An estimated 1.4-1.6 million Jews were killed in Ukraine between 1939-1945. That number is staggering.

Today is Holocaust Remembrance Day, and with the horrific scenes playing out worldwide of violent rhetoric against Jews, I wanted to take a minute to stop and remember the Ukrainian men and women who survived those tragic years of World War II.

An estimated 1.4-1.6 million Jews were killed in Ukraine between 1939-1945. That number is staggering.

Even if they weren’t Jewish, though, Ukrainians suffered deeply at the hands of both the Nazis and the Red Army.

People like Maria Ivanovna (pictured in the second slide) who were sent to Nazi slave labor camps and forced to assemble artillery for the Germans under devastating conditions.

Maria’s father was in the wrong place at the wrong time and found himself in Babi Yar, the killing ditch where 34,000 Jewish men, women, and children were slaughter in two days time. He survived by falling into the ditch before the gunshot and letting the bodies of his countrymen bury him until night fell.

Or others like Veniamin (pictured in the fourth slide) who hid Jews in his home then helped falsify papers so they could escape. When caught by the Soviets, he was forced to go to the front lines unarmed as a sacrifice. He survived through sheer will and the Lord’s protection.

I heard countless stories from Ukrainian men and women when I researched my book, Like a River From Its Course. That novel is my love letter to Ukraine and to the many who suffered during those years of the holocaust.

I hope we never forget the devastation of those years, and I pray we fight to keep it from being repeated. As Ukraine continues to fight for her freedom and the Middle East pulses under the tension of hatred, I pray that cooler heads prevail. It is all very nuanced, and while I have a level of expertise on Ukraine, I don’t claim to have any on the political landscape of the Middle East.

I just know that it is all very sad and disturbing against the backdrop of history.