JTA - 12.16.2004

Ukrainian region honors Jewish victims

(JTA) -- An autonomous region within Ukraine honored Jews who died during the Holocaust. On Saturday, the Autonomous Republic of Crimea marked the Day of Remembrance of Krymchak and Jewish Victims of Nazism.

Krymchaks, a subethnic group of Turkic-speaking Crimean Jews who numbered about 10,000 before World War II, were almost entirely exterminated during the Holocaust, along with thousands of Crimea’s prewar Ashkenazi Jews. During the remembrance day, which was sparked by local Jewish groups, flags flew at half-mast across the Black Sea peninsula.