On January 27, the world observes International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Ukraine has been officially commemorating the victims of this tragedy since 2012.
On November 1, 2005, the UN General Assembly adopted Resolution No. 60/7, which states that "the Holocaust, which resulted in the murder of one third of the Jewish people, along with countless members of other minorities, will forever be a warning to all people of the dangers of hatred, bigotry, racism and prejudice." This resolution established January 27 as Holocaust Remembrance Day.
According to the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance, on this day in 1945, troops from the 1st Ukrainian Front entered the Nazi death camp Auschwitz, which has become a symbol of Nazi crimes in the modern world.
The Holocaust of Jews in the Nazi-occupied territories of the USSR differed from similar events in Europe. In many places, Jews were herded into ghettos and ultimately sent to mass extermination camps with gas chambers. However, in Ukrainian lands, most of the Jewish population was killed by bullets in anti-tank pits. These pits were dug during the Soviet era by prisoners of war, local residents, or the victims themselves.
It should be noted that the word "Holocaust" comes from a Greek term meaning "a completely burnt sacrificial offering" and refers to the systematic persecution and extermination (genocide) of Jews by Nazi Germany and its collaborators between 1933 and 1945. More broadly, the Holocaust encompasses the systematic persecution and extermination of individuals based on their race, ethnicity, nationality, sexual orientation, or perceived genetic inferiority.
It is officially recognized that up to 6 million Jews were killed during the Holocaust, with approximately 2.2 to 2.5 million of those deaths occurring in the territory of the former Soviet Union.
As is well known, immediately after the occupation of Ukraine, the Nazis established a wide network of ghettos, the largest of which was in Lviv, and later began mass shootings of the Jewish population. Among the largest and most notorious incidents were the shootings at Babi Yar in Kyiv; however, the extermination of Ukrainian Jews was systematic and widespread.
On this day, the global community not only commemorates the victims of these brutal policies but also reaffirms its commitment to combating anti-Semitism, racism, and all forms of intolerance that can lead to targeted violence against specific groups of people.