#Babyn Yar

[redjaybathood]

Babyn Yar, 82 years past.

Last year, I walked there a lot - and couldn't help but cry, every time. You always knew the Holocaust happened, and what it happened to Ukraine as well, but there, in the memorial park, you see the photos, read the text describing it, you see these ravines, you walk along the graves/monuments of the Jewish cemetery, you listen to the prayers and memorial songs... Can you not cry?

And then there's the rocket attack on Babyn Yar last year. And there's the occupation, execution of civilians, mobile crematoriums. The theater, inscription "KIDS". "Filtration camps". Deportation of children. Blowing up the prisoners' barrack. The damn. The market. The train station... No, I couldn't.

82 years later, and the only thing that changed is the language of the invaders.

#ukraine #babyn yar #russia is a terrorist state

[jacensolodjo]

Total disclosure: Because of the book Babi Yar being republished in English on 4/18/2023, while also seeing certain posts on my dash, I was inspired to make this post.

If the USSR was a free and open utopia why were books like "Babi Yar" sent through so much censorship it would have probably been better it was never published at all?

Babi Yar aka Babyn Yar, you know, the massacre of (predominantly) Jews that was the largest singular event massacre of the Holocaust?

If the USSR cared about Jews why did they cover up and refuse to even so much as put a plaque of remembrance up for DECADES after? Oh sure 25 years after Babyn Yar they put up a placeholder plaque promising a new one. BUT they would clear away all the flowers and such from the PLACEHOLDER PLAQUE whenever foreign dignitaries finished their tour of the area. How, exactly, is that okay? How could they put effort into all of that and not even give a proper plaque of remembrance? (The answer, by the way, is this was the Soviet Union's standard MO. Western writer is visiting? Quick, hire a bunch of actors to live in this totally fake Ukrainian village to PROVE there is NO FAMINE.)

At some point you have to admit someone is in the wrong and it will always be the USSR.

(Note the book Babi Yar isn't just about the massacre but also tells the story of a young man up through the 1960s, including the Kreshchatik and 1961 disaster.)

The author himself regretted he published it with so much redacted from it due entirely to USSR censorship.

I suggest everyone take a look at the new publication of the book from this year. (Translated into English new publication I should say.) ((And yes I DO think it is well timed given the attack on the Babyn Yar memorial site last year.)) I should note, that the complete unredacted version is unvarnished truth, and thus some parts are hard to read. It is told from notes written by a boy barely into his teens and this should be kept in mind if you do read the book.

Note from the author of Babi Yar:

"Those who are interested will be able to have some idea of the conditions in which books are published in the Soviet Union, because—as I must stress again—my case was not an exception; on the contrary, it was quite ordinary and typical. Again, the version of Babi Yar distorted and deformed by the censorship was printed in millions of copies and appeared in translation in many languages. People who have read it already but who would like to know the full text need only read in this book the new sections, published here for the first time; especially since they contain the main sense of the book and are the reason why it was written."

(Please note that even though the author, Kuznetsov, was Ukrainian geographically and half Ukrainian from his mother, that he was a Russian speaker and thus used the Russian spelling of Babi Yar in addition to other words. He was well within his rights to use whichever toponym he desired. There is a HUGE difference in him using the Babi Yar form and a Western English speaker using it after knowing the preferred by actual marginalized Ukrainians form. Out of respect for Mr. Kuznetsov I use the form he used in his writing when talking about the book itself. As well as any other words from the book using the Russian spelling.)

Anatoly himself was not Jewish but he grew up right by Babyn Yar. Before and after the massacre there. The massacre also, it should be noted, did not just include Jews but ethnic Ukrainians, Russians, Rromani, the disabled (mentally or otherwise), etc., and Anatoly took great pains to make sure of this fact to anyone who read the book in its full form.

One more note from Anatoly about the book's current form: "In the summer of 1969 I escaped from the USSR with photographic films, including films containing the unabridged text of Babi Yar. I am publishing it as my first book free of all political censorship, and I am asking you to consider this edition of Babi Yar as the only authentic text. It contains the text published originally, everything that was expurgated by the censors, and what I wrote after the publication, including the final stylistic polish. Finally, this is what I wrote." (and I want to note he says PHOTOGRAPHIC FILM of the book which turned out to be a 478 page paperback so this meant he RETYPED ALL ~478 PAGES and had the presence of mind to actually PHOTOGRAPH IT knowing damn well what could happen to his manuscript otherwise. He sewed all of it into his jacket as he fled for asylum.)

