Between 1941 and 1944, Nazis mass-murdered more than 100,000 Jewish people next to a Kyiv ravine known as Babyn Yar.
On Jan. 27, the International Holocaust Victims Remembrance Day, the Kyiv Jewish Community, joined by lawmakers and EU, U.S. and Israeli diplomats, unveiled the new Garden of Remembrance near the Menorah monument at Babyn Yar.
The garden, where the participants planted saplings, was inspired by the arrival of Tu bi Shvat, the Jewish new year of trees.
“First, the tree is a symbol of life in Judaism. The flowers wither and the trees are long-lived,” said Leonid Barats, head of the Kyiv Jewish Community. “Here, in this place, they took our lives, trying to erase any mention of us from the face of the earth. But we are here, we care about this country. And although we will not change its hellish history with these heavenly apple trees, we live, and we will live! And our children will, with God’s help, grow up with these trees.”
The Deputy Head of the European Union mission, Remy Duflot, warned that hate speech is still widespread in Ukraine and urged it to combat any manifestation of intolerance.
