On October 6, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine, Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier of Germany, President Isaac Herzog of Israel and other foreign dignitaries attended the commemoration events dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the Babyn Yar tragedy which were held at the Holocaust Memorial Center in the city of Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine.

In his speech, the Ukrainian president expressed his conviction that the Babyn Yar is in fact the monument to man in his worst and best manifestations. In his words, every month more new objects will be added to the Babyn Yar Memorial which in a couple of years will become a single large complex of human memory about the tragedy.

“That complex will make you fully feel all horror, pain and sufferings that Nazism, racism, anti-Semitism, xenophobia and non-tolerance bring to humanity. Yes, unfortunately, it won’t help the killed here but it will certainly help the living who must know, remember and pass the knowledge to their children and grandchildren.”

The head of the Ukrainian state thanked all foreign guests for their attendance. He called symbolic the presence of the leaders of Israel and Germany at the anniversary events.

“It is proof of the unity of our views. If you wish, it’s a test for like-minded people. I think we’ve passed it successfully.”

For his part, Isaac Herzog said that the Babyn Yar had been the place of the most terrible tragedy in the history of the Jewish people and today the world leaders must condemn any manifestation of anti-Semitism.

Frank-Walter Steinmeier said that World War II had brought a lot of suffering and anguish. He thanked for an opportunity to pay homage to the killed. The Federal President of Germany stressed that there cannot be good future without honest memory.

Steinmeier said that the Germans are aware of their responsibility before the history which will never pass, the responsibility for “our common future.”

Reference: in just two days, from September 29 to 30, 1941, the occupational authorities of the Third Reich shot down and killed 34 thousand Jews in the Babyn Yar.

Wehrmacht soldier Hefer spoke in testimony, “It was sort of a conveyer belt which did not distinguish between men, women and children. Mothers were killed together with their children… More and more people came from the town. They probably suspected nothing. They believed that they would be resettled to other places.”

Mass killings in the Babyn Yar continued until the liberation of Kyiv in 1943. Apart from the Jews, the Nazis killed Gypsies, Soviet prisoners of war, members of the Ukrainian nationalistic movement. According to various estimations, from 70 thousand to 200 thousand people were killed over the period from 1941 to 1943.

The newspaper Voice of Ukraine