Victor Yushchenko laid a wreath at the memorial plaque in Nations Square and observed one minute of silence on Friday to honor hundreds of Ukrainians killed in Flossenburg, a German concentration camp where his 25-year-old father, Andriy, was imprisoned during the Second World War, according to the President`s press-office.
“This was the final stage of his [father’s] confinement. He used to tell me how they were liberated by the Americans and how he escaped when he was being transported from Auschwitz,” he told reporters.
After his escape on October 20, 1944, Andriy Yushchenko was arrested in the Czech city of Karlovy Vary (Carlsbad) and sent to Flossenburg. He was one of its fifteen thousand inmates. His name and personal number, 38034, can still be found in the camp archives.
The President saw Flossenburg’s Death Valley and crematorium, and prayed in a chapel. He then wrote a few words in the Flossenburg Golden Book, "Sixty-two years ago, my father was here along with hundreds of other young people. I bow my head to honor them.”
Mr. Yushchenko gave the Flossenburg Memorial Complex some earth from Babyn Yar.
