26 January 2012
New York, NY (UCCA) –On January 25th International Holocaust Remembrance Day was observed at the United Nations, and a special memorial event, hosted jointly by the Permanent Mission of Ukraine to the United Nations and the Permanent Mission of Israel to the United Nations, was held to honor the victims of the 70th anniversary of the Babyn Yar tragedy in Ukraine. Serving as Moderator, Ambassador Kuchinsky, former Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the UN and Professor of International Relations at Columbia University, warmly welcomed the over 600 guests in attendance. Following his brief remarks, H.E. Yuriy Sergeyev, Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the United Nations, H.E. Ron Prosor, Permanent Representative of Israel to the United Nations, and Kiyotaka Akasaka, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information, provided words of greeting and underscored the importance of commemorating this tragic page in history. Over a dozen individuals had the opportunity to provide remarks during the United Nations event, including the UCCA’s President, Tamara Olexy. On behalf of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America, Ms. Olexy delivered the following statement :
On the occasion of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, it is with deep sorrow that we recall one of the darkest chapters in the history of genocide – the massacre at Babyn Yar. At Babyn Yar, which means “old women’s ravine” in Ukrainian, 70 years ago last September, during the Nazi’s occupation of Kyiv, the gruesome slaughter of thousands of innocent men, women and children began. Within a 36 hour period, more than 30,000 Jews of Kyiv were forced from their homes, brought to Babyn Yar, and mercilessly massacred by Hitler’s henchmen as part of the Final Solution to rid Europe of the Jewish people.
Following this first mass execution, Babyn Yar was sealed off with barbed wire and declared a restricted zone. The killings, however, did not end. Over the next several years, the mass grave swelled with tens of thousands of other victims. During the final years of World War II, and until the German retreat from Kyiv, Babyn Yar became a veritable killing field, where an estimated 170,000 innocent victims -- among them Jews, Ukrainians, Gypsies, Poles, clergy, political opponents, UPA members and prisoners of war -- were ruthlessly murdered.
As the German armies began their retreat from Soviet Ukraine, the Nazis attempted to conceal the evidence of their slaughter. What followed were decades of Soviet propaganda that hid the truth about the atrocities committed at the ravine. For years following this tragedy, the Soviet Union barely acknowledged the massacre at Babyn Yar. Not until Ukraine renewed its independence in 1991, were the few survivors, along with the international Jewish and Ukrainian communities, allowed to openly mourn the innocent victims of Babyn Yar, one site among many of the Holocaust that terrorized all of Europe, yet a site of particular tragedy for Ukraine.
During a weeklong commemoration in 1991, a newly independent Ukraine officially recognized this painful page in its history, ending a 50-year long Soviet silence about the mass killings, and beginning a new and positive chapter in Ukrainian-Jewish relations.
The Ukrainian Congress Committee of America (UCCA), the representative organization of the over one million Americans of Ukrainian descent, strongly condemns the heinous crimes committed 70 years ago at Babyn Yar as well as the inhumane atrocities of the Holocaust which resulted in the deaths of millions of innocent victims. We mourn the loss of the tens of thousands of Jews, Ukrainians and other victims murdered at Babyn Yar as a result of Hitler’s crimes against humanity, and will continue to honor their memory and pray for the repose of their souls.
May the tragedy at Babyn Yar, a dark page in history shared by both the Jewish and Ukrainian people, serve as a reminder to us all of the immeasurable value of human life. May it also remind us of the need to show honor and dignity to our fellow man, regardless of our differences, or perhaps, because of them, as we are all unique and valuable members of the human race.
“May the innocent victims of Babyn Yar rest in peace. Vichna Yim Pamiat!”
