Ukraine Marks 80th Anniversary Of The Babi Yar Massacre

Kiev, Sept 29 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 29th Sep, 2021 ) :Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday visited the site of the Babi Yar massacre, marking the 80th anniversary of one of the largest mass murders of Jews in the Holocaust.

On September 29-30, 1941 more than 33,000 people, most of them Jews, were killed at the Babi Yar ravine outside Nazi-occupied Kiev, the capital of ex-Soviet Ukraine.

The tragedy of Babi Yar "should never be repeated", Zelensky -- who is himself of Jewish descent -- said at the flower-laying ceremony.

"Not in Ukraine. Not anywhere else in Europe. Nowhere in the world," he added.

Babi Yar, also called Babyn Yar, was the scene of mass executions until 1943.

Up to 100,000 people were killed there, including Jews, Roma, and Soviet prisoners of war.

In May, the Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center unveiled a symbolic wooden synagogue built in the shape of a book.

But its plans to build a further major memorial at the site have sparked controversy in Ukraine.

Critics accused Russian filmmaker Ilya Khrzhanovsky, artistic director of the centre, of planning to turn the future complex into a "Holocaust Disneyland".

He wanted to allow visitors to experience the massacre in the role of either victim or executioner.

Next week, Serbian performance artist Marina Abramovic is expected to unveil an installation at the site. The "Crystal Wailing Wall" will consist of 75 large quartz crystals embedded into a 40-metre-long wall of black anthracite.

More than 2,600 Ukrainians have been recognised as "Righteous Among the Nations" by the Holocaust memorial Yad Vashem in Jerusalem for putting their lives in danger by saving Jews.