On 29 September, we commemorate the victims of Babyn Yar

On 29 September 1941, shootings began in Babyn Yar, Kyiv, which became one of the most significant repressive actions of World War II. Over the course of several days, the Nazis killed nearly 34,000 Jews, peaceful residents of Kyiv. It was a planned mass extermination that became part of the Holocaust on the territory of Ukraine.

During the subsequent years of occupation, Babyn Yar became the site of the murder of nearly 100,000 people: Jews, Roma, Ukrainians, prisoners of war, underground fighters, writers, priests, and the mentally ill. Even decades later, the scale of this crime is difficult to comprehend.

Today, while Ukraine is once again experiencing unprovoked aggression, Babyn Yar reminds us of the price of hatred and indifference. It reminds us that misanthropic regimes and the evil they bring have no right to exist because it is human beings and their lives that are the highest value.