‘Nazism Is Born in Silence’: Zelensky Urges Jews to Shout Against Russia

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky talks to journalists in his office in Kiev on June
SERGEI SUPINSKY/AFP via Getty

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday called on fellow Jews around the world to speak out against the Russian “erasure” of his country.

“I am now addressing all the Jews of the world. Don’t you see what is happening? That is why it is very important that millions of Jews around the world not remain silent right now,” Zelensky, who is Jewish, said in a Hebrew-language post to his Facebook page.

“Nazism is born in silence. So shout about killings of civilians. Shout about the murders of Ukrainians.”

He addressed a Russian missile attack a day earlier that struck near the Babi Yar memorial site in the heart of Kyiv.

“We all were bombed last night in Kyiv, and we all died again at Babyn Yar from the missile attack, even though the world pledges ‘Never again,’” he said.

“A place of prayer, a place of remembrance for 100,000 people killed by the Nazis.”

A view of the Babyn (Babi) Yar Holocaust Memorial Center in Kyiv on March 2, 2022. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky on March 2 accused Russia of seeking to “erase” Ukrainians, their country and their history. Five people were killed in the Tuesday attack on Kyiv’s main television tower at Babi Yar, the site of World War II’s biggest slaughter of Kyiv Jews and a place of memorial and pilgrimage. (DIMITAR DILKOFF/AFP via Getty)

“You are killing the victims of the Holocaust again,” he said.

He also referred to the “brutal bombing” of Uman on the first day of the war, where tens of thousands of Jews make pilgrimages every year to the site of Rebbe Nachman, a famed Jewish rabbi.

“They know nothing about our capital. About our history. But they have an order to erase our history. Erase our country. Erase us all,” he said.

“Why was [Babi Yar] bombed? This is beyond humanity,” he said.

“What will be next if even Babi Yar [is hit], what other ‘military’ objects, ‘NATO bases’ are threatening Russia? St. Sophia’s Cathedral, Lavra, Andrew’s Church?” he asked, referring to sites in the capital that are considered holy by Ukrainian and Russian Orthodox Christians around the world.

Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid condemned the attack on Babi Yar, but stopped short of blaming Russia.

The Russian missile attack which saw the Holocaust site damaged was apparently targeting a key television tower in Kyiv. Five people were killed and the state broadcasting stopped, but the tower remained standing.

 

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