• This is a political forum that is non-biased/non-partisan and treats every person's position on topics equally. This debate forum is not aligned to any political party. In today's politics, many ideas are split between and even within all the political parties. Often we find ourselves agreeing on one platform but some topics break our mold. We are here to discuss them in a civil political debate. If this is your first visit to our political forums, be sure to check out the RULES. Registering for debate politics is necessary before posting. Register today to participate - it's free!

‘History can come back’: Passover sorrow at a Jewish burial near Kyiv

Rogue Valley

Lead or get out of the way
DP Veteran
Joined
Apr 18, 2013
Messages
93,583
Reaction score
81,661
Location
Barsoom
Gender
Male
Political Leaning
Independent

iu

4.22.22
BARAKHTY, Ukraine — He was a quiet man who attended temple regularly, Rabbi Moshe Azman told NBC News last week as he stood next to Zoreslav Zamojskij’s coffin. “I don’t understand why they killed this guy,” Azman said in the Jewish cemetery on a hill in Barakhty, a picturesque village around 30 miles south of Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv. Amid panoramic views of the countryside, he then recited funeral prayers and together with a handful of mourners helped to lower the casket and fill the grave with earth. He was barely able to contain his anger about Russian President Vladimir Putin’s claims that his forces were liberating Ukrainians “subjected to bullying and genocide,” and the invasion was launched to “denazify” the country and its leadership. “I said many times. We here in Ukraine don’t need denazification,” he said. “Because we are here in a free country, free religion.” Azman, a Russian speaker who was born in the Russian city of St. Petersburg, added that the invasion reminded him of stories he studied in his school days about the persecution of the Jewish community in Europe by Nazi Germany. “Now I see the Russians doing it. I can’t believe my eyes,” he said.

Zamojskij, who Azman said had no living relatives, was 44 when he was killed in Bucha, a small town on the outskirts of Kyiv that was held by Russian forces for five weeks until it was liberated by Ukrainian soldiers earlier this month. Images that shocked the world have since emerged from the town’s streets and homes after the Russian retreat. Some photographs showed bodies in civilian clothes lying on blood-stained pavements, some with their hands tied behind their backs. Ukrainian officials estimate hundreds of civilians were killed in Bucha, and they have accused Moscow of committing war crimes there. Jewish burial authorities said Zamojskij, a journalist, had been shot multiple times and that his body bore signs of torture. Russia has denied it targeted the town’s civilians and has accused Ukraine of staging the alleged atrocities to discredit its army — a claim that angered Azman. “The Russians said that’s fake, but what’s fake?” Azman said, adding that Zamojskij “was killed while Russian forces were there.”


A satellite owned by MAXAR Technologies has discovered mass trench graves in a suburb of Mariupol. There are enough trenches to hold 9,000 bodies.
 
Back
Top Bottom