Jewish Confederation of Ukraine has published a book “Righteous Among the Nations. Ukraine” to the 80th anniversary of the Babyn Yar tragedy – Boris Lozhkin
“There are about 2,700 names of the Righteous Ukrainians in the book, who have been officially recognized as such to date by Yad Vashem. In addition to the complete list of the Righteous for each region of Ukraine, we have also given individual stories of the salvation of Jews and published photos of the Righteous themselves,” Lozhkin gave the details.
During the events dedicated to the memory of the Babyn Yar victims, the book was presented to the President of the State of Israel, Isaac Herzog. “From the Ukrainians to the Israelis, from Jews to Jews, whose descendants live in all corners of the world today,” said the President of the JCU during the presentation of the book.
The names of the Righteous Ukrainians published in the book “Righteous Among the Nations. Ukraine” make the complete list of all the Righteous Among the Nations, officially awarded this title by the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Complex to date. At the same time, many of the Ukrainians have not been mentioned in the book, when the information about their heroism is fragmentary.
“My friend’s mother, Raisa Pogrebinskaya, was saved at least six times throughout the Holocaust by six different people from the execution in Babyn Yar and thereafter. She did not remember their names or even never knew their names. According to the rules of the Israeli Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Complex, they all deserve the title of the Righteous Among the Nations, but due to the lack of complete data, they cannot be officially recognized the Righteous,” said Lozhkin and added that in essence those people and many others who helped Jews, are just the same the Righteous.
“I am sure that over time this list will grow, and we will learn even more names of the Righteous, who are considered nameless today,” noted the JCU President.
The book “The Righteous Among the Nations. Ukraine.” has been published by the publishing house “Our Format”. Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Complex, the Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center and Euro-Asian Jewish Congress have assisted to the Jewish Confederation of Ukraine it its preparation.
As a reminder, Boris Lozhkin has announced recently the launch of the “The Jewish Library” book series which will publish works about Jews and Israel, for the first time translated into Ukrainian.