Abstract
For Ukraine, 2011 was a special year. That year, the state and its approximately 71,500-strong Jewish community (della Pergola, 2010)1 commemorated the 70th anniversary of the German invasion of the Soviet Union that marked the beginning of the Jewish genocide on Ukrainian territory. Close to 1.5 million Jews were murdered as a result of Nazi genocidal policies carried out on the invaded territories of Ukraine2 by the German paramilitary squads, the Romanian administration, and, at times, the Ukrainian police units and local militias. After Poland, where 3.3 million Jews were killed,3 Ukraine suffered the second-largest number of Shoah victims. In 2011, the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian parliament) instructed the ministerial cabinet to establish an ad hoc commission for the preparation of the commemorative ceremonies honoring the 70th anniversary of Babi Yar where, on 29 September 1941, 33,771 Jews were killed in the largest single massacre in the history of the Shoah.
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© 2013 Sarah Fainberg
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Fainberg, S. (2013). Memory at the Margins: The Shoah in Ukraine (1991–2011). In: Mink, G., Neumayer, L. (eds) History, Memory and Politics in Central and Eastern Europe. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137302052_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137302052_6
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
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