Yuschenko voices support for Holocaust museum

Interfax-Ukraine

STOCKHOLM - Ukraine's government supports the initiative by the Jewish Confederation of Ukraine to set up a Holocaust museum in Kyiv and counts on cooperation in that matter with the world's Jewish organizations.

The initiative was announced on January 27 in Stockholm, Sweden, by Prime Minister Viktor Yuschenko in his speech at the International Forum on the Holocaust.

"The Ukrainian people strongly take to heart the suffering of the Jews for they also experienced such horrors as war, famine, fascism, and Stalin's repressions. The very existence of our nation, its language and culture, were denied," he said.

Mr. Yuschenko recalled that the epitome of Nazi crimes to the Ukrainians is the tragedy of Babyn Yar, near Kyiv, where over 100,000 people of different nationalities were executed, more than half of them Jews.

He assured his audience that the current reforms in Ukraine "would change the living conditions of its 480,000-strong Jewish community for the better which would contribute largely to the emergence of this newly independent state."

At present about 300 Jewish organizations and over 70 synagogues are functioning in nearly 100 cities in Ukraine.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, February 6, 2000, No. 6, Vol. LXVIII

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