In 1941, over 110,000 people were murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators at Babi Yar near Kiev in the Ukraine. It began when 33,771 Jews were killed on just two days, 29th and 30th September 1941, and it continued for the next several years with the murder of tens of thousands of more Jews, as well as Roma/Gypsies, Soviet prisoners-of-war, Ukrainian national activists, and Communist party members from various parts of Ukraine. The 75th anniversary of the worst of these massacres are commemorated by several concerts in Kiev. Last Sunday, September 18th, the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine, under the direction of Volodimir Sırenko, held a concert with works by Baruch Berliner and Dmitri Shostakovich. The concert was a Ukrainian-Israeli co-production.
Over 160 artists from 15 countries are involved in a concert by the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra on 29 September. Under the baton of Ukrainian conductor Oksana Lyniv the German orchestra will play works by Max Bruch und Johannes Brahms as well as the premiere of the Kaddish-Requiem by Ukrainian composer Yevhen Stankovych.
