Turning the pages back... February 6, 2000 (02/06/05)

Turning the pages back...

February 6, 2000

Exactly five years ago, The Ukrainian Weekly published a news story by Interfax-Ukraine with the dateline of Stockholm that reported on the Ukrainian government's support of the initiative by the Jewish Confederation of Ukraine to set up a Holocaust museum in Kyiv. The story also noted that Kyiv was counting on cooperation in that matter with the world's Jewish organizations.

The initiative was announced on January 27, 2000, in Stockholm, Sweden, by Prime Minister Viktor Yushchenko in his speech at the International Forum on the Holocaust.

"The Ukrainian people strongly take to heart the suffering of the Jews for they also experienced such horrors as war, famine, fascism and Stalin's repressions. The very existence of our nation, its language and culture, were denied," the prime minister said.

Mr. Yushchenko recalled that the epitome of Nazi crimes to the Ukrainians is the tragedy of Babyn Yar, near Kyiv, where over 100,000 people of different nationalities were executed, more than half of them Jews.

He assured his audience that the current reforms in Ukraine "would change the living conditions of its 480,000-strong Jewish community for the better, which would contribute largely to the emergence of this newly independent state."

Interfax-Ukraine noted that as of the year 2000 about 300 Jewish organizations and over 70 synagogues were functioning in nearly 100 cities in Ukraine.

Source: "Yushchenko voices support for Holocaust museum," from Interfax-Ukraine, The Ukrainian Weekly, February 6, 2000, Vol. LXVII, No. 6.

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