(I want to say, foolishly giving people the benefit of the doubt, that when a writer is called a 'Soviet writer' that they think it is somehow all of them actually being allowed to write. When in fact 'Soviet' in front of writer only refers to the time frame they were writing. Many 'Soviet' authors often only had their work published either during the 80s -- the time of glasnost-- or after the Fall but they still get the moniker of Soviet. Or, commonly, like with Anatoly their work is so butchered by censorship as to be practically a different work altogether. It takes a certain amount of courage to publish anyway though, so Anatoly's efforts along with any other author that mirrors his experience should be held in high regard.)

A regime or system of government (since people have tried to 'well actually' about the word regime) that does not allow their people to poke fun or satirize or even tell an unflattering truth with no veiling is not really a regime/system of government one should be defending and yet. When you defend the Soviet Union, you defend their total disregard for Jews, Ukrainians, etc., while at the same time pretending to care about them (The Soviet Union was a Jewish utopia, honest! So long as you ignore all the pogroms and things like the Doctors' Plot that happened post-Holocaust because gosh darnit there were still too many damn Jews in the Soviet Union! Mother Russia, FIX! While also preventing them from going to Israel where they can actually, you know, live. Instead you just whisper about thinking of going to Israel and you got fired and became a 'leech' and yada yada some people waited a decade or more to be allowed to emigrate but hey whatever. Jewish Utopia.)

I leave with one more note from the author of Babi Yar:

"Time and again I set about the task of writing an ordinary documentary novel on the basis of my notes, but without the slightest hope that it would ever be published. Apart from that, something rather strange happened to me. I had been trying to write a straightforward novel in accordance with the rules of ‘socialist realism’—the only guide to writing which I knew and which I had been taught ever since my schooldays. But the truth of real life, which cried out from every line written in my child’s notebook, immediately lost all its vividness and became trite, flat, false and finally dishonest when it was turned into ‘artistic truth’."

And an example of something that was excised by Soviet censors, denoted by brackets paired with what made it into the first editions of the book:

"[I, Anatoli Vasilevich Kuznetsov, author of this book, was born on August 18th, 1929, in the city of Kiev. My mother was Ukrainian, my father Russian. On my identity card my nationality was given as Russian.] I grew up on the outskirts of Kiev, in the Kurenyovka district, not far from a large ravine the name of which—Babi Yar—was known then only to the local people. Like the other parts of the Kurenyovka it was our playground, the place where I spent my childhood."

(I wonder, what was so repugnant about stating he was half Ukr to cause it to be removed from the book entirely?)

#anatoly kuznetsov #anti communism #Babyn Yar #babi yar #antisemitism tag #long post

[ohsalome]

- Serhii Plokhy "The Gates of Europe - History of Ukraine"

#ukraine #ukrainian history #history #serhii plokhy #ussr #genocide #world war 2 #holocaust #tw shoah #babi yar #babyn yar

[shattered-pieces]

The attempt to cover up the mass murder at Babyn Yar means that only about one in 10 of the many thousands of people who died there have been identified. But much of what we do know was gathered by journalists who visited the site when Kyiv returned to Russian control in 1943. They interviewed three Russian prisoners of war who had survived the massacre, and they toured the site, finding bones and shoes and other remnants of the dead.   Bill Downs, who reported on the massacre for Newsweek, wrote to his parents in 1944: “Unless it can be brought home as to what the Germans have done in Europe – the cruelty and ruthlessness and bestial killings and emasculations and dismemberment that has gone on – well, I’m afraid that we’ll be too soft on them.”

