Illinois Holocaust Museum, 16 Others Condemn 'War Crimes' In Ukraine

SKOKIE, IL — Leaders of Holocaust museums in four countries, including the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center in Skokie, issued a joint statement condemning reports of war crimes carried out by the Russian military in Ukraine.

Calling on governments to do more to stop the violence and endorsing an investigation of Russian crimes against humanity, the statement was signed by 17 museum executives from the U.S., U.K., Canada and South Africa, and published as a full-page ad in Sunday's New York Times.

"Museums are bearers of history. By housing the artifacts and documents of the past, we ensure that the truth, both noble and horrific, of what humanity has done remains shared and accessible," it said.

"We at Holocaust museums around the world have a particular mission. The stories we tell are ones of destruction and pain, and of the nobility of upstanders who risked their lives to do what was right and help others. We not only aim to educate, to honor our Survivors’ wishes that their stories are not forgotten, but to make a better future where the stories we tell are no longer repeated," the joint statement continued.

"So it is with sorrow that we see yet another atrocity in Ukraine, 80 years after the ‘Holocaust by Bullets’ in which Jewish men, women, and children were shot and buried in shallow graves," the statement said. "We are angered by today’s stories of children with their hands zip tied and buried in shallow graves. We are angered by the horrific reports of rape and wanton destruction of lives by the Russian army. These are war crimes, and if we, as the bearers of history, do not speak out, then we have failed in our mission."

Russian troops have been accused of indiscriminate killing of civilians, including mass executions and killing civilians seemingly at random during their occupation of the Kyiv suburb of Bucha, a missile attack Friday that killed at least 52 fleeing civilians at a railway station, and the bombing of a theater in Mariupol that Ukrainian authorities said killed about 300 people last month. Mariupol's mayor on Monday told The Associated Press that more than 10,000 civilians have been killed during the Russian siege of his city, and the death toll could rise to more than double that.

"We call upon our governments around the world to do more to stop these atrocities and assist those who have been brutalized," the joint statement concluded. "We support the International Criminal Court’s investigation of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide."

International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan last month announced that his office had opened an investigation into possible war crimes carried out in Ukraine. While Russia, like the U.S., is not a signatory of the Netherlands-based ICC, Reuters reported that Ukraine issued a declaration in 2014 that gave the court jurisdiction over crimes committed within its border.

Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center Executive Director Susan Abrams signed the joint statement along with representatives of the Montreal Holocaust Museum, the Florida Holocaust Museum, the UK's National Holocaust Centre and Museum, CANDLES Holocaust Museum, the Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum, Holocaust Museum LA, Museum of Jewish Heritage, the Durban Holocaust & Genocide Centre, Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre, The Zekelman Holocaust Center, Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre, Holocaust Center for Humanity, Aegis Trust at the UK's Holocaust Centre, St. Louis Kaplan Feldman Holocaust Museum, the Nancy & David Wolf Holocaust & Humanity Center and Holocaust Museum Houston.