Holocaust survivor David Barulya, a 102 year-old resident of Sevastopol, and a veteran of World War II lit a candle on Thursday, July 12 at memorial for 4200 Jews murdered there by Nazis on that date in 1942.

This is the 20th year since the Crimean Jewish community began to commemorate the atrocity. Organized  by the Sevastopol Jewish community in conjunction with The Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia, the memorial drew greater attendance and more participation by leading Jewish figures than in past years. 

Russia’s Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar opened the ceremony.

“It is not simply for the sake of remembering, but for us to understand that the way of indifference, when wrong and unjust events are taking place around us, is not our way,” he said.

“Some claim there was no Holocaust, they rewrite history, denying the obvious, and this is why we need to remember today more than ever, the lessons of the Holocaust.”

Rabbi David Moshe Lieberman of Belgium, Rabbi Benjamin Jacobs of the Netherlands, and Rabbi Yirmiyahu Cohen from Israel represented their Jewish communities.