There are two main issues associated with the Holocaust, and specifically with Babi Yar - who is to blame, and how to address and refute Holocaust deniers. The former can be researched and evidence can be compiled to support the obvious first-hand accountability of the Nazi SS Einsatzgruppen, and the implication of the Kiev police who either assisted or stood by while thousands upon thousands of Jews were murdered. The degree of responsibility possessed by the Soviet government and their blatant inaction in the face of extermination of their citizenry is equally reprehensible. What can seem even more astounding is the heartless ignorance and disassociation of the non-Jewish residents of Kiev, who more than any other, were completely aware of the terrible atrocities being committed on their neighbors and acquaintances.
The Christian citizens of Kiev, quite simply, turned their backs on their Jewish friends and neighbors when the Nazis came calling for their targets. All residents of Kiev likely hated the occupation of their proud city by the Nazi invaders, and many, both Christian and Jew, likely engaged in “revolutionary” activities to drive out the enemy. Unfortunately, when the Nazis responded to NKVD “terrorism” against their barracks and soldiers, the Jews of Kiev were to suffer. It is odd that at this point Christian residents slink back into the shadows as a scared, defeated people, while thousands of mutually defiant residents of their city are marched into the forest and systematically eliminated.
Why was this? Was there a lack of national identity and solidarity between the Jews and Christians in Kiev outside of the resistance effort? Were the Christian residents also (though not equally) anti-Semitic and thus felt little responsibility to protect people for whom they themselves held some degree of contempt? Historical evidence seems to indicate that this was the case. Although equally dissatisfied with the Nazi occupation, Christian residents realized that the Jews were the real target of the Nazis, and by not “stepping into the line of fire,” they could remain alive and relatively safe under occupation. Anti-Semitism had long existed in the Soviet Union, just as it had throughout Europe, perpetuated by the centuries-old stereotypes and generalizations. This perpetuated distrust and lack of compassion led to a moral apathy on the part of the Christian residents of Kiev when the Nazis began to round up the Jewish citizens.
Beyond the confines of Kiev and even beyond the boundaries of the Nazi-occupied territory in Russia, anti-Semitism was a reality. Much historical evidence exists to honestly and accurately label Stalin as an anti-Semite, and therefore implicates the entire Soviet government in turning away from the cries for help issued forth by their Jewish citizens. Through the 1970s, Jews that died in Russian locations such as Babi Yar were identified as victims, not of anti-Semitism and the Holocaust as perpetuated by the Nazis, but victims of “fascism.” This inability to accurately describe what happened to the Jews at the hands of the (enemy) Nazis, regardless of the implication of any Russian citizens or the government, screams anti-Semitic tendencies. The “denial” of the severity and horror of the actions at Babi Yar and locations within Russia (not to mention the rest of Europe) clearly shows a perpetuation of this same distrust and lack of compassion for Russian Jews.
What seems like only a short step away from the inaction of the Russian people and the Russian government’s “glossing-over” of the truly horrific atrocities that occurred at Babi Yar, is the issue of Holocaust deniers. These individuals, (cowardly) hiding their anti-Semitism behind the guise of “scholars” or “historians” seek to convince the uneducated public that the crimes of the Holocaust were nothing more than fabrication by the Zionist “machine,” set on blaming the world to ensure the legitimacy of the State of Israel and forward their own (secretive) goals. Just reading the previous sentence exposes the ludicrous nature of their claims for fabrication of history. The photographs included in this lesson are common targets of “revisionist” history, largely because of their lack of specific and authenticated dates and references. Revisionists claim that these photos are altered images or photographs of bodies and bones not specifically belonging to murdered Jews.
The most important issue regarding “revisionists” and their efforts to discount the reality of the Holocaust, is that students be made aware of this movement in an effort to refute the “refuters.” As educators, we have the responsibility to instruct our students about the true history of the world – the actual people, places, events, causes and effects that occurred in the past – so that they become aware of the “real” world. To ignore and simply dismiss the deniers with a simple gesture or scoff is to allow their message to mull around in an uneducated mind, an undeveloped value and judgment system, an immature and impressionable child. We must take every opportunity to expose the fallacy of the Holocaust deniers and their unsubstantiated claims of “historical fiction.” Their denial of this great injustice is historical fiction of the most morally-reprehensible kind.