This year a musical installation will commemorate the victims of Babyn Yar tragedy in Kyiv

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Ukraine is willing to pay more attention to the Jewish tragedy from the World War II and suggest a number of culture events to commemorate the victims.

Kyiv, September 27, 2016. A series of events commemorating the 75th anniversary of Babyn Yar will be held in Kyiv and throughout Ukraine on September 28-29. President of Israel will pay a state visit to Kyiv. There will be three alleys in Babyn Yar: the righteous alley, martyrs alley and sorrow alley leading to the Menorah. But after 1 p.m. on September 29 the entry will be limited due to official events. Exhibition events will be held in the Ukrainian House, Gallery M17, at Dovzhenko Film Studio. More than a thousand foreign delegates are expected. There are plans to initiate the Babyn Yar Museum, record all the names on the righteous alley, and introduce video surveillance and enhanced security in the future. This was stated by Yevgen Nyschuk, Minister of Culture of Ukraine, at a briefing held at Ukraine Crisis Media Center. “The whole world speaks about Auschwitz and Bernau but only now the international community can learn about Babyn Yar, which had just as many victims. This is a very important place and everyone should know about it. Ukrainian youth should be better educated about the inhuman actions that had been done there,” he said.

According to Sergiy Proskurnya, director of state public events, works by Leonard Bernstein, and music from Schindler’s List will be performed in Babyn Yar on September 29. Among the participants are Ukrainian music conductor Roman Kofman, whose relatives were shot in Babyn Yar and world star violinist Ivry Gitlis, who will perform a solo part of the lullaby from Schindler’s List.

Gennadiy Kurochka, co-founder of Ukraine Crisis Media Center, informed about the “Witness” concept, which would be presented in Babyn Yar. According to him, Babyn Yar will host a special installation – projection of a musical instrument “shofar” – this is a hundred of eight-meter hollow tubes through which the wind passes to create special sounds personifying the voices of souls of Babyn Yar victims. The children-violinists will play this natural composition for audience, and children’s voices will sound. “The “Witness” concept is a musical monument to the tragedy of the Jewish people in World War II. This musical composition was created by one of the most talented contemporary Ukrainian composers – Sviatoslav Luniov,” noted Gennadiy Kurochka. The performers are children, prize winners of international and national competitions; violinists – Varvara Vasylyeva, Oleksandra Khmara, Vadym Perih; vocalists – Anastasiya Bahinska and Oleksandr Podolyan. “It is a complex modern European language. It was very difficult to prepare performance of this composition. Our children managed to do their best in the short run,” informed Oles Yas’ko, music conducter.
“As my colleague Natalka Popovych said: through our creativity we would like to convey to the that Babyn Yar is not the Jewish tragedy to the world and to the Ukrainians. This is a national tragedy for Ukrainians, and a sad place chosen by Nazis for killing so many innocent people of Jewish and other nationalities is the place of lifelong commemoration, remembrance, and hope that such tragedy will never happen again. That is why we have chosen the WITNESS concept as a symbol of commemoration. Souls of innocent murder victims continue to witness and warn mankind against repeating the mistakes,” added the UCMC co-founder.

 

All materials on this project can be viewed on babynyarwitness.com, website specially created for this event, which is currently being finalized.

 

On September 29, there will also be live coverage of the events from 18-30 to 21-00 on TV.