Holocaust Disneyland funded by Russia stirs fears and suspicions in Ukraine – The Independent
Over two days in September 1941, Nazi soldiers executed 33,771 Jews at the edge of Babyn Yar, a long, steep ravine on the northwestern edge of Kiev. The mass murder was one of the most nefarious episodes of the entire Holocaust, but if you were to visit the site, youd be forgiven for not knowing.
A succession of cover-ups first from the retreating Germans, and then from Soviet authorities, who preferred to build a sludge reservoir rather than a memorial have been somewhat successful in performing a second elimination: of history itself.
Today, a drab, concrete metro station stands at the centre of what was the killing field. In the public park that surrounds the metro station, the banalities of contemporary Ukrainian life overshadow those of Nazi evil. Homeless drunks hassle for a spare note. Couples jockey prams over crooked pavements. Runners run round, trying to avoid the congealed fluids and discarded cigarette butts that cover the paths.
Over the years, dozens of initiatives have tried to return history to Babyn Yar. The latest, and by far most ambitious, of them is the $100m plan for a new museum complex, funded by a group of tycoons led by Ukrainian-born Russian oil and banking oligarch Mikhail Fridman.
On 6 October, the project unveiled the first of many promised memorial installations: a book-shaped synagogue, the Crystal Wall of Crying by the Serbian performance artist Marina Abramovic; and a mirror field of reflective metal columns punctured by replica bullets.
The absence of a fitting memorial has for 80 years festered as an open wound on the local Jewish community. But its leaders remain doubtful that the Russian-led project is the proper cure.
Fears were exacerbated with the appointment of Russian film director Ilya Khrzhanovsky, whose previous project, Dau, was a controversial cinematic experiment that courted scandal with its casting of a famous neo-Nazi and unsentimental approach to violence, abuse, rape, and coercion.
Several local experts have walked out of the project, with one accusing Khrzhanovsky of trying to create a Holocaust Disneyland against the wishes of survivors.
***
Svetlana Petrovskaya, 86, was five years old when she was evacuated from Kiev in July 1941. Two months later, and within 10 days of the Nazis taking the city, half of Kievs estimated 70,000 Jewish population was dead. The speed of the Nazis operation may in part be explained as revenge for the Soviet secret polices scorched earth operation of 24 October, which blew up much of central Kiev using radio-controlled explosives.
Petrovskaya, a retired history teacher, says what she knows about Babyn Yar from the words of her aunt Nastya, a lucky survivor. Nastya accompanied her grandmother Anna and aunt Lelya, a famous pianist, part of the way on their fateful 29 September death march to Babyn Yar. Nastya, who was not Jewish, was pulled from the crowds by a Ukrainian policeman at the second of three security perimeters, just before the ravine. The officer heard her speaking Ukrainian No place for you here, he said. Other Ukrainian policemen reportedly stopped Jews from leaving the line.
The thing you need to understand is that people werent aware of the real reason they were being marched to Babyn Yar, Petrovskaya says. Everyone assumed they were about to be repatriated to Palestine or wherever. They simply didnt have the information about the previous persecutions that we have now.
People take part in a performance by artist Marina Abramovic next to her artwork Crystal Wall of Crying at Babyn Yar
(Reuters)
In the two years of Nazi occupation, an estimated 90-100,000 Ukrainians were shot at Babyn Yar. Most of them were Jewish, but the Germans targeted other groups too: 752 patients of the local psychiatric hospital, gypsies, Soviet prisoners of war, and even Ukrainian nationalists. Many of this latter group had initially welcomed the Nazi advance, seeing it as a way to end Stalinist rule that had inflicted the Holodomor famine of 1932-33 on Ukraine. Some were even complicit in Nazi crimes against the Jews.
With the Red Army poised to retake Kiev in August 1943, German soldiers embarked on a desperate operation to conceal what happened at Babyn Yar. They enlisted 327 prisoners from the adjacent Syrets prison camp to dig up the corpses and burn them. But the men, some of whom themselves were Jews, mutinied. Eighteen escaped into hiding to later tell the tale of Babyn Yar to the world; the rest were shot.