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/oct/20/ukraine-true-detectives-investigators-closing-in-on-russian-war-crimes

#ukraine #russia #babyn yar #war #russian invasion of ukraine #war crimes #i would hope we would care #im afraid some idk how many would say “so what #but yes we should be outraged proportionally #which means doing something #proportional

[rcvandenboogaard]

Een ongemakkelijk stukje aarde

Van de gebeurtenis zelf schijnt geen foto te bestaan, ofschoon er een foto circuleert waarvan men zegt dat hij vele jaren na dato is aangetroffen op het lijk van een in de USSR gesneuvelde Duitse officier, en waarop je een rij mensen ziet die worden doodgeschoten aan de rand van een ravijn. Die foto is pas in de jaren tachtig boven water gekomen en het lijkt niet uitgesloten dat het hier om een…

View On WordPress

#Anatoli Koeznetsov #Ante Pavelic #Antoine d&039;Agata #Babi Jar #Babyn Yar #Boetsja #Ernest Renan #genocide #Gestapo #Gorbatsjov #Holodomor #Ilja Ehrenboerg #Jevtoesjenko #Johannes Hähle #Jonathan Littell #Kiev #Koerenivka #Kroatië #Kyiv #Leiden #Nazi&039;s #NDH #NKVD #Oekraïne #OUN #Podil #Poetin #Roma #Sachsenhausen #Serhii Plokhy

[theculturedmarxist]

>This is David Ayzenberg , a Ukrainian Jew born in Kyiv in 1926 . He was one of the very few survivors of the Babyn Yar massacre, which we commemorate its 82th anniversary today . Just listen to his testimony ; He testifies they were led by Ukrainian nationalists and not by Germans to the execution site . We are probably the last generation who still live within the living memory of the Holocaust. Let's not forget what happened there .

#ukrainian nationalists #babin yar #holocaust #ukraine #babyn yar

[channeledhistory]

#babi yar #babyn yar

[isiida-glory-to-ukraine-smoliy]

29. 09. 1941

#history #holocoust #Babyn yar

[sauolasa]

Giorno della Memoria: Zelensky al memoriale di Babyn Yar, Auschwitz piange per l'Ucraina

Una sopravvissuta: "Oggi, mentre mi trovo qui ad Auschwitz-Birkenau, ho il terrore di leggere i resoconti di una guerra che si svolge così vicino a noi. La Russia, che ci ha liberato qui ad Auschwitz, ora sta conducendo una guerra contro l'Ucraina. Perché? Perché la politica è così?"

#Giorno della Memoria: Zelensky al memoriale di Babyn Yar #Auschwitz piange per l'Ucraina News | Eur

[kafkaesquegf]

Hey, everyone. On February 24, 2022, Russia commenced their illegal full-scale invasion of Ukraine following six years of conflict between Russian-backed separatist groups and Ukrainian forces in Crimea and Donbas. one year later, the Russian offensive has not stopped, and Ukraine continues to face shelling, rocket fire, and bombardments on both military and civilian infrastructure. the lives of hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian people are on the line as Russia descends further and further into fascism and military dictatorship. 

Russia has continually used the excuse of “denazification” in Ukraine to justify their criminal and imperialist war in Ukraine. As a Ukrainian-American Jew whose grandparents fled a Ukrainian shtetl in Podillia during the 1920s, I say that this is a disgusting, perverse, and wholly cynical manipulation of Ukrainian-Jewish historical trauma for the gains of an imperialist power. My relationship to Ukrainian nationalism is complex, but I know one thing for sure: Russia doesn’t give a shit about Jews. If they did, they wouldn’t be using the Neo-Nazi-infested Wagner PMC, and they wouldn’t be shelling Jewish heritage sites. Hundreds of years of Jewish culture and history are in danger of destruction by Russian artillery fire. In March of 2022, the memorial at Babyn Yar ravine outside of Kyiv, which was the site of the single largest massacre of Jews during the Holocaust by the Nazis and their collaborators, was hit by Russian artillery. 

Russia does not care about Ukrainian Jews. Russia does not want Ukrainian Jews to see themselves as Ukrainian at all; it wants to undo the decades of bridge-building that have taken place between non-Jewish and Jewish communities in Ukraine. In the end, Russia wants to see the complete annihilation of both groups.

To every Ukrainian, Jewish and not, I wish you strength, hope, and courage in the beginning this second year of invasion. And to every Russian government official, vatnik and Z-fascist who supports the war, I wish you nothing more than oblivion.

