Statement by the EAJC regarding the reburial ceremony of Andriy Melnyk

The EAJC expresses its profound concern over the official state reburial ceremony in Ukraine for Andriy Melnyk, one of the leaders of the OUN, which collaborated with Nazi Germany during the Second World War.

We consider the state-sanctioned glorification of figures and movements associated with collaboration, antisemitic ideology, and cooperation with the Nazi regime during the annihilation of European Jewry to be unacceptable. Attempts to present such figures as national heroes constitute a dangerous form of historical revisionism and a direct insult to the memory of the millions of victims of Nazism and its accomplices.

Honoring the leader of a movement whose representatives supported Nazi Germany and contributed to the atmosphere of hatred, persecution, and mass extermination of Jewish people undermines the moral foundations of Holocaust remembrance and destroys the principles of historical accountability upon which modern civilization is built.

It is of particular concern that such ceremonies are conducted at the state level. It is impossible to declare a commitment to democratic values and the memory of Holocaust victims while simultaneously officially honoring figures whose political activities were linked to cooperation with the Nazi regime.

The Euro-Asian Jewish Congress urges the Ukrainian authorities to cease the practice of glorifying collaborators and to demonstrate responsibility toward historical truth, the memory of Holocaust victims, and future generations. The concealment or justification of cooperation with Nazism is unacceptable under any political or moral pretext.