The Kiev Jewish Organization of the former prisoners of Ghetto and Concentration Camps was established in 1991. The first 24 members of our organization were were the child former prisoners of Ghetto and Concentration camps. Today our organization includes 153 members. Many of them came through the horrors of the war. Some of the members of our organization were in the Concentration Camp "The Dead Loop" (Pechyora, Vinnitza region). Other people were in Ghettos of Cherkassy, Vinnitza and Odessa Regions. Some of these people were in the concentration Camps "Dachau", "Mauthausen", "Buchenwald", "Auschwitz", "Sobibor". 

Yes, we are still alive. We are living witnesses of the terrible tragedy of our history. We are those who faced death every day, every hour, every minute. The tragedy we passed through still hurts and troubles us and that's why we can not let this happen again. And we have a message for the deaf and blind world from those who were tortured and murdered: "You should not forget what happened to us. Why did the world keep silent and let this tragedy happen? The whole of Europe is covered with Jewish graves. It is saturated with Jewish blood and tears. 6,000,000 Jews perished. 1,700,000 of them were murdered in the Ukraine. There were 633 places of mass shooting. 

Unfortunately the majority of these places do not have any monuments. There is a Jewish grave in Kiev, Babi Yar, that is well known all over the world. 200,000 people perished there, including 30,000 children. This is the biggest children' s grave in the world. There are 8 people in our organization whose parents were killed in Babi Yar. Some of them are Vasily Mikhailovsky, Raya Maistrenko, Roman Stein, Vita Ivanova. Today there remain 3,800 former prisoners of Ghettos and Concentration Camps here, but earlier there were more than 10,000. Many of them left for Israel, the USA, Germany and many others died. 2000 Ukrainian Jews hid in forests; they roamed and changed their names to survive. Some of those people in are our organization. Graves keep silent, the dead are silent, and the living have been silent for a long time. In the Soviet times nobody could tell the truth about the Jewish tragedy, about the massacre, about Babi Yar. During that time people were afraid even to visit Jewish graves; they were afraid that someone would notice them. The situation is different now and today we come to the graves openly and speak freely about the Jewish tragedy. Being a military prisoner my father was murdered in Baby Yar. 

My mother, my sister and I were in the Ghetto near Vinnitsa from July 20, 1941 to March 18, 1944. Hitler' s military headquarters was nearby. Before the war there were more than 3000 Jews in my small Jewish shtetl of Brailov in the Vinnitsa region. The fascists spared nobody. I had 20 relatives but nobody managed to survive. Every time I visit their graves I break into tears; I ask God only one question "Why?" But there are so many graves which have no witnesses at all. Ours was a terrible tragedy. In our organization the majority of members are in their 60's. They are alone, ill and very poor. Their pension is $ 25-30 per month and they have to pay for gas, electricity, water and other services. It' s difficult to imagine how they exist. In other countries such as: Israel, the USA, Canada people used to get the Compensation from Germany, but we never got anything. We wrote many letters to the "Claim Conference" and to the "World Jewish Congress". We wanted people to realize that those victims passed through the great tragedy and they are starving now. People in the other countries get pensions and financial compensation. Why don't we?