75 years ago in Shumsk, that in the Ternopil region, the mass extermination of Jews began. According to official figures, 2,732 people were killed, among them 2,432 Jews, whose mass destruction began on August 8, 1942.
On a memorable anniversary, the inhabitants of the town gathered at the mass grave to honor the victims of the genocide. The event was held with the assistance of the Polish organization "Światło ze Wschodu - Light from the East". Its founder Yaroslav Banush says: "We created" Light from the East "to study the interethnic and religious relations of the Polish, Jewish and Ukrainian peoples. For more than 25 years I have been studying Polish-Jewish relations. And the Polish-Ukrainian-Jewish studies are even more difficult to investigate. Today's event can be called a certain cooperation between these nationalities: we gathered people to remember the dead and "enlightened" - they learned more about this problem. I was a little worried before the start of the event, we were afraid that there would be an interethnic misunderstanding. However, I think that everything turned out. We have fulfilled our goal - to remember the dead and tell the residents about this tragedy. " At the invitation of Pan Yaroslav, representatives of three faiths came here: Ukrainian Orthodox, Greek Catholic and Roman Catholic. Unfortunately, the representatives of the Jewish community could not attend the event due to technical reasons. The joint prayer sounded in two languages: Ukrainian and Polish. At the end of the action, the residents of Sumit-do blessed flowers and lanterns at the monument to the victims of the genocide.