Hundreds commemorate victims of Nazi massacres in Ukraine

[Jim O]

Holocaust survivors, Ukrainian and Israeli officials, soldiers hold moment of silence, lay flowers at monument to dead near central Kyiv

KYIV (AP) - About 300 people paid tribute Monday to the victims of a Nazi massacre of tens of thousands of Jews at the Babi Yar ravine ahead of the 65th anniversary of the tragedy.

Survivors, Ukrainian and Israeli officials and soldiers bowed their heads during a moment of silence and laid flowers at a monument to the dead near central Kyiv, near the ravine where the killings took place.

The massacre began in late September 1941 when Nazi forces occupying Kyiv marched Jews to the brink of the steep Babi Yar ravine and shot them. The massacre lasted days and more than 33,700 Ukrainian Jews were killed.

The Babi Yar massacre followed weeks of grenade attacks against German troops staged by Soviet resistance groups. Nazis accused Jews of carrying out the attacks.

Altogether, Nazis executed more than 100,000 people at Babi Yar, including thousands of Red Army prisoners of war and resistance fighters.

"I came here to honor the thousands of Jews executed and tortured to death in Ukraine," said 73-year-old Jewish retiree Roman Levith. "It is painful for me to talk about it. I am a child of the Holocaust".

Ukraine is home to 100,000 Jews, who have called on the government to do more to discourage any manifestations of anti-Semitism in the country.

Source: Kyiv Post