- Title: UKRAINE: Western Ukraine remembers Communist and Nazi repression victims
- Date: 23rd June 2011
- Summary: SLATE INFORMATION
- Embargoed: 8th July 2011 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Ukraine, Ukraine
- Country: Ukraine
- Topics: History
- Reuters ID: LVA5CFPV0JME0ONLBXK3Y06Y6JW0
- Story Text: Residents, officials and clergymen of different confessions gathered on Wednesday (June 22) outside Lviv's Soviet time prison recently tuned into a museum to remember the victims of Communist and Nazi repressions in western Ukraine.
Several hundred Ukrainians came with flags decorated with black ribbons and brought flowers to the walls of the former prison which first was built by NKVD, the Soviet Secret police, and later used by the Nazi regime as well as by the Soviet KGB.
The notorious "Lontski" prison was turned into a museum and a monument victims of Stalin purges only in 2010.
Clergymen of different confessions held an ecumenical mass and prayed with people.
"For me this is memorial day of my father, memorial day of my aunt, and a memorial day of two uncles who were fought against Communism, and who were prisoners of this "Lontski" prison," said Hanna Kiks, who lost her father and other relatives within the walls of the prison.
Lviv District Court ruled to ban mass rallies in the city on June 22, in order to avoid disturbances in the society which is divided over the sentiments towards the World War Two and the meaning of the dates connected with it for the Ukrainian nation. Ukrainian nationalists clash with police and pro-Russian demonstrators during Victory Day celebrations last month.
"Today we are here to honour and remember the victims of two regimes, Communist and Nazi. Ukrainian nation suffered from both of them and we are here in order not to let it happen again," another Lviv resident Levko Melnik said.
Unlike Russia, where dates and events connected with World War Two tended to unify the entire country war commemorations in Ukraine have at times created ill feeling and occasional street skirmishes, reflecting loyalties to groups that fought the war on fundamentally different principles.
Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians joined the Insurgent Army, a guerrilla group that fought against both the Soviet and German armies to secure an independent state. Attempts to recognise them as war veterans still divide opinion in the country. There were others who signed up for a special Nazi unit known as the SS Halychyna, insisting they were fighting for the independence of their country form the Soviet regime. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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