If you can, please consider donating to the following charities:

Come Back Alive

United24

Ukrainian Recovery Funds

Jewish Relief Network Ukraine

World Jewish Relief

Слава Україні! Нет войне!

#long post but important #war in ukraine #ukraine #invasion of ukraine #stand with ukraine #stop war in ukraine #ukrainian jews #russia is a terrorist state #tal.txt

[unhonestlymirror]

I know quite a lot of people whose relatives and friends were raped and murdered by hamas on October 7th. And I am terrified to see how many people, including my own friends, say that Israel deserves to be vanished. I know how it feels when the whole world wants your home to be occupied by a state which wants to rape and kill you and your family. Even if the whole world starts making more Babyn Yars and more Auschwitzs, this time wearing not swastika but the flag of Palestine - I don't support killing Jews, never supported and never will. I know what "Never again" means, and I will do everything I can for Never again.

#hetalia #hws lithuania #aph lithuania #hws israel #aph israel #russia finances hamas #stop russian aggression #russia is a nazi state

[jacensolodjo]

From September 29-30 in 1941, over 33,000 Jews were murdered by German Nazi forces and local collaborators at the Babyn Yar ravine just outside of Kyiv in Ukraine. This was one of the largest single event massacres of the entire Holocaust.

Back in 2022, russcist forces attacked the memorial site that now sits at the ravine during their invasion of Ukraine. 5 souls were lost, adding to the victims lost to fascists.

We do not forget. We do not forgive.

For 25 years, the communist government of the USSR put up a placeholder plaque. And you tell us they were the friends of Jews. They kept quiet about the Shoah and you tell us they were the friends of Jews while they hid the sites of atrocities and kept it out of history books. They hid the pogroms they themselves orchestrated. They pretended Stalin himself wasn't set to sign an order to murder untold numbers of Jews before Hashem intervened in the Purim Miracle.

We remember Babyn Yar. We always remembered Babyn Yar, no matter how hard the USSR and the world at large wanted us to forget that 33,000 of us were murdered there.

You cannot get rid of Jews. You cannot get rid of Ukrainians. And doubly so you cannot get rid of Ukrainian Jews.

(The Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention was founded to fill a gap they felt was seen when it comes to active prevention of genocide using the definition that Raphael Lemkin, of blessed memory, came up with in the days of the Second World War. It does similar work to GenocideWatch.org, though the Institute works off of 10 patterns rather than 10 stages. I don't always agree with how they proceed like with these patterns but I appreciate their work nonetheless as it is hard to go wrong in work to prevent genocide.)

#Babyn Yar #holocaust mention #shoah mention #babyn yar massacre #i would do the rest of the alt text but i am tired #and i kinda paraphrased it anyway

[ohsalome]

For the record, that same Khrzanovsky was later put in charge of the Babyn Yar Holocaust memorial project, despite a massive uproar of the ukrainian community, including the ukrainian jews. Aside of the Dau project scandal mentioned above, his "Babyn Yar" project was criticised for being financed by russian oligharks, disrespecting the orthodox jewish traditions, turning the place of the biggest nazi crime in Kyiv into what was called a "Holocaust Disneyland" 🤢🤢🤢, and painting ukrainians as the main perpetrators of Holocaust (meaning, misrepresenting history to line up with russian propagandistic narrative). To add pain to the injury, his project was picked over the one proposed by the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine.

You can read more here [x] [x], and i greatly recommed this interview with Yosyf Zisels (in ukrainian).

#ukraine #holocaust #ilya khrzanosky #russian art #babyn yar #history #world war 2

[marykk1990]

My next post in support of Ukraine is:

Next site, the National Museum of Hutsulshchyna and Pokuttia Folk Art in Kolomyia, Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast. It has more than 50,000 items showing the history and culture of the Hutsulshchyna and Pokuttia regions, and it was founded in 1926. These areas covered parts of Western Ukraine and Romania, and also parts of southwestern Ukraine (Pokuttia). The collection has items from Hutsul and Pokuttian villages, including Hutsul embroidery, musical instruments, and carved wooden tools.

#StandWithUkraine

#SlavaUkraïni 🇺🇦🌻

https://ua.igotoworld.com/en/poi_object/65990_national-museum-of-hutsulshchyna-and-pokuttya-folk-art.htm

Here's another Volodymyr Zelenskyy quote.

