More than 2500 thousand signatures were collected for public hearings on the Ukrainian project of the Babyn Yar memorial

22.06.2021, 10:53

State

More than 2500 thousand signatures were collected for public hearings on the Ukrainian project of the Babyn Yar memorial - фото 1

A group of public activists, which unites well-known political and public figures, previously initiated public hearings in the KCSA, where they should present the Ukrainian project of the Babyn Yar memorial instead of the Russian-backed one. To date, more than 2,500 thousand signatures of Kyiv residents have already been collected for public hearings on the Ukrainian project.

This was reported by one of the participants of the initiative group Alina Mikhailova, reports Big Kyiv.

According to her, today all signed forms will be handed over to the KCSA.

"Thank you to the community for their hectic activity. Now it is especially important to keep this issue under control because, in addition to the fact that the Babyn Yar Memorial continues its work in Babyn Yar, the presidential office (regarding the implementation of the Russian project) exerts pressure both on the government and on the Kyiv City Council and the KCSA,” Mikhailova said.

In 2016, two Babyn Yar memorialization projects were developed and implemented in parallel. The Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center is being implemented with the support of Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko. The main initiators and sponsors of the project are Russian businessmen Mykhailo Fridman, German Khan and Pavel Fuks. Later, Viktor Pinchuk joined them.

At public discussions of the project's narrative, concerns were expressed that it was created in the spirit of the Kremlin's policy of memory, which wants to present Ukrainians, Poles, Lithuanians and other local populations as total anti-Semites.

In 2019, Russian director Ilya Hrzhanovsky was appointed the project art director, whose approach to historical memory caused a mixed reaction from the Ukrainian scientific and cultural community.

A state comprehensive project is also being implemented to build a single memorial in Babyn Yar, which should integrate all the monuments available today, as well as two museums, in one complex. The Babyn Yar victims' museum will be located in the former Office of the Jewish cemetery. Currently, the reconstruction of the building continues, the opening of the museum is scheduled for 2021. Also, under the auspices of the Institute of History of Ukraine, based on the Decree of the Cabinet of Ministers, Ukrainian researchers developed the concept of integrated memorialization of Babyn Yar.

It is proposed to turn the park at the site of the tragedy into a single memorial complex, which should unite all the existing monuments today. It is also planned to create a Holocaust Museum.

Hundreds of public intellectuals addressed an open letter to the authorities demanding to erect an exclusively state memorial in Babyn Yar.

Johana Petrovsky Stern, a leading researcher of Jewish history, directly turned to Zelensky with a similar demand. Later, "as a Jew to a Jew," the historian Vitaly Nakhmanovich addressed Zelensky.

Ukrainian public figure and dissident of Jewish origin, the figure of the Ukrainian Jewish Movement, executive co-president of the Vaad of Ukraine, executive vice-president of the Congress of national communities of Ukraine addressed civil society with a collective appeal to realize the Babyn Yar tragedy as part of Ukrainian history and Ukrainian historical memory, as well as to support the creation of the Ukrainian memorial in Babyn Yar.

The government's stance was voiced by the head of the Institute of national memory Anton Drobovich and the Minister of Culture Oleksandr Tkachenko in the first year of Zelensky's tenure. They both focused on the implementation of the state project.

On July 28, President Zelensky publicly supported the Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center. On September 29, a memorandum of cooperation was signed between the Ukrainian government and the BYHMC.

In December, Volodymyr Zelensky signed a decree "On measures in connection with the 80th anniversary of the Babyn Yar tragedy and additional measures for the further development of the Babyn Yar National Historical and Memorial Reserve.

Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal and head of the Office of the president of Ukraine Andriy Yermak have been appointed co-chairs of the organizing committee for the long-term development of the Babyn Yar National Historical and Memorial Reserve, and a new composition of the organizing committee has been approved. In addition, the initiative of the Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center was supported.