Memory of Babyn Yar

Thema

“Our memorial lesson is a tribute to historical memory and respect of all victims of Babyn Yar, as well as all those affected by such terrible tragedy.
Babyn Yar… Pole of inhumanity… Our pain. Our memory. One of the most terrible pages in the chronicle of evil and suffere, written in human blood.”

(the authors)

Babyn Yar is the name of the tremendous ravine located not far from the center of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv.

There is a memorial for the victims who were killed by the German occupants in 1941-1943 which is an important symbol of the tradegy. Besides, Babyn Yar could be considered as a start of nazi politics of Holocaust in Ukraine because at this place on 29^th and 30^th Seprember 1941, Sonder­kommando 4A shot thirty-four thousand of Kyiv Jews.

There is a grave for more than a hundred thousand people, among whom were Jews, Roma, Soviet prisoners of war, Ukrainian nationalists, and representatives of other national or social groups whom the occupiers considered enemies.

Babyn Yar is a terrible symbol of the Holocaust on Ukrainian land. Therefore, it plays a vital role in Ukrainian memory culture. The question of historical justice is central to it, not only for the direct victims and their families, but also forfuture generations.

Eighty years later, on March 1^st, 2022 , on the sixth day of the full-scale invasion of the Russians on the territory of Ukraine, the area of Babyn Yar was hit by a missile from the Russian invaders.

*** This teaching unit is available as PDF file with the Creative Commons License by-nc-nd.***

Lehrplanbezug

National Socialism and WWII; Holocaust; memory culture.

Erwartete Kompetenzen

Cognitive and educational competence; information competence; value-semantic compe­tence; and communicative competence.

Didaktische Perspektive

The materials of this lesson are aimed at pupils of schools outside Ukraine, as well as for Ukrainian children who are with their relatives in forced migration during the full-scalle Russian-Urkainian war in Ukraines and for Non-Ukrainian pupils.

The history of the Holocaust and the tragedy of Babyn Yar is a well-researched topic in Ukrainian and world historical science and didactics. The peculiarity of these materials is the attempt to acquaint children with one of the most terrible pages in world history, namely the tragedy of Babyn Yar during the Second World War. We also invite schoolchildren to familiarize themselves with the complex memory culture about the tragedy of Babyn Yar, which has repeatedly become the object of political manipulation. An essential dimension of this material is the consideration of the events of the Holocaust in the context of the modern Russian-Ukrainian war, in particual cases of mass destruction of the civilian population by the Russian army.

This teaching unit uses a variety of historical and current sources to shed light on the tragedy itself and the memory culture and policy around it. It is an entangled history, for the genocide took place as part of an international war. Further, the victims who were killed in Babyn Yar by the Nazis had different backgrounds and relations with other parts of the world.

On an educational level, the pupils learn the historical background, names, and dates of the tragedy. Based on various sources, they learn to determine the causes and characterize the impact of the tragedy on the history of Ukraine in the period of WWII and after it. On a value-semantic level, they get insights into the symbolism of the tragedy for Ukrainian Jews and other groups. Finally, they approach Babyn Yar as a complete ‘place of memory’ and learn about different ways of commemoration and its representations.

The lesson’s content may be challenging for diverse classes, especially with Russian and Ukrainian pupils. The teacher should observe the tone of discussion and the general climate in the class during the whole five lessons. In case of doubt, for example, when it is not clear how Ukrainian pupils or other pupils with escape experience may react to some of the contents, it is advisable to discuss the concern with other teacher or their parents or even to address the fear separately to the respective pupil before teaching the lesson. Further, it is essential to make sure that no pupil personally holds any Russian pupil or other Russian civilians accountable for the Russian-Ukrainian war. It may be helpful to claim that we also would  not make current German pupils responsible for the deed during National Socialism. When the discussion of the responsibility of the Russian population in general comes up, the teacher may interrupt it after a while and emphasize that this is not directly part of the lesson and direct the attention at other parts of the lesson or the next task.