Embassy of Ukraine - 01.27.2007

President Yushchenko Offers Condolences to Jewish Community

My dear countrymen!
Dear world community!

The humankind commemorates today victims of Holocaust – mass killing of Jewish population in the years of the World War II. Ukraine sacrificed many lives in that terrible war. The Nazi occupational regime in Ukraine was one of the cruelest in Europe.

Over 1.5 million Ukrainian Jews were killed by the Nazi just for the reason of being Jewish. Hundreds of Jewish communities, which enriched Ukrainian life in the course of centuries, were destroyed. The East European culture of Yiddish language, which greatly contributed to the world literature, was practically eradicated. 

Having experienced the manmade Famine of 1932-33 and knowing the horrid pain of genocide from our own history, Ukrainian people sincerely sympathize today with the World Jewry. Ukrainians will always cherish the memory of the fallen during the World War II. 

The Ukrainian state applies and will apply all efforts to make sure that no manifestations of xenophobia and anti-Semitism would become the corner stone of a state policy in any country of the world. 

Viktor Yuschenko