The historical memory of the Holocaust in Russia and Ukraine

Studies show that 48% of respondents in 11 Russian cities were unable to answer the question “What is the Holocaust?”

By HAIM BEN YAAKOV
People march near a monument in Kiev commemorating the victims of Babi Yar, in 2018, to protest antisemitism. (photo credit: GLEB GARANICH/REUTERS)
People march near a monument in Kiev commemorating the victims of Babi Yar, in 2018, to protest antisemitism.
(photo credit: GLEB GARANICH/REUTERS)
The Holocaust becomes more distant with each passing year. On the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, Jews around the world will still light memorial candles. However, studies show that 48% of respondents in 11 Russian cities were unable to answer the question “What is the Holocaust?” while 72% agreed that “attention to the Holocaust reflects the interests of the Jews.” Our annual rituals of grief are not saving humanity from oblivion and hatred.
Despite abolishing official antisemitism in the former Soviet Union, creating favorable conditions for the development of Jewish communities, and recording a significant decline in antisemitic crimes, antisemitic theories continue to flourish in Russia about the history of the Holocaust. Jews are accused of creating the “cult of the Holocaust” as well as of falsifying evidence. There is a widespread belief that Jewish leaders destroyed European Jewry to establish the State of Israel, and widespread rumors of Jews receiving financial compensation and carte blanche for all past and future “Jewish crimes,” from the crucifixion of Jesus to initiation of world wars by Jewish bankers.
The young post-Soviet states are still undergoing a complex process of decommunization and a wholesale redesign of historical memory. This occasionally “purifies” the names of Nazi-allied national activists who publicly advocated antisemitic ideologies.
Yad Vashem Studies chief editor Aaron Weiss estimates that Ukrainian nationalists exterminated 28,000 Jews in western Ukraine alone. Today, the names of some of these murderers have been elevated to national-resistance hero status. Furthermore, Ukrainian law prohibits showing disrespect toward national heroes, which basically includes any mention of their atrocities against Jews.
Monuments have been erected in honor of activists who were directly involved in the extermination of Ukrainian Jews. For example, a memorial plaque in honor of SS Hauptsturmfuhrer “Galicia” Dmitry Paliev was dedicated in the city of Kalush. Similar such “heroes” have received an honorable “status of a participant in hostilities” and have been entered on the list of historical figures whose anniversaries are celebrated at the state level.
Attempts to reduce the scope of the Holocaust and glorify the names of Nazi collaborators have also been recorded in Russia. According to various surveys, Russians widely believe that Russians, not Jews, were the main victims of the Nazi extermination machine.
One prominent example is the scandal regarding Zmievskaya Balka, the largest single site of mass murder of Jews on Russian soil, where 27,000 mostly Jewish victims were massacred. Russian authorities have done their best to not notice the Jewishness of the victims. Only after years of public struggle was a new memorial plaque installed, on which Jews are mentioned along with victims of other nationalities.
Studies show a correlation between the level of knowledge about the Holocaust and the level of tolerance in society. Considering the rising wave of antisemitism, it is extremely important to draw attention to the need for relevant legislation that integrates Holocaust studies into state educational programs, and allows for the proper prosecution of antisemitic acts.
The writer is director general of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress.