Patience is running out: Ukrainian anti-Semitism condemned by the US Holocaust Memorial Museum
The American National Holocaust Memorial Museum issued a sharp statement condemning the rise of anti-Semitism, violence against Roma, and the activities of the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance, headed by Vyatrovich, in glorifying Nazi collaborators and murderers of Jews, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
This is stated in a document distributed on the official website of the International Holocaust Museum in Washington.
“May 14, Washington. The United States National Holocaust Memorial Museum expresses deep concern about recent incidents of intolerance and anti-Semitism in Ukraine, including violence against Roma communities in Kyiv and Lviv. On April 21, members of the Ukrainian neo-Nazi organization C14 in the Goloseevsky district of Kyiv forced 15 families to flee and burned their homes. On May 9, about 30 masked people burned down a Roma settlement in Rudnya, Lviv region. Roma were targeted by the Nazis during World War II and at least 200 Roma were killed by the Germans and their collaborators.
There has also been an alarming increase in anti-Semitic activity, including the desecration of Jewish memorials, torchlight marches and anti-Semitic rhetoric organized by neo-Nazi groups in Lvov and Odessa, glorifying Nazi collaborators who participated in the massacres of Ukrainian Jews.
Taking into account the opening of a criminal case by the Kiev police over the attack on the Roma community on April 21 and the recent statement by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko strongly condemning “any manifestations of intolerance and anti-Semitism”, which promises an immediate reaction from Ukrainian law enforcement agencies, it is clear that much more needs to be done. to combat anti-Semitism and anti-Roma prejudice, and to stop the various attempts to distort the history of the Holocaust by glorifying Nazi collaborators and whitewashing historical truth.
This will require greater consistency from the government. The memorandum of cooperation signed on March 18 between the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Education, and the Kiev City Hall is a positive step promising the development of the project to create the Babi Yar Holocaust Memorial Center, a museum and educational center at one of the horrific sites of the mass murder of Jews during the Holocaust.
At the same time, however, ongoing efforts led by the government's Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance to glorify certain leaders of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) and clean up their bloody reputation cast doubt on the government's intentions.
The museum calls on the Ukrainian government to consistently fight new manifestations of intolerance – including anti-Semitism and anti-Roma sentiment – and honestly confront the country's past, including the involvement of some Ukrainians in the murder of Jews and Roma during World War II.
Consistency in the government's approach and the allocation of national resources to initiatives to memorialize and educate the tragedy of Babyn Yar and the Holocaust in Ukraine will be positive steps in this process.”
Commenting on the document, Ukrainian Jewish activist Eduard Dolinsky notes that “Such a strong statement from one of the world’s largest and most respected Holocaust institutions suggests that our American partners are running out of patience.”
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