Demand representatives of the Ukrainian League of the Victims of Nazism from German government

There was a rally of representatives of the Kyiv branch of the Ukrainian League of the Victims of Nazism on December 3 by the monument to Taras Shevchenko. On behalf of 600,000 World War II victims (taken to Germany for slave labor, deported to concentration camps, etc.), the rally participants protested against the German government decision to allocate only DM 8 billion for the victims of Nazism.

“Eight billion German marks is insufficient to even partially compensate people for the pain and suffering they were caused,” chairman of the Ukrainian League of the Victims of Nazism Markiyan Demydov told The Day. “We do not understand why the German side refuses to pay compensation to those who were enslaved by well- off farmers and to the children of war driven to Germany together with their mothers. The Ukrainian League of the Victims of Nazism insists that at least DM 15 billion be allocated.” In this case, Mr. Demydov affirms, those who stayed in concentration camps and ghettos during the Second World War, those who worked at German factories and mines, and those engaged in agriculture could receive DM 20,000; DM 10,000; and DM 5,000 each, respectively. “As an eight-year-old boy, I was put in a concentration camp,” Mr. Demydov said. “And shortly before this, the Nazis burned up half my family. Believe me, we lived though so much ordeal, so we paid for these sums with our sufferings.”

Incidentally, West Europeans who suffered during World War II received from Germany, according to the Ukrainian League of the Victims of Nazism, DM 125 billion, as compensation for the degradation of their human dignity, one year after the end of war.