After the war, Stalins paranoia of Jews grew, and Soviet authorities ended up almost as keen as the the Germans to cover up the genocide. Memorials made reference only to Soviet or Kiev citizens rather than Jewish victims. There were plans to build a stadium in place of the mass grave. Eventually, Ukrainian party bosses decided to fill the ravine with reservoir waste water from the local brick factory. But the curse of Babyn Yar struck again. In 1961, the sludge broke the dam, covering homes and killing at least 100 downstream, perhaps many more. The exact numbers were hushed up.
Over the 1960s and 1970s, Petrovskaya made regular pilgrimages to Babyn Yar. Authorities made it clear she wasnt welcome. Sometimes, KGB officers would be hiding in the bushes. Theyd grab people and arrest them without giving them any reason, she says. They seemed petrified that someone would leave a Star of David at the site.
A participant places a stone during the March of Remembrance to commemorate the victims of Babyn Yar earlier this month
(Reuters)
Petrovskaya says she is in favour of any project that returns dignity to Babyn Yar but adds locals better understand the struggle that makes it what it is. She is particularly scathing of Marina Abramovics crying wall, an interactive installation constructed from Ukrainian coal and Brazilian quartz crystals, and Khrzhanovskys early plans, since reversed, to introduce psychological role-playing games to the memorial.
Its totally fake, total nonsense, she says. The only thing you should do at Babyn Yar is reflect. Nothing more.
***
Joseph Zissels, a local Jewish leader and dissident twice imprisoned by the Soviet regime, is the most prominent face of opposition to the new memorial complex.
He says his main concern is national security; the Russians in the project are behaving like occupiers at a time of undeclared war, he claims. He does not believe an oligarch such as Mikhail Fridman could invest $100m in Ukraine without approval from the Kremlin. That made the initiative intrinsically part of Moscows hybrid war against the Ukrainian nation, he adds, with the aim to put Ukraine at the centre of the Holocaust.
The Jewish leader later shares a letter authored by the head of the SBU, Ukrainian security services, which suggests the same.
I met Khrzhanovsky for a chat and asked him where he thought Putin was in the project, Zissels says. He didnt seem to understand the question. He didnt understand Fridman cant exist independently, and that you cant have a project investing $100m in Ukraine without getting permission from the Kremlin. Hed forgotten there is a war going on thats killing people every day.
On his part, Khrzhanovsky acknowledges he did not seek reassurances from Fridman about his motives for bankrolling the project. But the director says he knew enough about the tycoon from many years of friendship not to ask. Fridmans participation was a guarantee there would be no crap. Different people can survive in different systems, he says:I know a sizeable number of the so-called Russian oligarchs and to say Mikhail Fridman is untypical among them is to put the case mildly.
The director says criticism of his right to take charge of the project is racism. Ukrainians should talk about their own past, he says, but they did not have exclusive rights to Jewish history. Besides, he has skin in the game. His mother was herself a survivor of the Ukrainian Holocaust, escaping two days before they entered the village of her youth, near Vinnitsya, southern Ukraine.
Artist Marina Abramovic at the unveiling of her artwork Crystal Wall of Crying at Babyn Yar on 4 October
(Reuters)
That made the Babyn Yar initiative a personal one. And, he claims, its reflected in his salary comfortable but nowhere near his usual rate.
The director says he was genuinely moved by a sense that Babyn Yar had become lost in time and energy. The strongest feeling of all on visiting the site for the first time two years ago, he says, was a terrifying sense of feeling absolutely nothing at all. Instead of a mass grave, he saw a park which was a park, and visitors who traipse around it as if nothing had happened.
The very first thing he did on taking charge was to renovate the toilets: People were buying beer at the metro station and then, excuse me, pissing on the graves because there was nowhere else. The real curse of the place is that people dont understand whats there because theyve been cut off from their own history.
Khrzhanovsky says his vision, which he says he has sketched into a 100-year plan, is to return feeling to Babyn Yar.
I want people to tell their friends that, yes, the Jews were killed here 80 years ago, but words cant describe whats actually going on at this place, he says. I want them to say youve got to come here to feel it.
***
The extermination of 1.5 million Jews in eastern Europe coined a Holocaust by bullet is overshadowed by the tales of industrialised gas chamber slaughter in places like Auschwitz. But a combination of factors means Babyn Yar has now become the pre-eminent symbol of that ruthlessly efficient but underreported genocide. The fear is now that it will become a defining feature of new splits developing in the region.
