Neo-Nazis desecrate Holocaust memorial, give Nazi salutes

A photo shows two men and a woman treading on a plaque commemorating the 17,000 Jews who were murdered on the site, and giving Nazi salutes.

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

Three young people gave the Nazi salute, desecrating the Holocaust memorial at Drobytsky Yar in Ukraine on Wednesday.

The picture of the three people was shared on a popular Telegram channel in Kharkiv.

The photo shows two men and a woman treading on a plaque commemorating the 17,000 Jews who were murdered on the site, and giving Nazi salutes.

The Jewish Confederation of Ukraine has urged law enforcement to catch the three individuals responsible and bring them to justice.

Before the Nazis invaded, 135,000 Jews lived in Kharkiv (Kharkov).

The Jews who did not flee were executed at a rate of 200 to 300 per day, until all of the remaining Jews were murdered by February 1942.

Images posted on social media appeared to show damage to a giant menorah at the site.

Ukraine’s Embassy in Israel reposted the photo on Twitter, along with a statement accusing Russia of Nazism.

“Russian barbarians in Ukraine destroyed another memorial of the Holocaust victims,” the Embassy wrote.

In March 2022, Ukrainian officials claimed that Russia had destroyed the memorial at Babyn Yar, the site where Nazis and their Ukrainian collaborators murdered some 33,000 Jews.

That claim was later found to be false, after an Israeli journalist in Ukraine went to the memorial and found that it was undamaged.

Kyiv did not apologize or explain the false allegation.