"To the world: what is the point of saying never again for 80 years, if the world stays silent when a bomb drops on the same site of Babyn Yar? At least 5 killed. History repeating."

Volodymyr Zelenskyy

#Stand With Ukraine #Slava Ukraïni 🇺🇦 🌻

[sixty-silver-wishes]

assumptions game- you have a really cool collection of classical music on either cd or vinyl

Yes; I have both! Here’s my CD collection-

Everything here was either thrifted or a gift! I love thrifting music because some pieces are much rarer than others (you won’t find a ton of Schoenberg, for instance, but Ravel’s “Bolero” is super common and I have a really funny theory why), so it’s a lot of fun searching for what I like. That Shostakovich box set was probably my best find!

Here are my vinyls; I don’t have as many, but I have some interesting stuff. I bought the Petrushka just for the weird cover design; the Webern collection is probably my favorite, and I also have the censored premiere recording of Shostakovich 13, which I don’t really like (not just due to the censorship, but also the quality), but it’s still a fascinating piece of history.

For context on the censorship, the first movement of Shostakovich 13 includes a sung poem, “Babi Yar,” which is about the Soviet Union’s refusal to acknowledge anti-Semitism, specifically in the case of the massacre at Babyn Yar, a ravine in Ukraine where the Nazis killed thousands of primarily Jewish civilians in 1941. (“Babi Yar” is the Russian name for the location, as well as the name of the poem, which was written in Russian). Because the text was so controversial, the poet who wrote it, Evgeny Evtushenko, was pressured into toning down the accusatory nature of the text and lines protesting anti-Semitism, in favor of making it more “patriotic”. (The fourth movement, which includes a poem on the historical trauma Russians faced at the hands of their own government, was censored as well.) Nowadays, the symphony is typically performed with the original uncensored text (which I have included in the CD box set), but it’s interesting from a research perspective to be able to compare them.

#music #classical music #soviet history #shostakovich #cd collection #cw holocaust #vinyl

[yermak]

This Is Why Ukraine Stands With Israel

The terrible terrorist attack on Israel resonated with Ukrainians. Rockets, torture and murder, the abduction of children – we know this script too well. But the similarity of our tragedies is not accidental.

by Andriy Yermak

Published on October 13, 2023

On September 29, I held a meeting with foreign ambassadors. We discussed one of the key points of President Zelenskyy’s 10-point Peace Formula – Justice. The day was also the 82nd anniversary of the beginning of the Shoah for Kyiv Jews.

We gathered in Babyn Yar, a place whose name has become synonymous with genocide. A suburban ravine in Kyiv, Babyn Yar played host to some of the worst genocidal atrocities of World War Two. Over two days in 1941, around 34,000 Ukrainian Jews were massacred by the Nazis there. In total, up to 150,000 eventually lost their lives there.

But genocide does not lurk in the past. As Israel knows only too well, it is a phenomenon the world must grapple with in the present day. In the first days of the Russian invasion, Babyn Yar was hit by missiles, killing an entire family near the memorial complex.

This horror is why the terrible terrorist attack on Israel resonated with pain in the hearts of Ukrainians. Not only because historically the destinies of our peoples have been closely intertwined. But also because in modern times we are forced to fight for the same basic rights: to be ourselves and live safely on our own land. As the legendary Prime Minister of Israel, Golda Meir, who was born in Kyiv, aptly noted, “We intend to remain alive. Our neighbors want to see us dead. This is not a question that leaves much room for compromise.”

This horror is why the terrible terrorist attack on Israel resonated with pain in the hearts of Ukrainians. Not only because historically the destinies of our peoples have been closely intertwined. But also because in modern times we are forced to fight for the same basic rights: to be ourselves and live safely on our own land. As the legendary Prime Minister of Israel, Golda Meir, who was born in Kyiv, aptly noted, “We intend to remain alive. Our neighbors want to see us dead. This is not a question that leaves much room for compromise.”

Thousands of rockets flying at peaceful cities. Torture and execution of peaceful people, looting, execution of prisoners and abduction of children – we know this script too well. Cruelty has no excuses. Terrorism has no nationality. Barbarism knows no borders. And that is why today Bucha in Ukraine mourns Re'im in Israel.

