On the International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the Khmelnytskyi Charitable Foundation "Hesed Besht" made every effort to ensure that people had the opportunity to honor their fellow Jews who fell at the hands of the fascists. Of the six million innocently killed, one hundred and fifty thousand were our fellow Jews and countrymen. There is practically no Jewish family that has not suffered in one way or another from the fascists and their accomplices. Therefore, today was especially important for our entire community.
Despite the frost, in addition to representatives of the Hesed Besht KhBF, representatives of various organizations also went to the Holocaust Memorial at the site of the Proskuriv Ghetto shooting, including the head of the Association of Former Prisoners of the Ghetto and Concentration Camps of the Khmelnytskyi Region, Borys Shlain. Mourning wreaths were handed over from the public and the authorities: not only the Jewish community, but also all residents of the city mourn the innocent victims of the war. Kaddish was read at the graves of thousands of those shot. Now this is no longer an inconspicuous town by the road: over the past year, work on the construction of the memorial has been almost completed.
The Holocaust Memorial Museum became a key place in the Thiya community center. The day before, children from the Child Development Center gathered here. One of the Sunday school classes dedicated to the Holocaust was held for them right in the museum building. And today, adults gathered here to light memorial candles.
In the assembly hall, a screening of documentaries about the Holocaust, which appeared in the video library of the Thiya Community Center over the past year, was held. The event was also attended by the director of the Hesed Besht Foundation, Head of the Khmelnytskyi Jewish Community, Ihor Ratushny.
It was also nice to see journalists from the local channel "Podillia-Center", who came without press releases and announcements to cover the topic of International Holocaust Remembrance Day in the evening news. They also interviewed Sofia Arkadiyevna Sagalova, a Hesed client, a woman who survived those terrible times unscathed.
