Michael Sitko, the last living survivor of the infamous Babi Yar Nazi massacre will speak in Kiev on Monday at an event commemorating 70 years since the slaughter. "Since moving to Israel I have been to Ukraine a couple of times. But I could never get to Babi Yar. My mother's cries before she was murdered alongside my brother and sister echo in my head to this day," Sitko said. On Sept. 29 and 30, 1941, the Nazis, helped by Ukrainian collaborators, systematically murdered 33,000 Jews at Babi Yar, a ravine in Kiev, Ukraine. Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs Minister Yuli Edelstein will also speak at Monday's events as part of Israel and Ukraine's joint 70-year commemoration of the massacre. Edelstein's speech will highlight the connection between the Holocaust against Ukrainian Jews and modern hostilities towards Israel. "Anti-Semitism did not disappear with the fall of the Nazis. It surrounds us to this day, be it toward Jewish communities in the world or against the existence of Israel." Edelstein said. "Leaders like [Iranian President Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad, who aim to deny the Holocaust and call for Israel's destruction, are tangible proof." Orit Fogel-Shafran, director of the Raanana Symphonette Orchestra, will also perform at the event. Fogel-Shafran noted that Maxim Shostakovich, son of famed Russian composer Dimitri Shostakovich, who composed the music for Yevgeny Yevtushenko's poem "Babi Yar" in 1961, will also be present at the event. "The poem's success led to public pressure to build a memorial in Babi Yar in 1966," she said. Israel Hayom arranged a meeting between Sitko and Shostakovich, who himself was a Holocaust survivor. Shostakovich's 13th symphony will be played at the memorial concert at the national opera hall in Kiev. As part of the event, the younger Shostakovich will conduct the Raanana Symphonette Orchestra and the Ukrainian Dumka choir in a joint performance.
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