President Poroshenko: No place for antisemitism in Ukraine

President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko has stated that there is no place for antisemitism in modern Ukraine.

Petro Proshenko

“We are building a country where there is no place for antisemitism and where our unity is the key to our victories, overcoming obstacles, and our future success,” Poroshenko said, delivering a speech at the presentation of the film about the Babi Yar tragedy in Kyiv, Interfax-Ukraine reports.

The President also noted that the Holocaust Memorial at the Babi Yar in Kyiv should be a place of reverence and respect for all Ukrainians, regardless of the nationality of the tragedy.

“It is essential that all humanity should remember of the roots and the bloody facts of the Holocaust so that this memory would be a warning to our present and future generations about the dangers of hatred, bigotry, racism and intolerance,” Poroshenko said.

As a reminder, the troops of Nazi German, which occupied Kyiv during the World War II, used the area of Babi Yar in the northwestern part of Kyiv as a place of mass executions of civilians, mainly Jews. September 29, 1941, the entire Jewish population was obliged to appear in Babi Yar at the order of the occupation administration. The groups of people were led through the checkpoint, then driven to the edge of the ravine and shot dead. 33,771 Jews were killed until September 30. Mass killings continued until ousting the Nazi army from the city: according to official figures, more than 100,000 residents of Kyiv, which included Jews, Roma, representatives of other nationalities, prisoners of war and Ukrainian nationalists, were shot dead in Babi Yar.

After the Great Patriotic War, the Soviet authorities tried to conceal the tragedy of Babi Yar. However, in 1966, the protests were held on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the tragedy and then it was decided to install the monument.