Former President of Poland & Member of the Supervisory Board of the Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center Aleksander Kwaśniewski, addressed the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations in Israel yesterday, and spoke about the current situation of Ukraine. "Only Putin knows what is ahead of us. He wants to return to the "great Russia" days and have Ukraine as Russa's influence country. This situation can be very dramatic and very tragic. Putin underestimates Ukrainian's willingness to fight. I hope that there will not be an all-out war but we can expect an escalation initiated by Russia".
President Kwaśniewski was speaking in a panel discussion on Holocaust commemoration and education as a supervisory board member of the Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center, along with the Head of the Supervisory Board Natan Sharansky, Head of the Academic Council Father Patrick Desbois and Deputy General Director Ruslan Kavatsiuk and Prof. Dina Porat, Chief historian of Yad Vashem.
The group presented recent developments and future plans in building Eastern Europe’s largest Holocaust memorial center, at Babyn Yar in Kyiv, to represent the "Holocaust by Bullets", the stories of the 2.5 million Jews that were shot to death and buried near their home in death pits, 1.5 million in Ukraine alone.
“With rising antisemitism around the world, as we have seen in the US, the issue of Holocaust remembrance must remain a priority for us all,” said Conference of Presidents CEO, William Daroff. “It is imperative that all communities educate the next generation of the dangers of racism and discrimination, and build an understanding of where standing silent in the face of antisemitism can lead humanity. The project in Babyn Yar tells one of the lesser-known stories of the Holocaust, and we were honored to give the issue a platform at the Conference of Presidents Mission.”
Natan Sharansky, BYHMC Chair of the supervisory board: "We are building Eastern Europe’s most advanced and comprehensive Holocaust memorial in Kyiv for Ukrainians, for the Jewish people and to the entire world".
Father Partick Desbois, Babyn Yar head of Academic Council, said that the Babyn Yar Memorial Center is the first museum to be built on a mass grave site. "This is a strong symbol to the world that that justice will be done. We are memorializing the Holocaust in Europe's largest mass grave and sending a strong message to all the terrorists in Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria, that are committing war crimes, that people will come back to demand justice".
Addressing the growing antisemitism, Prof. Dina Porat said that teaching the Holocaust is a crucial step in fighting antisemitism and President Kwaśniewski added that projects like the Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center are the answer to fight antisemitism, racism and nationalism: "We must fight and we must be united in the fight against antisemitism, we should speak loudly against it and support educational initiatives like Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center".