World War II, 6 million Jews fell victim to Nazi policies aimed at exterminating peoples they deemed a threat. Approximately 1.5 million of them were from present-day Ukraine.
"The Holocaust, which resulted in the destruction of one-third of the Jews and countless others, will always serve as a warning about the dangers of hatred, fanaticism, and racism…", states the UN General Assembly resolution. Last year, key Holocaust memorial sites in Ukraine became targets of Russian attacks.
One of these sites is Babyn Yar – a symbol of the Holocaust in Eastern Europe. On March 1, 2022, eighty years after the mass shootings committed by the Nazis, the world once again witnessed the tragedy at Babyn Yar when a Russian missile struck the area.
Another notable site is Drobytsky Yar in Kharkiv – a well-known location of mass executions of civilians, primarily Jewish, by the Nazis. It is estimated that between 14,000 and 20,000 victims of Nazism are buried here. A memorial was opened here in 2002, but in 2022, Russian shells struck its central monument.
The UINP noted that Wanda Obiedkova was one of the survivors in occupied Mariupol. Her mother was Jewish, and she survived by hiding in the city's basements. Her life was cut short on April 4, 2022, due to Russian bombardment.
Borys Romanchenco, a 96-year-old prisoner of the Buchenwald concentration camp, also lost his life due to Russian attacks on his apartment in Kharkiv on March 18, 2022. He was an active guardian of the memory of Nazi crimes.
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On Holocaust Remembrance Day, Head of the President's Office Kyrylo Budanov emphasized that only just retribution for crimes can ensure that the slogan "Never Again" becomes a reality.
"Today we honor the memory of Holocaust victims, but we must also acknowledge a bitter truth: passive remembrance has not prevented new genocides. The evidence of this is the Russian aggression against Ukraine," said Budanov.
He stressed that preventing new tragedies is only possible with decisive actions and inevitable punishment for war criminals. "Only just retribution for crimes can guarantee that the slogan 'Never Again' will finally become reality," Budanov emphasized.
In Kyiv, at the Ukrainian House, an exhibition project titled "In Search of Lost Meaning. Matviy Vaisberg" will open on January 27 to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
