Babi Yar

la commémoration impossible

Abstract

The Babi Yar ravine, on the periphery of Kiev, has remained inscribed in collective memory as the tragic starting point of the Holocaust. It was used by Nazis during the two years of occupation of the city as a place of execution, where over 100,000 people, from various ethnic, political and social groups, lost their lives between 1941 and 1943. This paper analyzes the fate of Babi Yar after the war, and the factors that inhibited its transformation from a place of massacre into a place of memory starting from 1943, first in the unfavorable context of the Stalinist era, then during the partial thaw of the 1960s-1970s, followed by a liberalization of memory tarnished by incoherencies, during the post-Communist period. This article aims at exploring the transformations of Babi Yar throughout these different periods and at reviewing the various elements at stake in this commemoration, which remains, if not impossible, then at least problematic and full of pitfalls.