News in Brief:- Babi Yar gravestones display planned - and light relief from Kiev metro

Reading a poem about Babi Yar. Photo from Wiki, public domain, I presume because it was taken at a public place and public event, photo from US library, author unknown, from an article on poems by various authors on the subject of the Bai Yar massacre of more than 33,000 people, almost the entire Jewish population of Kiev, the biggest group in Europe, plus other local people who also died at the ravine.

Problem
Today was national poetry day in the UK. The 2017 theme was Freedom.

Just after I read about this I opened a page of news about Babi Yar. I remembered the poem about Babi Yar where so many died. It starts, No monument stands in Bab Yar ... You find several version of it, depending on how the translators have chosen to translate each word. It is no Monument stands, no gravestone stands, no stone stands, no memorial rises, no grave reminds you. Depends how you think it translates best, evoking the emotion, whether you think it should be sadness, or anger, or shock, or chill, stillness, ghostliness, fear, desolation, protest.

Postage stamp issued in 2011 to commemorate the 1941-43 massacres at Babi Yar outside the capital, Kiev. Photo from Wiki. Public domain.

Is there anything to see at Babi Yar near Kiev in the Ukraine? It is the place where Jews were massacred. Thousands. September. Yevtushencko wrote a poem about the lack of acknowledgement at the place and in Ukraine contrasts with Auschwitz in Poland.

Auschwitz seems to be on every brochure of tours which you pick up in Krakov, as well as numerous films. Polish schoolchildren are taken there.

Would Babi Yar in Ukraine upset me? I have been to Dachau and Auschwitz + Birkenau, assorted Jewish museums, Anne Frank House.

What is there to see at Babi Yar? They are planning to relocate gravestones retrieved from a cemetery as well as items found in the ravine. But what is there to see now?

I found pictures on
Jewish News
Babi Yar Website
Find a grave
Wikipedia.

I could identify several monuments. The most interesting and memorable monument and story was the personal story of the heroine of the Jewish Resistance. She is shown by a statue.

You can plot a walk past the various monuments. I was expecting to see a museum, but the site seems to be a website in two languages. To find this photo I looked in Wiki for this statue of the young woman (member of the Jewish resistance, imprisoned and killed aged 22). To learn about her I used the links to the other websites.

Menorah, seven branch candle stick lit on the eve of the Sabbath, with candles reparenting th seven days of the week. Monument to Jews killed at Babi Yar in 1941.

Monument to children on the site of the Babi Yar massacre, now a public park. Notice the date 1941. photo from Wikipedia in Ukrainian.

I noticed that one of the photos of Babi Yar was copied from the Ukrainian Wikipedia. I never realised there was one. I suppose there must be a wikipedia in many other languages. Although I don't speak Ukrainian, and it would take a while to copy every sentence or paragraph from different areas into Google Translate, I thought it would be worthwhile to look and see if they had more photos of Babi Yar. Sure enough they did. You have to type in something which their website will recognise. I typed in babi dar, found a page with that in a caption of acknowledgements for a photo. I clicked on that site with what looked like Ukrainian (similar to Russian, Cyrillic script) and there were the photos I wanted. I have not yet had time to translate all the captions and acknowledgements. If yu want them please go to the Ukrainian wiki. Go to the UkrainianWikipedia. You will find more photos of Babi-yar.

Grand station in Kiev with chandeliers. Photo from Wikipedia in Ukrainian.

Delightful Stations
In contrast to this sadness, see the delightful underground railway stations of the three train lines (more lines planned). The stations, like the ones in Moscow and St Petersburg, are designed as People's Palaces, with statues, giant historical paintings, chandeliers, pillars of different colours, with light bands around the top, like giant colourful torches, arches like cathedrals with patterned edges, trains painted blue.

https://nationalpoetryday.co.uk
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babi_Yar_in_poetry
https://new.findagrave.com/memorial/5913027/jewish_memorial_at_babi_yar

I have written a guidebook to Jewish sites worldwide. I have written about ten books on popular subjects (such as How To Be The Best Man) published by mainstream publishers and ten more of minority interest self-published including a Poetry Workbook. For a selection of my books, see Amazon and Lulu.com

Angela Lansbury