Memory for 100,000 killed by Nazis: Germany recognizes special responsibility to Ukraine and links it to support against Russia’s war
The Bundestag passed two resolutions ahead of the 85th anniversary of the massacre, a rare moment when the governing coalition and the opposition aligned.
On 9 October, Germany's Bundestag passed two resolutions marking a historic decision to recognize Germany's special responsibility to Ukraine for the crimes of Nazism. This recognition came ahead of the 85th anniversary of the Babyn Yar massacre, where over 100,000 Jews were killed during the Holocaust. Oleksii Makeiev, Ukraine's ambassador to Berlin, emphasized the link between this historical responsibility and Germany's current support for Ukraine in its conflict with Russia.
Both resolutions, one from the governing CDU/CSU and SPD parties and the other from the opposition Greens, stressed the importance of researching Nazi crimes in Ukraine and preserving the memory of the victims. The motions also called for countering antisemitism, racism, and historical revisionism, and for maintaining political, economic, financial, humanitarian, and military support for Ukraine.
Makeiev, feeling a sense of déjà vu, noted a similar unity among German democratic parliamentary groups in the past, specifically when the Bundestag recognized the Holodomor of 1932–1933 as genocide. The resolution also addressed the issue of Ukrainian children and teenagers illegally taken by Russia, calling for efforts to return about 20,000 of them to their families.
Russia's Babyn Yar National Historical and Memorial Preserve praised the Bundestag's decision as a step towards re-examining the shared history and overcoming historical distortions.
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