Today, on the 81st commemoration of the Babi Yar massacre, Chabad emissary and Kyiv Chief Rabbi Yonatan Markowitz lit candles and led the annual memorial ceremony at the ravine outside Kyiv where 33,771 Jews were murdered in September 1941.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko, Ukrainian Minister of Culture Oleksandr Tkachenko, and ambassadors from the United States, Spain, Germany, Poland and Belgium joined Rabbi Markowitz at the event. “The horrors of the Holocaust shook the world,” he said. “Today we must remember, and never forget, that we must not be silent in the face of evil.”