On September 29, a joint interreligious prayer dedicated to the memory of the victims of the Nazi criminal policy was held near the symbolic synagogue “Place for Reflection” in the Babyn Yar tract in Kyiv.
Every year in Ukraine, the memory of those killed in Babyn Yar is commemorated on September 29 and 30. It was during these two days that thousands of Jews were shot in the tract. It was one of the largest mass killings of civilians committed by the Germans during World War II.
“No one expected that we would experience the 81st anniversary of the Babyn Yar tragedy during another war, which we all see today. What the Nazis did 81 years ago, russians are now doing on this land. It would seem that this cannot happen again, but we saw murders in Bucha, Irpin, Mariupol and Izyum and other liberated cities. But we will survive this. I thank everyone that we have gathered here. We will also survive these days of pain together,” said Oleksandr Tkachenko.
In general, during the two years of German occupation, the death flywheel deployed by the Nazis in Babyn Yar took the lives of about 100,000 people – Jews, Roma, captured Red Army soldiers, psychiatric hospital patients, civilian hostages, Ukrainian nationalists and Soviet partisans, victims of torture.
This year, the events are united by one concept, “Rokovyna in times of pain”. This is evidence that pain is not in the past, it is alive – it is a living wound in the soul of every conscious person for every tragedy and lost life. It is the idea of a “living wound” that will not heal in any way that will be reflected in the new installation “Black Cube of Time”. With the help of audio-visual effects, it will help visitors to emotionally feel the echoes of the tragedy, which has not left us even after 80 years.
“Black Cube of Time” will work:
• September 29 from 11:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.
• September 30 from 9:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.
In addition, other installations are open for visitors on September 29-30: “Mirror Field”, “Crystal Wailing Wall”, the symbolic synagogue “Place for Reflection” and chamber art exhibition of Matvii Weisberg “Stranger’s Houses” – a series of paintings depicting Jewish homes that were destroyed during the Holocaust.
The event was attended by: representatives of the National Historical Memorial Preserve “Babyn Yar”, the Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center, the Chief Rabbi of Ukraine Moshe Reuven Azman, Oleksandr Tkachenko, the Minister of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine, Vitaliy Klychko, the Mayor of Kyiv, deputies of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and Kyiv city Council.
