President of Germany arrives in Kyiv

German Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier has arrived in Kyiv.

“Today he [Steinmeier] will visit Koryukivka to honor the memory of victims of the 1943 tragedy. Meetings with President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky and President of Israel Isaac Herzog, as well as a visit to the Babyn Yar are planned further,” the Embassy of Germany in Ukraine posted on Twitter.

As reported, a high-level commemoration of the Babyn Yar tragedy victims in Kyiv will take place on October 6. Many foreign guests are expected to attend memorial events.

During World War II, the German occupation forces used the Babyn Yar tract in the northwestern part of Kyiv as a place of mass executions of civilians, mainly Jews. On September 29, 1941, by order of the occupation administration, the entire Jewish population was obliged to appear in Babyn Yar. People were escorted in groups through the checkpoint, after which they were driven to the edge of the ravine and shot. On September 29-30, 33,771 people were killed.

The massacres in the tract lasted until the occupiers left the city. According to official data, about 100,000 people were shot down there.

Koryukivka town in Chernihiv region with all its inhabitants (almost 7,000 people) was set to fire on March 1-2 and 9, 1943. The Nuremberg trials define this tragedy as the largest mass murder of local population in the occupied territories during the entire period of World War II. Most of those killed were children, women, and the elderly.

Photo: DPA

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