The Virtual Museum of Jewish history and Culture of Ukraine has been expanded with a new exhibition hall dedicated to the tragedy of Babyn Yar. The new exhibition page entitled «Babyn Yar», provides a detailed account of one of the most tragic chapters of the Holocaust in Ukraine – the mass executions of Kyiv’s Jewish population on September 29-30, 1941, and the subsequent killings in this ravine throughout the entire period of Nazi occupation (until November 1943).
According to German documents, 33 771 Jews were killed in just the first two days (September 29-30, which coincided with Yom Kippur). In total, approximately 70 000 Jews were killed in Babyn Yar. Including other victim groups – Soviet prisoner of war, Roma, patients from psychiatric hospitals, members of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), Orthodox priests, and others – the total number of victim is estimated at around 100 000 people.
The information presented on the Virtual Museum website is structured chronologically and thematically:
- The historical background in Europe during the 1930s and 1940s (nazi antisemitic policies, the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, and international responses);
- The immediate events of the occupation of Kyiv in September 1941, the mechanism of mass executions and eyewitness accounts (including that of Dina Pronicheva);
- The fates of other groups of victims;
- Soviet politics of silence and suppression of memory (1946-1966), as well as antisemitic campaigns of 1948-1953, including the «Doctor’s Case» and the execution of members of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee;
- Civic memory initiatives (rallies of 1966-1989, Ivan Dziuba’s 1966 speech: «Babyn Yar is a tragedy for all of humanity, but it happened on Ukrainian soil. And therefore, a Ukrainian has no right to forget it, just as a Jew has no right»);
- Literary and poetic testimonies, including Anatoly Kuznetsov’s novel «Babyn Yar» and poems by Mykola Bazhana, Ovsiy Driz, Marianna Kiyanovska and others);
- Stages of memorialization (the Soviet monument of 1976, the Menorah of 1991, and memorials dedicated to various victims groups established after 1991);
- The activities of the Righteous Among the Nations from Ukraine (Omelyan Kovch, Andrey Sheptytsky, and others);
- Contemporary commemoration projects (the memorial park, the «Babyn Yar» Museum, etc.).
The exhibition combines archival photographs, documents, maps, poetic texts, memorial prayers, excerpts from testimonies, and scholarly materials. Particular attention is devoted to the issues of collective memory, Soviet distortions of history, and the gradual restoration of historical truth within Ukrainian and European contexts.
The new exhibition hall is part of the ongoing work of the project «Jewish Heritage in Ukraine: interdisciplinary reflections through the lens of archival documents, culture, history and literature», implemented by the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy with the support of UNESCO and the European Union.
The new exhibition can be viewed via the link.
The project materials were prepared by the research group based on source analysis and an interdisciplinary approach. All publications within the project are produced with the financial support of the European Union. Its contents are the sole responsibility of the partner and does not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union.