Last year, 2021, Ukraine and the world celebrated the 80th anniversary of the Babyn Yar tragedy. On September 29-30, 1941, the Nazis shot nearly 34,000 Kyiv Jews in a tract on the outskirts of Kyiv. This “action” of mass murder, committed by officials with the support of local police, proved to be a kind of record of human cruelty: in less than two days in one place thousands of people were killed. Mentally ill, clergy, prisoners of war, Roma later will be killed in Babyn Yar…
Babyn Yar is one of the most tragic symbols of the Holocaust. At the same time, during 1941–1942, virtually every Ukrainian city that came under German occupation became a site of Jewish genocide. Botanical Garden in Dnipro, Powdery warehouses in Odesa, Sosonka near Rivne, Bogdanovka and Domanivka in Mykolayiv region, Drobitsky Yar in Kharkiv, salt mines in Bakhmut, Birch ditch in Chernihiv region… There is practically no city or town in Ukraine that does not have its own “Babyn Yar”. The victims of some of them are still waiting to be properly honored.
Of the more important are the efforts of the Ukrainian state and civil society to preserve the memory of the horrific crimes of the past in order to prevent future tragedies.
On January, 2022, Museum “Jewish Memory and Holocaust in Ukraine” received unique exhibits – silver commemorative medals dedicated to the Babyn Yar tragedy. The idea and its realization belong to the “Mint “Princely”” and its director Mrs. Kateryna Klymenko. The author of the sketch of the medal is Honored Artist of Ukraine, Viktor Gukailo. The works and unique style of this artist are well known to every visitor of our Museum, because the authorship of V. Gukailo includes creative solutions embodied in the blocks of the museum exposition, as well as memorials dedicated to significant events and figures of Ukrainian history.
We truly thank our donors for their trust and unique exhibits. Soon they will take a prominent place in the permanent exhibition of our Museum.
Yehor Vradii