Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen!
Today the annual honouring ceremony of Righteous among the nations took place in Kyiv City Administration. Among those who came there in order to pay homage to these great people were Vitalii Klichko, the Mayor, Geoffrey R. Pyatt, the Ambassador of the USA in Ukraine, Maryus Yanukonis, the Ambassador of Lithuania, Alexsandr Suslenskyi, the Deputy Ambasador of Germany, the Head of ‘Suhnut’ in Ukraine, the Head of Jewish Council of Ukraine, as well as representatives of different Jewish comities and organizations.
The title ‘Righteous among the nations’ was introduced in 1963 by Yad Vashem. The unique project of awarding those who at the hazard of their own lives saved the Jews.
Hundreds of thousands of Jews were shot at Babi Yar, burned in ovens of concentration camps, died of starvation and overwork in ghetto. Their only fault was that they were Jews. To help Jews was as much a crime as being a Jew. Not only the person who was helping Jews but also his/her family, relatives and friends were shot. Nevertheless today we have gathered to pay homage to those who under the pain of death, on pain of extermination of their families and friends were not afraid to stay humans. They hid Jews in their homes, shared their last crumbs of food and pretend Jewish children to be their own. I want to thank these people and to lower my head towards them for that feat.
2450 Ukrainians bear the Righteous among the nations title. Ukraine is the 4th by the number of awarded. But unfortunately today history lessons are not standing high. Having survived after Babi Yar and the Holocaust, famine and genocide, Ukraine has still not rid itself of anti-Semitism and aggression on a national basis.
Anti-Semitic demonstrations, desecration of monuments, biased attitude towards people of Jewish nationality are the current realities. In the last year only the Minors monument was desecrated more than 6 times.
To look at this situation through your fingers and justify it by the fact that "this happens everywhere" is a crime. Authorities practically do not react to the numerous attempts to provoke conflicts on anti-Semitism basis. At the same time, we all realize how dangerous and bloody the provoked conflicts may be if they are based on interethnic animosity. To spark the aggression today is beneficial to those who aim at further split of Ukrainian people; to those who benefit from the internal bloody incidents; to those who really want to "apportion blame" on what is happening in the life of the country. I will repeat myself, to allow this is a crime.
I call on the Ukrainian authorities to deal ruthlessly with any acts of anti-Semitism and do not turn a blind eye to the attempts to strike together the Ukrainian and Jewish nations. Now it is not an appropriate time for demagoguery and tolerance. The Israeli and Ukrainian peoples with arms in hand defend their right of existence. To support each other in this struggle and help to win are currently our main tasks.
I wish peace and all the best to all of you and I am sure that in difficult struggle for freedom and nations Ukraine and Israel will be on the same side of the fence.
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