By ‘In the very midst of civilised Europe…the existence
of an entire population is threatened.’ Anatole France et al, 1919
Ukraine, like all countries, is an invention;
an abstraction on a map; a conqueror’s
caprice; an accident of history;
an actual, continual pit of war,
occupation, partition, rebellion,
displacement, famine – and pogroms
under Chmielnicki’s Cossacks, the Tzar’s
Black Hundreds, the Soviets, the Nazis…
***
Until the Germans occupied Ukraine
my grandfather, a Tzarist refugee
in London, had had regular letters
in Yiddish from his parents and siblings
in Kyiv. After September ’41
no more arrived. Approximately
thirty four thousand Jewish men, women
and children – in two days – were shot to death
by the Germans and their collaborators,
the Ukrainian Auxiliary Police.
Each fresh layer of bodies in Babyn Yar –
a ravine four miles from the city centre
and not far from the River Dnipro –
was covered by sand. As the Russians
advanced, re-occupying Ukraine,
the SS attempted to remove
the evidence by exhuming the corpses,
burning them, and scattering the ashes
on neighbouring farmland. Though the odd
piece of bone or necklace turned up, Stalin
ordered the massacre kept secret,
to pretend the retreat had never happened.
***
Before the latest invasion you could
book a tour of the Jewish sites of Kyiv –
the five synagogues, Golda Meir’s birthplace,
Babyn Yar – for less than £50 pounds
per person. Included would be a
selfie with the driver.
Babyn YarBlack HundredsChmielnicki's CossacksKyivNazisRiver DniproSovietsSSStalinUkrainian Auxiliary Police
Catherine Reynolds
March 27, 2022You conjure up the impermanence of lines. Lines drawn upon a map. Statements of empire and their collapse. The movement of these lines are almost like water lapping against a river bank, eroding here and depositing there. The meanders, in themselves, representing a dynamic. In this case, in Ukraine, the force of invasion displaces hundreds of thousands of souls. Terror, flight, displacement, statelessness; a human dynamic of tragic proportions. In the pages of history, another inevitable shift in boundaries, brought about by megalomania. The consequences too saddening to comprehend. Thank you for another incisive observation, David, on geopolitics and your genealogy.
Jeff Teasdale
March 30, 2022Thank you David…a very moving and informative piece.
Mary Clark
March 31, 2022The confluence of nationalities, tribes, as Catherine Reynolds says, the ever-moving boundaries, the killings of those who suddenly don’t fit the narrative, the secrets, the survivors, Ukraine embodies all this. Then, Golda Meir goes to Israel to become its leader. The poem shows this intertwining of fates.
Lee A. Meiser
March 31, 2022Amazing story, David. I did not know about the tour nor did I know you could get a ‘selfie’ taken with a driver and book a tour of the five Jewish sites. What I wonder is that if my Grandfather had not emigrated to the USA from Ukraine where would I be now???
David Selzer
March 31, 2022Here’s a poem about how my grandfather became a Tzarist refugee in London circa 1900 – https://www.davidselzer.com/2019/06/asylum-seeker/.
If he hadn’t made that journey there wouldn’t have been the poem or the poet!