Attorney General Phil Weiser commemorates the 81st anniversary of the Babi Yar Massacre and addresses the rise of antisemitism today
Sept. 29, 2022 (DENVER) – Attorney General Weiser today gave the keynote address, titled Combating Antisemitism: Why “Never Again” Matters Today, at the Mizel Museum’s annual Babi Yar Remembrance Ceremony at Babi Yar Memorial Park in Denver. Gov. Jared Polis hosted the commemoration ceremony, which featured a performance by Sandra Wong, a world-renowned concert violinist.
“This annual commemoration is incredibly important to help us remember what happened 81 years ago at Babi Yar. This event honors and remembers the victims and confronts racism and bigotry in our communities,” said Weiser. “The impacts of these atrocities are indelibly imprinted on our world. It is painfully true that if we fail to recognize the deadly and dangerous path paved by antisemitism and demonization, we are at a greater risk to repeat it.”
Weiser’s grandparents and mother survived the Holocaust; his mother is one of the youngest living survivors. She was born in the Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany, and she and her mother were liberated a week later by the Second Infantry Division of the U.S. Army.
Nearly 34,000 Jews were executed at the Babi Yar ravine on the outskirts of Kiev in Nazi-occupied Ukraine on September 29-30, 1941. This was one of the largest mass murders at an individual location during World War II. Between 1941 and 1943, thousands more Jews, Roma, Communists and Soviet prisoners of war also were killed there. It is estimated that some 100,000 people were murdered at Babi Yar during the war. The Babi Yar Memorial Park pays tribute to those lives lost and to victims of genocide throughout the world.
The Mizel Museum is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to fostering cross-cultural understanding, combating racism, and promoting social justice.
Read Weiser’s remarks here.
###
Media Contact
Lawrence Pacheco
Director of Communications
(720) 508-6553 office | (720) 245-4689 cell