EP. 68- Babi Yar: History, Memory, and Literature with Shay Pilnik

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The mass shooting of Jews at Babi Yar in Kiev in September 1941 was the largest open-air shooting of Jews during the Holocaust. In some ways, it came to stand for the Einsatzgruppen killings taking place across the occupied Soviet Union. But as it was not a camp, it left no real physical traces behind. And this was in many ways to the liking of the Soviet government.

In this episode, I talked with Shay Pilnik about the place of Babi Yar in Soviet postwar Holocaust memory. How did the state allow/repress commemoration of the massacre? And, in particular, how did Soviet writers, both Jewish and non-Jewish treat the Babi Yar massacre? It's a really enlightening conversation about the Holocaust, memory, and the ways in which the authoritarian state controls commemoration.

Shay Pilnik (yu.edu/fish-center/meet-our-director) is Director of the Emil A. and Jenny Fish Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Yeshiva University.
Follow on Twitter @holocaustpod (twitter.com/HolocaustPod).
Email the podcast at holocausthistorypod@gmail.com

The Holocaust History Podcast homepage is here (thhp.buzzsprout.com)

You can find a complete reading list with books by our guests and also their suggestions here (waitmanwbeorn.com/thhpreading).