BABIN YAR: THE GOVERNMENT VS THE NATIONAL MEMORY
Recently the government has announced plans to build a memorial complex to Holocaust victims in the Babin Yar. The question is whether there a place for Ukrainians - the victims of the Holodomor or representatives of the Ukrainian intelligentsia who were executed there.
This week the president of Israel has visited Ukraine on the occasion of the anniversary of Babin Yar tragedy. As a foreign high-ranking politician, he was honored to make a speech in the Ukrainian parliament.
In his speech the head of the Jewish country was defending the central idea of the modern state of Israel - martyrdom of the Jewish people. Operating the data of Soviet propaganda, Reuven Rivlin claimed that Ukrainians, the OUN members, had been participating in tortures and killings of Jewish population during the World War II.
However, for some reason the, Israeli President forgot to add in his speech that it was Ukrainians who first raised the issue of this tragedy. 50 years ago the Ukrainian dissident Ivan Dzyuba gave a speech at an informal meeting in Babin Yar, in which he had mentioned the victims of foreign occupiers. None of Israeli organisation had mentioned about Babin Yar before this, even though there are some alive witnesses of that events now.
Babin Yar, above all, is a tragedy of the Ukrainian people. It is the place where Bolsheviks had been delivering numerous bodies of Ukrainians killed by starvation during the Holodomor of 1932-33. However, it seems that the fact of mass killing of Ukrainians (all historical assessment have indicated that Holodomor had more mass character than Holocaust) not cause condolences to in Israel. The State of Israel has deliberately refused to recognize the Holodomor of 1932-1933 as a genocide of Ukrainian people.
A tragedy, that befell our nation ten years after the Holodomor, also has a crucial significance for our nation, since almost all elite of the Ukrainian intelligentsia was executed in the early 1940s at Babin Yar, including 621 members of the OUN. Moreover, there were not just ordinary members of the nationalist organization, but the entire leadership of the OUN in Ukraine, including its head - a famous Ukrainian scientist, archaeologist and poet Oleg Olzhych (son of a prominent writer Olexander Oles). Olena Teliha, a famous actress, singer and poetess was also among the executed for her activities in the Ukrainian nationalist organization.
The speech Reuven Rivlin made from the Verkhovna Rada rostrum in the presence of the president shows not just the failure of the government's foreign policy. This is nothing else, than and direct evidence of incompetence of two main institutions of state - the president and the parliament.
However, for some reason the, Israeli President forgot to add in his speech that it was Ukrainians who first raised the issue of this tragedy. 50 years ago the Ukrainian dissident Ivan Dzyuba gave a speech at an informal meeting in Babin Yar, in which he had mentioned the victims of foreign occupiers. None of Israeli organisation had mentioned about Babin Yar before this, even though there are some alive witnesses of that events now.
Babin Yar, above all, is a tragedy of the Ukrainian people. It is the place where Bolsheviks had been delivering numerous bodies of Ukrainians killed by starvation during the Holodomor of 1932-33. However, it seems that the fact of mass killing of Ukrainians (all historical assessment have indicated that Holodomor had more mass character than Holocaust) not cause condolences to in Israel. The State of Israel has deliberately refused to recognize the Holodomor of 1932-1933 as a genocide of Ukrainian people.
A tragedy, that befell our nation ten years after the Holodomor, also has a crucial significance for our nation, since almost all elite of the Ukrainian intelligentsia was executed in the early 1940s at Babin Yar, including 621 members of the OUN. Moreover, there were not just ordinary members of the nationalist organization, but the entire leadership of the OUN in Ukraine, including its head - a famous Ukrainian scientist, archaeologist and poet Oleg Olzhych (son of a prominent writer Olexander Oles). Olena Teliha, a famous actress, singer and poetess was also among the executed for her activities in the Ukrainian nationalist organization.
The speech Reuven Rivlin made from the Verkhovna Rada rostrum in the presence of the president shows not just the failure of the government's foreign policy. This is nothing else, than and direct evidence of incompetence of two main institutions of state - the president and the parliament.
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