The documents about the Holocaust in Kharkiv region during World War II are now freely available in the State Archive of Kharkiv region in the reading room.
According to the chief specialist of archive Valentina Plisak, it is for the first time when the documents of mass killings of Jews, personal stories of those who became victims of the Nazi occupation were disclosed for Kharkivens at the Day of Remembrance of the Holocaust.
“Kharkivens may get known the data on the census during the occupation, living conditions of Jews in those years through these documents. One of the acts contains information about the shooting of 15 thousand people in Drobyckyi Iar. In addition, there are documents that contain stories, compiled according to the memoirs of survivors.
Valentina Plisak noted that earlier these documents were kept secret, but now they are used by researchers. In particular, thanks to the work of these and other archival documents a memory book “Drobyckyi Yar” was published. The work on the identification of new documents in the archive continues.
During the German occupation of Kharkiv for three weeks in Drobitsky Yar about 16-20 thousand people, mainly Jews, were shot. At this place sinse 2002 the memorial complex “Drobytsky Yar” was established. International Holocaust Remembrance Day is celebrated annually on January 27th, the day in 1945 when Soviet troops liberated the prisoners of the concentration camp “Auschwitz-Birkenau” (“Auschwitz”, the current territory of Poland).
It’s possible to examine the documents from January 26th to February 12th and take a tour of the archive at Moskovs’kyi Avenue, 7.
