Holocaust Memorial Center Babyn Yar welcomes the National Bank of Ukraine's introduction of commemorative coins in circulation for the 80th anniversary of the Babyn Yar tragedy, but is concerned about the lack of references to Jews and Jewish symbols on them.

"Our center welcomes the steps of the Ukrainian state aimed at honoring the memory of the victims of the Holocaust [...] However, we were concerned about the tendency to present the tragedy of Babyn Yar as a kind of universal misfortune of humanity, which is not directly related to the Holocaust. The presence of universal symbols on coins that can symbolize any tragedy as: a heart pierced by a bullet, anthropomorphic figures representing shot families, concentric circles resembling targets - is a kind of attempt to tell the story of the Holocaust without mentioning the Jews," the memorial center said in a statement.

The document says that "I would not like to place such an important event on a par with the Soviet policy of memory, when Jews were removed from the mention of the victims of Babyn Yar in a directive way, replacing them with amorphous 'Soviet citizens." The center expresses hope that the National Bank will not act like the Soviet propagandists, will not erase the facts and make the victims of this symbol of the "Holocaust from bullets" anonymous.

The statement says that the absence of references to Jews and Jewish symbols on the commemorative coin is the same as the Holocaust without Jews or the Holodomor without Ukrainians. "There can be no universalization, depersonalization, denationalization, since Jews were killed during the Holocaust only for being Jews," the statement says.

The Holocaust Memorial Center Babyn Yar reported that on September 27, 2021, the National Bank of Ukraine puts into circulation two commemorative coins of UAH five and ten, dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the tragedy in Babyn Yar.