A monument to the victims of the Holocaust was erected in southern Ukrainian Crimea on 8 October 2002 at the place where 11 thousand residents of the Simferopol district were killed by the Nazis in 1941.
The idea of erecting a monument first occurred in 1998 during the festival “Song of Rebirth.” The fund-raising campaign for the erection of the monument began at that time and produced a total of 66.5 thousand hryvnias (approximately 12.3 thousand US dollars). The presentation ceremony started with a memorial prayer read in Hebrew by the rabbi of Crimea. Borys Deich, head of the Crimean Parliament, and Oleksandr Hlubochanskyi, head of the Jewish charitable center “Chesed Shimon,” unveiled the monument. “This monument symbolizes the rebirth of the movement of the people. This is a step toward purification from Nazi violence,” said Deich at the opening ceremony. He expressed his hope that the monument will become a sign of warning for future generations.
Source: www.i-news.org