Fault lines are clear enough within Ukraine itself. Even though the country has in Volodymyr Zelensky a Jewish president, who has thrown his weight behind the initiative, it has a complicated history and fragmented present. The three dozen competing memorials at Babyn Yar today are a reflection of that. Some fear that a Russian project to monopolise Jewish loss at a mass grave that also contains others may bring latent antisemitism to the fore.
Every group puts its own memorial there as it sees fit, says Zissels. Its no accident, but a demonstration that we havent yet reached consensus. And understand me right: a project led by Russia wont help us get there. Without consensus, we cant hope for catharsis.
I want them to say youve got to come here to feel it
Ilya Khrzhanovsky, Russian film director
Petrovskaya, who takes a more emollient stance, says she has been comforted by some of Khrzhanovskys less monumental efforts. She urges him to strive to achieve a common language with sympathetic Ukrainian experts.
Her daughter, also a historian, was a guest of the German president at the unveiling of the new art installations earlier this month. She reported being overcome by emotion by the opening ceremony, which saw the Berlin Symphonic Orchestra play Shostakovichs Babyn Yar-inspired 13th symphony.
As the orchestra played, a projector ran lists of names of the thousands shot; a simple image with a profound impact.
Its so important not to overplay things, Petovskaya says. Always better to leave things unfinished than build too much.
See the article here:
Holocaust Disneyland funded by Russia stirs fears and suspicions in Ukraine - The Independent
- Russia issues school textbook saying it was 'forced' to march into Ukraine - Reuters - January 27th, 2025 [January 27th, 2025]
- Russia introduces history textbook that redefines war against Ukraine as justified defense. - Kyiv Independent - January 27th, 2025 [January 27th, 2025]
- Bad Things Happened: Trump Still Doesnt Understand the Ukraine War - The Bulwark - January 27th, 2025 [January 27th, 2025]
- Russia says its troops have captured a strategic town in eastern Ukraine - The Associated Press - January 27th, 2025 [January 27th, 2025]
- NATO chief: Cost of Russian victory in Ukraine would be trillions not billions - Atlantic Council - January 27th, 2025 [January 27th, 2025]
- For Russian Forces In Ukraine, Its Now Normal To Ride Into Battle In A Compact Car - Forbes - January 27th, 2025 [January 27th, 2025]
- Opinion: Trump promised to end the Ukraine war, but neither side is ready - Los Angeles Times - January 27th, 2025 [January 27th, 2025]
- Putin echoes Trump's claim that conflict in Ukraine could have been avoided had he been in office - The Associated Press - January 27th, 2025 [January 27th, 2025]
- Russia says it sees no signs that Ukraine and the West are ready for peace talks despite all statements - Reuters - January 27th, 2025 [January 27th, 2025]
- Zelenskiy says Trump could end Ukraine war only if Kyiv included in talks - Reuters - January 27th, 2025 [January 27th, 2025]
- War in Ukraine: EU to Agree to Extend Russia Sanctions, Hungary to Back Down - Bloomberg - January 27th, 2025 [January 27th, 2025]
- Letters: Stop the fireworks; angry about McCoy story; end war in Ukraine - VC Star - January 27th, 2025 [January 27th, 2025]
- Zelenskiy Says Ukraine Ready to Transit Gas From Azerbaijan - Bloomberg - January 27th, 2025 [January 27th, 2025]
- Why peace talks between Ukraine and Russia are not as simple as Trump makes out - The Independent - January 27th, 2025 [January 27th, 2025]
- Trump tells Putin to end 'ridiculous war' in Ukraine or face new sanctions - BBC.com - January 26th, 2025 [January 26th, 2025]
- Ukraine-Russia latest: Putin ready for Trump negotiations as Kyiv sets oil refinery ablaze with drone strike - The Independent - January 26th, 2025 [January 26th, 2025]
- Ukraine is reforming its recruitment efforts to attract younger soldiers and boost forces - The Associated Press - January 26th, 2025 [January 26th, 2025]
- Europe considers sending troops to Ukraine if theres a ceasefire. But would Russia accept? - The Associated Press - January 26th, 2025 [January 26th, 2025]
