We ask everyone reading this to join with us as we commit ourselves to one crucial if limited campaign: We will, God willing, identify every possible mass grave of Jewish Holocaust victims in the Ukraine – and ultimately everywhere in Europe – that today remains unmarked and dishonored. And we will do this to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Babi Yar Massacres outside Kiev that will take place in September 2011.
This effort demands, indeed compels, the full support of the global Jewish community. For the world to truly understand the breadth of the Holocaust and the massive toll it represented for humanity, all affected communities deserve to be remembered in a way that respects those who were lost but most of all ensures that their deaths – and their lives – will never be forgotten.
Oleksandr Feldman is a member of the Ukraine parliament and chairman of the Ukrainian Jewish Committee. He was appointed this month to head the parliament’s committee on commemorating the 70th anniversary of the Babi Yar massacre.