Babi Yar Holocaust Memorial Center

Babi Yar Holocaust Memorial Center (Ukrainian: Меморіальний центр Голокосту «Бабин Яр»), officially the Foundation and Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center, is an educational institution that documents, explains and commemorates the Babi Yar shootings of September 1941 and aims to broaden and sustain the memory of The Holocaust in Eastern Europe, taking into account geopolitical changes during the 20th century. On September 29, 2016, President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko, together with public figures and philanthropists, initiated the creation of the first Babi Yar Holocaust Memorial Center.[1] The Memorial Center is planned to be opened in Kyiv, Ukraine, in 2025/26.[2]

Babi Yar Holocaust Memorial Center
Меморіальний центр Голокосту «Бабин Яр»
Established2016
LocationKyiv
Coordinates50.4713°N 30.448°E / 50.4713; 30.448
TypeMemorial to the victims of the Holocaust.
Websitebabynyar.org

Babi Yar

On September 29–30 1941, in Babi Yar, a ravine in Kyiv, the Nazis slaughtered more Jews in two days than in any other single German massacre, killing 33,771 Jews. In total, from September 29, 1941, until October 1943, the Nazi occupation authorities killed nearly 100,000 people in and near Babi Yar.[3]

History

On September 29, 2016, President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko, together with public figures and philanthropists, initiated the creation of the first Babi Yar Holocaust Memorial Center.[1] In his opinion, the creation of the Holocaust Memorial in Babi Yar can become a symbol of the unity of the nation and mother of greatness for the whole world.[4] Poroshenko himself and the Mayor of Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko, were present at the ceremony.[5]

On March 19, 2017, the Supervisory Board of the Memorial was founded. The Supervisory Board is headed by the chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel Natan Sharansky and consists of philanthropists German Khan, Mikhail Fridman, Victor Pinchuk, and Pavel Fuks, the chief rabbi of Kyiv and Ukraine Yakov Dov Bleich, artist Svyatoslav Vakarchuk, world heavyweight champion Volodymyr Klitschko, the former Director-General of UNESCO Irina Bokova, former President of Poland Alexander Kwasniewski, former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Germany Joschka Fischer.[6]

On October 19, 2017, the leadership of the Babi Yar Holocaust Memorial Center met with the Prime Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Groysman. The Prime Minister expressed support for the project to build a memorial complex in Kyiv to commemorate the victims of Babi Yar, and noted the importance of preserving historical memory in order to prevent the recurrence of past mistakes in the future.[7]

On 6 October 2021, following the 80th anniversary of the massacre, the Memorial Center released the first 161 names of Nazi soldiers who were perpetrators of the crimes at Babi Yar. It described the release of names as the first installment of ongoing research into those who committed the murder of 33,771 Ukrainian Jews on September 29 and 30, 1941.[8]

On 1 March 2022, the site of Babyn Yar was claimed to have been hit by Russian missiles and shells during the (part of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine) battle of Kyiv, killing at least five people.[9] Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Andriy Yermak, chairman of the Ukrainian Presidential Office, condemned the missile attack, as did Israeli leaders including Foreign Minister Yair Lapid and Diaspora Affairs Minister Nachman Shai.[9][10][11] Ynet journalist Ron Ben Yishai reported that Babi Yar remained unscathed after the Russian attack.[12]

In a February 2023 interview, art director of the Babyn Yar Memorial Foundation Ilya Khrzhanovsky mentioned that German Khan and Mikhail Fridman (at the time both under sanctions due to their alleged role in the 2022 Russian invasion) had withdrawn from the project and that Ronald Lauder had recently become a major donor.[13] Khrzhanovsky himself resigned from the project on 5 September 2023.[14]

See also

References
  1. Tamar Pileggi (2016-09-29). "Mournful Ukraine marks 75 years since Babi Yar massacre". timesofisrael.com. Times of Israel.
  2. "About the Center". Babi Yar Holocaust Memorial Center. Retrieved 2022-03-01.
  3. "БАБИН ЯР". resource.history.org.ua. Retrieved 2017-12-06.
  4. "Меморіальний центр жертв Голокосту з'явиться у Києві". Channel 24. 2016-09-29.
  5. "Ніколи знову. Трагедія не має повторитися - Президент спільно з громадськими діячами ініціював створення Меморіального центру «Бабин Яр» — Офіційне інтернет-представництво Президента України". president.gov.ua (in Ukrainian). 2016-09-29. Archived from the original on 2016-11-02.
  6. "The Supervisory Board of Babi Yar Holocaust Memorial Center". BYHMC. Retrieved 2017-12-05.
  7. "Український уряд висловив підтримку Меморіальному центру Голокосту «Бабин Яр»". babynyar.org. 2017-10-20.
  8. "80 years on: The true faces of the Babyn Yar Murders are being revealed". The Babi Year Holocaust Memorial Center. 6 October 2021. Archived from the original on 2021-10-06.
  9. Harkov, Lahav (2022-03-01). "Russia strikes Babyn Yar Holocaust memorial site in Ukraine". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 2022-03-01.
  10. Treisman, Rachel (2022-03-01). "Russia bombards a Kyiv TV tower and the Babyn Yar Holocaust memorial site". NPR. Retrieved 2022-03-01.
  11. "Zelenskiy: Contribution of Ukrainians in victory over Nazism huge - KyivPost - Ukraine's Global Voice". 9 May 2019.
  12. Ben-Yishai, Ron (2022-03-02). "Babi Yar memorial said to be undamaged by Russian missile strike". Ynetnews. Retrieved 2022-03-03.
  13. "On Putin and Babyn Yar". Tablet. 2 February 2023. Retrieved 5 September 2023.
  14. "Ilya Khrzhanovskyi resigned as head of the Babyn Yar Memorial Center". Istorychna Pravda (in Ukrainian). 5 September 2023. Retrieved 5 September 2023.

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