Nazism is born in silence, says Volodymyr Zelenskiy, after missile struck close to Holocaust memorial site
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has appealed to Jewish people across the world to speak out against the Russian assault on his country, a day after a missile hit close to a, reportedly killing at least five people. The tower is located close to the memorial site of Babyn Yar, the ravine where Nazi soldiers massacred up to 150,000 people during the second world war, including more than 30,000 Jews, who were shot there in the autumn of 1941 after the Nazi takeover of Kyiv.
During the Soviet period a television tower and other buildings were constructed on the site, but in 2016 the Ukrainian government along with Jewish groups and philanthropists launched a project to create a major new Holocaust memorial centre there. Yad Vashem, the Holocaust remembrance centre in Israel, issued a “vehement condemnation” of Tuesday’s attack. Yair Lapid, the Israeli foreign minister, said: “We call for the sanctity of the site to be preserved and honoured.” However, he did not directly condemnZelenskiy, keen to rally more support from Israel and also from Jewish communities worldwide, also mentioned that the city of Uman,, was hit on the first night of the war.
“I am now addressing all the Jews of the world – don’t you see what is happening? It is very important that right now, millions of Jews around the world do not remain silent. Nazism is born in silence,” said Zelenskiy.