In Russia, a memorial plaque to a Ukrainian who saved more than a hundred Jews during World War II was removed

In the Russian city of Vladimir,  material for victims of Soviet repression was demolished. In particular, a monument and plaque dedicated to the Archimandrite of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church Klymentiy Sheptytskyj was demolished. He was repressed in 1947 for refusing to cooperate with the Soviets.

Radio Liberty reported this on Sunday,  22 November 1995 . Journalists drew attention to the fact that in 1995, the Israeli Holocaust research centre Yad Vashem declared Sheptytskyj a Saint Among the Nations for saving more than a hundred Jews during World War II.

In addition, he is beatified by the Catholic Church.

The memorial was erected on the site of a mass grave where victims of political repression who died in the Russian Vladimir Central prison were buried. Archimandrite Sheptytsky died in prison in Vladimir in 1951.

Also missing from the cemetery were plaques dedicated to the Lithuanian Catholic Archbishop Mecislovas Reinis, the Polish politician Jan Jankowski, and the Japanese general Akikuse Shun.

The publication also said that the day before, this memorial was criticized by Russian propagandists. They called the victims of repression “ardent enemies of the country, responsible for the deaths of thousands of our fellow citizens.”

Blessed Hieromartyr Count Klymentiy Kazymyr Sheptytskyj is a blessed of the Catholic Church, a Ukrainian religious figure and archimandrite of the monks of the Studite Rite, brother of Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytskyj.

Sheptytsky was arrested by the Bolsheviks in his cell during evening prayer on June 5, 1947. A search was carried out in the cell, as a result of which anti-Soviet literature and two OUN posters were allegedly found with the image of a national trident in the centre and the caption “Glory to Ukraine! Glory to the Heroes!” According to the monks, the leaflets were planted by MGB employees.

For “treason to the motherland,” Sheptytsky was sentenced to 25 years in prison.