- Opinion: I spent Trumps inauguration in Ukraine. This is what I saw. - Salt Lake Tribune - January 26th, 2025 [January 26th, 2025]
- Putin claims Ukraine crisis may have been averted if Trump was president - CNN - January 26th, 2025 [January 26th, 2025]
- Did Ukraine Kill Its Own by Downing a Russian Plane? A Year Later, It Hasnt Said. - The New York Times - January 26th, 2025 [January 26th, 2025]
- Russia claims its troops are in the last stages of taking another eastern Ukraine town - The Associated Press - January 26th, 2025 [January 26th, 2025]
- Ukraine Is Losing Fewer Soldiers Than Russia but Its Still Losing the War - The New York Times - January 26th, 2025 [January 26th, 2025]
- Does Putin know why Ukraine fights on? Because we prize freedom above stability and wealth | Andrey Kurkov - The Guardian - January 26th, 2025 [January 26th, 2025]
- Russia rejects idea of NATO peacekeepers in Ukraine, warning of "uncontrollable escalation" - Reuters - January 26th, 2025 [January 26th, 2025]
- Trump's threat against Moscow on Ukraine seen as an insulting false start by some in Russia - NBC News - January 26th, 2025 [January 26th, 2025]
- UKs 100-year partnership with Ukraine is a meaningless political stunt - Al Jazeera English - January 26th, 2025 [January 26th, 2025]
- Putin says he and Trump should meet to discuss Ukraine and energy prices - Reuters - January 26th, 2025 [January 26th, 2025]
- Putin ready for negotiations with Trump on Ukraine war - The Guardian - January 26th, 2025 [January 26th, 2025]
- US arms exports hit record in 2024 on Ukraine-related demand - Reuters - January 26th, 2025 [January 26th, 2025]
- This Ones Mine. Ukraine Says Russia Is Executing More POWs and Capturing It on Video. - The Wall Street Journal - January 26th, 2025 [January 26th, 2025]
- Russia Brushes Off Trumps Threats on Ukraine - The Wall Street Journal - January 26th, 2025 [January 26th, 2025]
- Russia: Nothing new in Trump threats on Moscows war on Ukraine - VOA Asia - January 26th, 2025 [January 26th, 2025]
- Video: The Kremlin responds to Trump calling on Putin to make a deal with Ukraine - CNN - January 26th, 2025 [January 26th, 2025]
- To end the Russia-Ukraine war, Trump will need to get leverage - The Hill - January 26th, 2025 [January 26th, 2025]
- Ukraine's Kursk invasion was a risky play, but it might have nailed the timing - Business Insider - January 26th, 2025 [January 26th, 2025]
- Trump leans in on targeting Russian oil revenue as he tries to fulfill pledge to end Ukraine war - The Associated Press - January 26th, 2025 [January 26th, 2025]
- 'He shouldn't have done that': Donald Trump criticizes Ukraine president over war - USA TODAY - January 26th, 2025 [January 26th, 2025]
- Putin open for talks with Trump over Ukraine war and calls for leaders to meet - The Independent - January 26th, 2025 [January 26th, 2025]
- Business elites truly believe Trump could be on the verge of solving one of the world's most difficult problems: The Ukraine War - New York Post - January 26th, 2025 [January 26th, 2025]
- Kyiv investigates another case of Russian soldiers executing Ukraine POWs - POLITICO Europe - January 26th, 2025 [January 26th, 2025]
- Ukrainian winemaker and US veterans team up to show the best of Ukraine, a glass at a time - The Associated Press - January 26th, 2025 [January 26th, 2025]
- Is Trump changing tack on ending the war in Ukraine? - The Conversation Indonesia - January 26th, 2025 [January 26th, 2025]
- Shared Challenges: Israel Considers Sending Russian Weapons Seized From Hezbollah to Ukraine - Foundation for Defense of Democracies - January 26th, 2025 [January 26th, 2025]
- Ukrainian troops say inexperienced North Koreans are making easy targets - The Washington Post - December 16th, 2024 [December 16th, 2024]
- Ukraine says it has laser weapon able to down targets flying at over 2km - Yahoo! Voices - December 16th, 2024 [December 16th, 2024]
- Berlin eyes role in Ukraine peace deal but says too early for decisions - Reuters - December 16th, 2024 [December 16th, 2024]
- Keep Ukraine Out of Talks to End Its War - Foreign Policy - December 16th, 2024 [December 16th, 2024]
- Ukraine and US say some North Korean troops have been killed fighting alongside Russian forces - The Associated Press - December 16th, 2024 [December 16th, 2024]
