The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine has adopted a resolution establishing May 14 as the Day of Remembrance of Ukrainians who saved Jews during World War II.
This is reported by Radio Svoboda.
The resolution recommends that the Ministry of culture and Information Policy ensure that the Ukrainian Institute of national memory, with the involvement of the Institutes of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, creates a list of people who, risking their lives and the lives of their relatives, helped Jews escape the Nazi terror during the Holocaust.
And the Ministry of education and science of Ukraine is recommended to hold thematic events dedicated to this day, and include these topics in the list of topics for competitions, essays, term papers and theses.
During World War II, Nazi-occupied Ukraine was one of the places of mass repression and extermination of Jews. One of the most infamous such places is Babyn Yar in Kyiv.
Many Ukrainians saved Jews, their friends, neighbors, or outsiders, from concentration camps and death, although the Nazis severely punished this, as well as death.
The state of Israel honors non-Jews who then saved Jews at the risk of themselves and their families with the honorary title "Righteous Among the nations". As of January 1, 2020, when the state Israeli Center for remembrance of the victims of the Holocaust in the world "Yad Vashem" Last updated its statistics, there are 2,659 of them in the list of those who have received this title from Ukraine-this is the fourth largest number in the world. Awarding of this title to residents of Ukraine took place after this date.
Awarding this honorary title is subject to a number of conditions, so the real number of residents of Ukraine who saved Jews from the Holocaust is obviously large; also, probably, not all such people are known at this time.
One of the most famous examples of refusal to grant this title is metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.
Despite numerous documented facts of saving Jews by him or with his assistance, he is accused in Israel of allegedly "collaborating with the Nazis." However, there is no evidence for these claims. Yad Vashem also rejects the request of Ukrainian Jewish associations to recognize Sheptytsky as this title.
May 14 was the day when Israel's independence as a Jewish state was declared in 1948.
Due to the fact that Israel widely uses its own traditional calendar, the celebration of the anniversaries of this event (the 5th day of the month of Igra) in different years falls on different dates according to the Gregorian calendar.