+17 Kyiv
A “Memory March” was held in Kyiv on Sunday, September 29th, to honor the memory of the Jews who had been executed in 1941 in Babi Yar. More than half a thousand persons took part in the March. This has been shared by the President of the Jewish Confederation of Ukraine Boris Lozhkin on his Facebook page.
He noted that the number of participants in the March is growing every year. Thus, in 2016, a writer, a member of the Supervisory Board of the Jewish Confederation of Ukraine, Yevhen Horodetskyi walked the last route of the Babi Yar Jews alone.
“A year later, there were already 150 persons in the column, and in 2018 there were more than 300 participants. The “Memory March” has taken place also this year: more than 500 persons walked from the Kyivska Rus cinema theatre to Babi Yar. Three kilometers of grief and remembrance of the people who had to die only because they were Jews,” Lozhkin emphasized.
The JCU President reminded that 33,771 Jews were executed in Babi Yar on September 29 and 30, 1941.
"They were shot in groups of 30-40 people. Non-stop. Loud music played to suppress the sound of shots, and an airplane was circling in the sky. The Jews were marching in a continuous column from the current Lukianivska metro station along Melnykov Street to Babi Yar. The children thought it was a festive demonstration, and asked the adults to buy balloons and sweets for them. But only bullets and death awaited them,” wrote Lozhkin.
It is worth reminding that Lozhkin mentioned earlier that the project “The Righteous People of My City” continues to expand its geography in Ukraine. We are talking about the Ukrainians – the Righteous Among the Nations, who saved Jews from the Nazis, risking their own lives. Sixteen streets in different cities and villages have already been named after the Righteous Among the Nations.
