By COLlive reporter
Photos by Sergey Illin / PinchukArtCentre
Jewish-Ukrainian businessman and philanthropist Victor Pinchuk inaugurated this past month an exhibition commemorating the 70th anniversary of the Babi Yar massacre.
“Shoah by Bullets: Mass shootings of Jews in Ukraine 1941–1944” in Kiev was organized by the Pinchuk Foundation in partnership with the Memorial de la Shoah, Yahad–In Unum Association and the Ukrainian Embassies of Israel, France, Germany and the United States.
The event was attended by Baron Eric de Rothschild, President of the Shoah Memorial, Speaker of the Ukrainian Parliament Volodymyr Lytvyn, Mr. Pinchuk, ambassadors of the state of Israel, France, Germany, USA, Great Britain and other countries, as well as leading historians.
Pinchuk, ranked #336 on the Forbes list of the wealthiest people in the world, invited his rabbi Shmuel Kaminetzky, Chief Rabbi and Head Shliach of Dnepropetrovsk.
Rabbi Kaminetzky was introduced to French Roman Catholic priest Father Patrick Desbois, who has been conducting archival and field research and videotaping interviews with witnesses to the mass shootings of Jews in Ukraine.
The exhibition, previously displayed in Paris, Brussels, New York and other cities, is shown for the first time in Ukraine and seeks to promote tolerance and prevent discrimination, particularly among younger generations.
“Since 2004, Father Patrick Desbois and a team of Yahad-In Unum researchers has found more than 500 Ukrainian witnesses who actually saw the massacres, some living close to the execution sites, some requisitioned during the executions of the Jewish population,” said Baron Eric de Rothschild.
“Their testimony writes new pages in the book of history: the execution procedure of Jews in each town or village is now known, due to the bystanders’ contributions.”
Also present were Rabbi of the Kotel in Jerusalem Shmuel Rabinovitch, and Israeli peacemaker Rabbi Menachem Froman, known for his ties to Palestinian religious leaders.
For more info, visit istpravda.com.ua/holocaust-history
