On 27 January, International Holocaust Remembrance Day, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy participated in a solemn ceremony to honour the memory of millions of Holocaust victims.
Accompanied by rabbis, members of the diplomatic corps, and representatives of the Ukrainian government, President Zelenskyy placed a memorial candle at the Menorah monument located within the Babyn Yar National Historical Memorial Preserve.
“On 27 January, the world commemorates the victims of the Holocaust. It was a deliberate attempt by the Nazis to erase an entire people — to murder all its individuals and destroy everything that bore the mark of Jewish life. Six million lives were lost,” – the President said in his statement.
President Zelenskyy emphasised the significance of preserving the memory of this tragedy:
“The crime of the Holocaust must never be repeated. Yet, regrettably, the memory of the Holocaust is gradually fading, and the evil that seeks to annihilate entire peoples still persists in the world today. We must all fight for life and remember that indifference is the fertilizer for evil.”
The ceremony took place at Babyn Yar, one of the most poignant sites of Holocaust remembrance in Ukraine. During the Nazi occupation, tens of thousands of people, primarily Jews, were murdered at this site.
The Babyn Yar National Historical Memorial Reserve continues its essential mission of preserving the memory of Holocaust victims and drawing lessons from this tragedy for the modern world.
Photo credit: Office of the President of Ukraine