On Sept. 29, Ukraine marked the 80th anniversary of the Babyn Yar tragedy, a mass Nazi massacre that killed around 100,000 people, most of whom were Jews, in a Kyiv ravine.
During a ceremony honoring the memory of the victims, President Volodymyr Zelensky laid flowers at the monument near the site of the mass shooting.
Zelensky said that the tragedy affected millions of people beyond the 100,000 lives that it took.
“Babyn Yar. Two short words that sound like two quick shots, but carry long and horrible memories for generations,” Zelensky said.
Over two days alone, on Sept. 29-30, 1941, nearly 34,000 Jews were shot dead in Babyn Yar (Babyn Ravine), where the Nazis ordered all Jews to gather for evacuation. In the following months, they would execute thousands more including Ukrainians, ethnic Roma, Soviet prisoners of war, the mentally ill and others. The tragedy has become a symbol of the Holocaust in Ukraine.
President Volodymyr Zelensky attends a ceremony that marked the 80th anniversary of the Babyn Yar tragedy on Sept. 29, 2021 in Kyiv. (Ukrainian president's press service)
Students in 15,000 schools across the country learned about Babyn Yar on Sept. 29 during a lesson developed by the Ministry of Education and Science together with the Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center.
“The national memory lesson is designed to cultivate a lasting negative attitude towards discrimination, contempt for human dignity and encroachment on the right to life,” the ministry wrote on Facebook.
The commemorative events on Sept. 29 have kicked off a whole program to mark the tragedy’s 80th anniversary prepared by Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center, an educational and memorial complex to commemorate the victims of Babyn Yar and to promote the humanization of mankind. The center is scheduled to open in 2023.
On Oct. 3, activists will gather for March of Remembrance, an annual walk that repeats the route victims took before the massacre.
On Oct. 5, the memorial center will hold an academic conference called “The Mass Shootings During the Holocaust as a Criminal Process.” The same day, they will open an exhibition “The Faces of the Babyn Yar People” and hold a premiere screening of the 2021 Cannes Film Festival Special Prize winner, the documentary “Babyn Yar. Introduction” by acclaimed Ukrainian director Sergei Loznitsa.
On Oct. 6, the center will arrange a grand commemoration ceremony involving Zelensky and foreign guests, including President of Germany Frank-Walter Steinmeier and President of Israel Isaac Herzog. The ceremony will unveil the memorial sculpture Crystal Wall of Crying crafted by internationally famous contemporary artist Marina Abramovich.
The commemoration program is available here. Some of the events require beforehand registration through the website.