But all of us must understand: the similarity of their tragedies is not accidental.

They are parts of the same plan, elements of an asymmetric war waged against the free world by the “axis of evil.” Since this term was introduced by President George W. Bush, it has undergone a series of transformations. The main one was the emergence of a new leader - Putin's Russia. Restoring the status of a superpower has become a real symbol of the Kremlin. He is fixated on revenge for the Cold War, and he repeatedly refers to its practices.

In the modern world, in a world built on partnership and consensus of interests, Russia does not have competitive advantages. The only chance for them is to create a situation where the difference between peace and war becomes illusionary.

For decades, Moscow has formed a coalition of autocratic regimes, fringe movements and terrorist organizations which poses an ever-increasing threat to humanity.

In his Valdai speech on October 5, Vladimir Putin spoke about the diversity and multiplicity of civilizations. As always, he lied.

In the modern world, civilization exists only as the antithesis of barbarism. Civilization cannot be built on hatred. But it is hatred and contempt for life that cements the alliance of Russia, Iran, North Korea and their numerous proxies. Hate is the product that they seek to promote in all world markets. It seems incredible, but in the era of globalization, the main threat to humanity is an alliance of death cults that assert their right to sacrifice. However, they prefer to call it the “protection of national interests” and the “struggle against the West.”

Neither Russia nor its allies are in a position to offer the world a positive agenda. That is why they repeatedly resort to racketeer tactics: supporting violence, intimidation and blackmail, and then naming the price of its solution. The capitulation in the Crimean War of the nineteenth century did not prevent Emperor Alexander II from later instructing the cadets: “Russia is not a trading or agricultural state, but a military one, and its vocation is to be the awe of the world.” A century and a half later, Vladimir Putin and his associates want the same thing. And again, and again, they bet on terror.

From Eastern Europe to the Middle East and Latin America, from the Caucasus to the Sahel, the same scenario plays out, often with the same performers. The bloody trail of PMC Wagner, also known as the Wagner Group, stretched from Syria to Ukraine and Africa. Its mercenaries taught Hamas fighters to drop bombs from drones. Hacker groups linked to Russia hacked the websites of Israeli state institutions, and the Russian GRU transported weapons captured in Ukraine to Palestine.

The futility of Israel’s balancing act over Russia’s aggressive invasion of Ukraine became obvious this week when Putin claimed the Hamas attacks on Israel were a result of failure to “take the core interests of the Palestinian people into account.” Trying to poke the bear never works when dealing with self-righteous imperial ambitions.

Russia’s recent moves across the wider Middle East region also provide food for thought. In 2015, intervening in the Syrian civil war helped the Kremlin divert the attention of the West from Russian aggression against Ukraine and attempts to freeze the conflict in Donbas amid the European refugee crisis. Having gained time and built strength, Russia then tried to capture all of Ukraine. Only the heroism of our people and the determined help of our allies made it possible to foil the aggressor’s plans.

Will the Kremlin try to engineer the same scenario of forcing the democratic community to appeasement by using the current attack on Israel? You can bet on it. As a puppet master, Moscow gladly plays the role of mediator. What will happen next? A friendship with a cannibal always ends with a festive dinner.

Robert Jackson, the U.S. Supreme Court Justice who was the leading American prosecutor at the Nuremberg war crimes trials, built the charges against the Nazis on the idea of a state created for war. For reasons beyond Jackson's control, the concept was not developed at the time. But now it is relevant again. Confrontation is the raison d'être of both the current Russian regime and its minions.

This means one thing: only a convincing defeat of Russia will break the axis of evil. Only the joint efforts and determination of the international community can overcome terrorism. That's right: overcome. Negotiations with terrorists, regardless of the signs of statehood, are never the end of the war. It is always a pause, after which the terrorists come back stronger and better prepared.

Long-term and full-scale assistance to those who suffer from aggression and the inevitable punishment of its perpetrators, provided for by the Ukrainian Peace Formula, is the most reliable guarantee of world security.

Andriy Yermak is the head of the Office of the Ukrainian Presidency.

#andriy yermak #volodymyr zelenskyy #ukraine #israel