Mourning ceremony devoted to the 76th anniversary of the tragic events of the Second World War, when fascists killed almost 20,000 persons, mainly Jews, took place at the Drobytsky Yar Memorial on December 11.
Hundreds of Kharkiv citizens, mainly the representatives of public organizations, religious confessions, veterans and children of war, students, cadets and schoolchildren took part in it. Interventions were made by the Chairman of the Board of Founders of the AVEC and Co Concern PJSC Borys Feldman, the second secretary of the Embassy of the State of Israel to Ukraine and the head of Israel Cultural Centre in Kharkiv Alisa Liderman, the director of the Memorial park “Drobytsky Yar” Iryna Ferentseva, the rabbi of the Kharkiv choral synagogue Mendel Moscovitch.
“Tragedies, similar to the Drobytsky Yar and the Holocaust must never recur. Therefore, from year to year we gather here to tell children and youth about it. Now, when the whole world goes crazy again, and our country has been in the grips of war for years, such lessons of memory are especially relevant” — Borys Feldman noted in his speech.
After the moment of silence, the participants of the ceremony laid flowers on the place of mass shooting.
Let’s note that this year we marked th 15th anniversary of the Memorial “Drobytsky Yar” official opening, and on December 6, 2016 the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine placed the Memorial complex “Drobytsky Yar” on the Register of monuments of Ukraine of local significance. According to Iryna Ferentseva, to date, this is the largest and well-planned monument to the Holocaust victims in our country. The International Charitable Foundation “Oleksandr Feldman Foundation” took huge role in its creation.
Reference: after the occupation of Kharkiv in October 1941, the victimization of Jews began. On December 14, at the command of the commandant of the city, all Jews were forced to move to the ghetto barracks located in the KhTZ district. The liquidation of Kharkiv ghetto started on December 27, 1941: under pretence of sending people to work, the fascist began to take the Jews from the ghetto to Drobytsky Yar in the eastern outskirts to shoot them there. Kharkiv Jewish ghetto ceased to exist on January 7, 1942. Roma and captive Red Army soldiers were also executed in the ravine. The total of 16,000-20,000 persons were killed. On the whole, Nazi killed nearly 6 million Jews during the years of the World War II.
The construction of the holocaust memorial in Drobytsky Yar started in 1992. The first stage of the memorial was opened on December 13, 2002. It included the memorial menorah, the path and the 20-metre-high obelisk. The memorial hall with the Vial of Sorrow was opened on August 22, 2005.
