Not just Babi Yar: Which regions of Ukraine were most affected during the Holocaust?

Every year on January 27, the international community honors the memory of Holocaust victims — it was on this day in 1945 that the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front liberated one of the largest Nazi death camps – Auschwitz-Birkenau. Babyn Yar in Kyiv has become a symbol of the mass shootings of Jews by the Nazis; however, many members of this community also perished in other regions of Ukraine.

"The largest Jewish communities were in Lviv, Odesa, Dnipro, Kharkiv, and Kyiv. Most communities were destroyed. And Babyn Yar is also a symbolic name for execution sites across the country", — explained historian Anatoly Podolsky. "RBK-Ukraine".

According to him, current estimates suggest that there are about 2000 known mass burial sites of Ukrainian Jews who were murdered during the Nazi occupation. Thus, sites of mass killings of Jews, "Babyn Yars," exist throughout Ukraine. From western Ukraine, Jews were deported to death camps established by the German occupiers in Poland, where they perished.

Due to the Nazis' extermination of Jews, many towns across Ukraine were left without Jewish communities. By the time the Wehrmacht and SS arrived in Ukraine, Jews remained in all Ukrainian communities, and they were killed.

"But thanks to Ukrainians who saved Jews, their neighbors, and cohabitants, people survived during the Nazi occupation – thanks to the Righteous Among the Nations. They survived because of non-Jews living in Ukraine – Ukrainians, Poles, and others who risked their own lives to save them", — noted the historian.

Podolsky mentioned that large Jewish communities were located in Eastern Galicia, in Lviv region, Ivano-Frankivsk region, Ternopil region, and in Drohobych. Some were killed on-site in ghettos, while others were deported to death camps in Belzec or Sobibor.

"About 400,000 Jews from Eastern Galicia perished. In Volhynia – in Lutsk, Rivne, and all towns in the region, approximately 120,000 people were killed. Plus – in large cities", — the historian noted.

International Holocaust Remembrance Day: What You Need to Know

International Holocaust Remembrance Day on January 27 was established by a resolution of the UN General Assembly on November 1, 2005. It was on this day in 1945 that soldiers of the 1st Ukrainian Front from the ranks of the Soviet Army liberated the inmates of the largest Nazi death camp, Auschwitz-Birkenau in Oświęcim. The first International Holocaust Remembrance Day was observed worldwide in 2006, although some countries had already commemorated this day earlier.

At the state level, Ukraine joined the celebration of this international date in 2012 (resolution of the Verkhovna Rada dated July 5, 2011). Our country was one of six initiators of the corresponding UN resolution.

According to the Institute of National Memory, during World War II, six million Jews fell victim to Nazi policies. Of these, 1.5 million were children.

As reported by "Telegraph," on October 11, 2024, a traditional Prayer in Memory of Holocaust Victims took place at Babyn Yar near the Menorah. There, on September 29, 1941, on Yom Kippur, the Nazis began mass shootings of the Jewish population of Kyiv. More than 22,000 people were killed in a single day.