The Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center has unveiled its plans for constructing one of the world's largest Holocaust memorial centers. The complex will be built at a 150-hectare site at Babyn Yar (Babi Yar) and is planned to include a dozen buildings to honor the memory of the 33,771 Jewish victims who were shot at the Babyn Yar ravine by the Nazis from Sept. 29-30, 1941 and the some 100,000 people the Nazis murdered there in total, including Jews, Ukrainians, Roma, and the mentally ill.
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The site will also commemorate the 1.5 million Jews murdered in similar Nazi mass shootings in the Ukraine and the rest of eastern Europe.
In September 2020, Ukrainian Minister of Culture Oleksandr Tkachenko, acting for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, signed a memorandum of understanding and cooperation with BYHMC to construct a "fitting memorial" to the horrors perpetrated at Babyn Yar.
"The Babyn Yar Massacre and the Holocaust of the Jews of Ukraine are an important and tragic chapter in the history of our country. The establishment of the Babyn Yar Memorial Center, the construction of which will begin during the 80th year [after] the terrible massacre, is essential for the commemoration of the Holocaust.
"As Europe's largest mass grave, Babyn Yar represents unimaginable destruction. Thanks to these plans, it will become a place of peace, reflection and tranquility," Zelensky said.
To illustrate the need for a commemorative site of this scope, a recent survey conducted in Ukraine showed that 68% of respondents believed that the memory of 20th-century genocides such as the Holocaust was fading. Only 16% respondents knew that over 1 million Jews had been fatally shot during the Holocaust, not far from where their own homes are now located.
The complex's buildings will include a museum dedicated to the Babyn Yar massacre; a museum to commemorate the Holocaust of Ukrainian and Eastern European Jewry as a whole; a structure bearing victims' names; a religious/spiritual center that includes a synagogue, church and mosque; an educational and scientific research center; a multi-media center; a learning and recreational space for children; and an information and conference center. The first synagogue at the site and an exhibition space are scheduled to be completed this year, ahead of the 80th anniversary of the Babyn Yar massacre this September.
BYHMC Artistic Director Ilya Khrzhanovsky is directing plans for the new museum complex and is consulting with international experts in museum development. The planning team also includes young Ukrainians.
In December 2020, BYHMC presented its plans to Zelensky and Tkachenko. Zelensky instructed Tkachenko to expedite construction of the synagogue and exhibition space by this September.
Former prisoner of Zion and former head of the Jewish Agency Natan Sharansky, who chairs the BYHMC Supervisory Board, called the museum concept "amazing."
Sharansky said that the "museum and educational center will not only both be high quality, but at the same time different from many other Holocaust centers. As such, it will help fill a vacuum in the field of Holocaust studies."
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