On January 27, in Museum “Jewish Memory and Holocaust in Ukraine” near the panorama “Babi Yar – “Babi Yars” of Ukraine” the Memorial Ceremony to the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz and International Holocaust Remembrance Day were held. Officials, members of the diplomatic corps, representatives of the United Nations, members of the EU Delegation, religious leaders of different faiths, representatives of the Dnipropetrovsk Jewish Community, the media and general public joined the ceremony to commemorate victims of Nazism.
Solomon Flaks, Chairman of the Council of Jewish Veterans, retired colonel, opened the ceremony. After him the floor was taken by: Yonatan Leifer, Director of JDC Programs in Eastern Ukraine; Vasyl Kostytsky, Chairman of the National Expert Commission of Ukraine on Protection of Public Morality; Faina Vynokurova, Deputy Director of the State Archives of Vinnytsia region; Oleksandr Fridkis, Executive Officer of Jewish Religious Community; Rev. Simeon, Bishop of Dnipropetrovsk and Pavlograd Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Kyiv Patriarchate; Ramazan Kurbanov, Head of the Muslim Religious Community of Dnipropetrovsk; Vasyl Pantylyuk, Cane. of Donetsk Exarchate of Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.
Shmuel Kaminezkiy, Chief Rabbi of Dnipropetrovsk city and region; Hennadyi Zubko, Deputy Prime Minister for Regional Development, Construction and Housing in Ukraine, and Borys Treygerman, Advisor to the Head of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional State Administration; Christ Stylianides, European Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid; Yan Tombinskyy, Ambassador, Head of the EU Delegation in Ukraine; Detlef Voltaire, Consul General of the Federal Republic of Germany in Donetsk; Jan Zdanowski, Vice Consul of the Consulate General of Poland in Kharkiv; Vyacheslav Smotkin, Second Secretary of the Embassy of Israel in Ukraine, Director of the Israeli Cultural Center in Dnipropetrovsk, were invited to light candles in the memory of the victims of the Holocaust.
This year two candles in memory of the victims of war in eastern Ukraine were added to the traditional six candles in memory of the six million Jews killed during the Holocaust. The candles were respectively signed: “Je suis Volnovakha” and “Je suis Mariupol”.
Speakers emphasized the importance of commemorating the memorable dates that brings together people with different political and religious views, but with the same understanding of the main value – human life.
The ceremony ended with the opening of the exhibition “Nazi German Death Camp Konzentrationslager Auschwitz”.
Photos are provided by the press center of Dnipropetrovsk Jewish Community.