- Russia aims to win the war in Ukraine in 2025, top official says - Semafor - December 16th, 2024 [December 16th, 2024]
- Trump suggests reversing permission for Ukraine to use US missiles in Russia - The Telegraph - December 16th, 2024 [December 16th, 2024]
- Trump to Europe: Overseeing a Ukraine Cease-Fire Would Be Your Job - The Wall Street Journal - December 16th, 2024 [December 16th, 2024]
- The Price of Russian Victory: Why Letting Putin Win Would Cost America More Than Supporting Ukraine - Foreign Affairs Magazine - December 16th, 2024 [December 16th, 2024]
- They said we were American spies: Priests describe Russias crackdown on Evangelicals in occupied Ukraine - CNN - December 16th, 2024 [December 16th, 2024]
- Trump says it was 'stupid' for Biden to let Ukraine use US weapons to strike deeper into Russia - The Associated Press - December 16th, 2024 [December 16th, 2024]
- Cajole, Plead and Flatter: Ukraine Makes Its Case to Trump - The New York Times - December 16th, 2024 [December 16th, 2024]
- Ukraine-Russia war map: Where Putins forces are making gains in eastern Ukraine - The Independent - December 16th, 2024 [December 16th, 2024]
- Europe Needs to Swiftly Fulfil Its Aid Pledges to Ukraine - Bloomberg - December 16th, 2024 [December 16th, 2024]
- Ukraine says it has laser weapon able to down targets flying at over 2km - Reuters - December 16th, 2024 [December 16th, 2024]
- Trump says deal needed to stop Ukraine war, will talk to Putin and Zelenskiy - Reuters - December 16th, 2024 [December 16th, 2024]
- Were 750,000 additional lives wasted in Ukraine for less than nothing? - The Hill - December 16th, 2024 [December 16th, 2024]
- Ukraine war: US gives $20bn to Kyiv funded by seized Russian assets - BBC.com - December 10th, 2024 [December 10th, 2024]
- Trump calls for immediate ceasefire in Ukraine and says a US withdrawal from NATO is possible - The Associated Press - December 10th, 2024 [December 10th, 2024]
- How Trump Can Win the Peace in Ukraine - The Atlantic - December 10th, 2024 [December 10th, 2024]
- Ukraine-Russia latest: Zelensky wont sacrifice young troops to Putins forces for more weapons from West - The Independent - December 10th, 2024 [December 10th, 2024]
- Biden is rushing aid to Ukraine. Both sides are digging in. And everyone is bracing for Trump - The Associated Press - December 10th, 2024 [December 10th, 2024]
- Russian prison boss killed in car blast in occupied Ukraine - BBC.com - December 10th, 2024 [December 10th, 2024]
- Kremlin says Ukraine war will go on until Putin's goals are met on battlefield or by negotiation - Reuters - December 10th, 2024 [December 10th, 2024]
- Russia targets Ukraine's energy grid as winter sets in. Here's how one plant copes - NPR - December 10th, 2024 [December 10th, 2024]
- Deadly Russian strike kills at least three in Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia - Euronews - December 10th, 2024 [December 10th, 2024]
- How Trump Could End the War in Ukraine - The Atlantic - December 10th, 2024 [December 10th, 2024]
- War in Ukraine: The woman turning amputees into 'superhumans' - BBC.com - December 10th, 2024 [December 10th, 2024]
- Zelensky salutes Trump's 'strong resolve' to end war in Ukraine - FRANCE 24 English - December 10th, 2024 [December 10th, 2024]
- US announces nearly $1 billion more in longer-term weapons support for Ukraine - The Associated Press - December 10th, 2024 [December 10th, 2024]
- Amid U.S. pressure, Ukraine starts thinking about drafting 18-year-olds - The Washington Post - December 10th, 2024 [December 10th, 2024]
- Zelenskyy open to Western troops providing security for end to war in Ukraine - The Associated Press - December 10th, 2024 [December 10th, 2024]
- Ukraine to raise NATO invite, security guarantees at meeting with European allies - Reuters - December 10th, 2024 [December 10th, 2024]
- Kyiv reveals total Ukraine casualties in Putins war for first time - POLITICO Europe - December 10th, 2024 [December 10th, 2024]
- Bill Browder on saving Ukraine, NATO, and the threat of Vladimir Putin - the1a.org - December 10th, 2024 [December 10th, 2024]
- Biden is rushing aid to Ukraine as everyone braces for Trump - FOX 5 DC - December 10th, 2024 [December 10th, 2024]