January for the Jewish people is associated with one of the most tragic secular days of the calendar – the Day of Remembrance of the victims of mass exterminations by the Nazis and their accomplices of Jews in the occupied territories. It was on this day 70 years ago that the Red Army liberated the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, revealing to the whole world the terrible truth about mass murders in concentration camps. A memorial event dedicated to those events was held at the Holocaust Memorial Museum in the Thiya Community Center. Special attention was paid to the new canvas by the artist Galina Marder (Lebedinska), which took a prominent place among the museum's exhibits.
The event was attended by members of the Jewish community, volunteers of the Foundation, and invited guests: Director of the Khmelnytskyi City History Museum Svitlana Mykhaylova and journalist of the Podillia-Center Radio and Television Company Starostina Stanislava. People gathered in the premises of the Holocaust Memorial Museum, where copies of archival documents from those times that had not been exhibited before were already prepared for viewing.
The Foundation's volunteer archivist Leonid Zapadenko briefly told the audience about the latest news in the field of accumulating documentary resources. Last year, he compiled a unique publication "Proskuriv in February 1919", and this year a new collection of historical facts about the life of our city is being prepared in the same way. Volunteer Semen Milman reminded the guests of the vicissitudes of the Holocaust in Proskuriv and the region, drew people's attention to the scale and cruelty of the occupation regime, as well as about the Proskuriv ghetto.
And now it came to the presentation of the painting. Its author arrived at the Thiia Community Center early in the morning, preparing for an important event. Galina Semenovna spent two years painstakingly working on the canvas. Her home is 25 km from the city, but this did not become an obstacle, since the drawing is not only beautiful, but also extremely close to her heart.
The artist began the presentation from afar – with the story of how her parents, Semyon and Marusya, met. It happened at the turbulent beginning of the war, which separated the lovers for many years. Semyon fought at the front, and his entire family ended up in the ghetto. Marusya visited them and helped them in any way she could, but the fragile girl could not overcome her terrible fate – her fiancé’s family was shot along with other prisoners.
The painting, according to Halyna Semenovna, originated purely in her imagination, but some of the characters in it are real. The artist never saw or knew them, but she thought about these people, bringing their images to life with the help of paints. "Day of Crying" depicts the last minutes of the lives of about a hundred Jews standing on the edge of the abyss - the future mass grave. There are Semen's parents, his aunt, other relatives. There is a girl-translator in a green coat and other characters that Halyna heard about in childhood. They exist only on the canvas and in the artist's imagination... And she talked about each of them, talked about them... And so, the memory of these people will not disappear without a trace.
The picture really depicts about a hundred people. Each character has their own facial features, not like the others. Thanks to the talent of Galina Semenovna, the picture looks really impressive. She plans to create the second part of the picture - the same size, but with other characters.
Anyone can see the painting at the Holocaust Memorial Museum, located in the Thiya Community Center, from Monday to Friday, from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. We remind you that admission to the museum is free.
