Dr. Abramovich, Chairman of the ADC, has issued the following statement to mark this week’s 80th anniversary of the Babi Yar Massacre where the Nazis systematically murdered 33,371 Ukrainian Jews on September 28-29, 1941:
“This month, we solemnly commemorate one of the largest mass executions of the Holocaust and offer our prayer for the dead who were murdered in one of the most infamous killing fields associated with the Nazi atrocities against the Jews.
This remembrance is about recalling the individual lives that were cruelly destroyed at the hands of Hitler’s ruthless machinery of death, and the attempt to wipe out an entire civilization.
Babi Yar, in the Ukraine capital of Kiev, was a ravine where within a 48- hour period, more than 33,371 Jewish men, women and children were slaughtered by the Nazis and Ukrainian collaborators.
While many died immediately from the injuries inflicted by the bullets fired at their heads, others suffocated under mounds of lifeless bodies and were buried alive.
We grieve for the innocent lives that were cruelly taken away in Babi Yar, and we cry for the victims who speak to us and who tell us to never forget them.
Babi Yar stirs the conscience, reminding us that indifference is never an option in the face of senseless bloodshed and genocide and drives us to redouble our efforts in standing up when governments persecute and oppress their own people.
We pledge to never be silent when crimes are committed in our midst, and we reaffirm our strong commitment to vigorously fight the re-emergence of antisemitism and all forms of unchecked hate.
At a time when antisemitism looms large, this commemoration is a standing reminder of the need for constant vigilance and determined action in the face of present-day evils so that the cry of ‘Never Again’ rings true.”