THE JEWISH NEWS

Incorporating The Detroit Jewish Chronicle commencing with issue of July 20, 1951

Member American Association of English—Jewish Newspapers, Michigan Press Association, National Editorial
Association.
Published every Friday by The Jewish News Publishing Co., 17100 West Seven Mile Road, Detroit, Mich. 48235.
VE 8-9364. Subscription $6 a year. Foreign $7.
Second Class Postage Paid at Detroit, Michigan

PHILIP SLOMOV1TZ

Editor and Publisher

CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ

Business Manager

SIDNEY SHMARAK

Advertising Manager

CHARLOTTE HYAMS

City Editor

Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the 13th day of Av, 5726, the following scriptural selections will

be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Deut. 3:23-7:11; Prophetical portion, Isaiah 40:1-26.
Licht Benshen, Friday, July 29, 7:36 p.m.

VOL. XLIX No. 23

Page 4

July 29, 1966

Why Hide Facts About Babi Yar?

In the past few months, Russian officials in
Washington were more responsive to requests
for information about Jews in the USSR,
and they have issued numerous releases
to indicate that the Communist regime is pro-
viding greater facilities for religious instruc-
tion and services to Jews desiring them in
Russia. They have not been convincing, and
there have been refutations of Russian claims.
But there seems to be a readiness to acknowl-
edge inquiries.
Nevertheless, on some issues, there is a
continuing hesitation to comply with requests
for information that is quite disturbing. A
matter that has - been constantly ignored is
that relating to the tragedy of Babi Yar, and
- it remains a puzzle why the Russian Commu-
nist regime should he so reluctant to me-
morialize the martyrs who died at the hands
of the Nazi invaders in Kiev.
Even at Auschwitz and Treblinka, where
millions of Jews perished, there often appears
to be a reluctance on the part of the Polish
Communists to indicate to the fullest the im-
mensity of the tragedy that was imposed upon
Jewry. In Poland it is the heroism of the Poles
that is emphasized — and the Jews are por-
trayed as having been helped by Poles! Per-
haps that is why in Russia also the sufferings
of the Jews are acknowledged secondly in
order not to relegate to an inferior role the
heroism of the Communists!
But the Babi Yar matter emerges from
time to time, and the newest revelation has
just appeared in a report from Kiev by Peter
Grose, a New York Times correspondent in
the USSR. The report is revealing enough to
deserve total quotation. It reads:

monument will not single out the Jewish majority,
but will commemorate all the people who suffered
at the hands of the Germans.
The boys ended their soccer game as night
fell. The strollers went to their homes. Behind
their modern apartment buildings there was a
lovely pink sunset, but on the ground that was
Babi Yar darkness came quickly.

In view of this presentation of a case
that has pointed for many years to RUssian
reluctance to grant the status of public knowl-
edge to a site that had been subjected to out-
rage and sacrilege by the Nazis, other vital
facts regarding Babi Yar must be presented.
In his very significant work, "Khrushchev—A
Career," published by Viking Press, Edward
Crankshaw offers important data about Babi
•
Yar. In this important historical account of
Communist developments, Crankshaw, a not-
ed authority on the USSR who for more than
20 years was the correspondent of the London
Observer in Russia, relates the following, in
the course of his account of the anti-Jewish
Packed into a 360-page paperback, published by Bantam Books
attitudes of the dictator:
(271 Madison, NY16), are five of the most important plays of the

Gems of the Yiddish Theater
'Dybbuk,' Other Plays Lending
Importance to New Paperback

.

"Khrushchev showed himself to be a fairly cruel Yiddish theater, presented in scholarly fashion and in excellent
anti-Semite in later years; violent anti-Semitism was translations by Prof. Joseph C. Landis of Queens College and Jewish
also endemic in the Ukraine; there were many Ukra- Teachers' Seminary of New York.
inians, Baits, too, among the rank and file of the
s c`The Dybbuk and Other Great Yiddish Plays—Five Gems
of the
notorious Einsatzgruppen, special formations belong-
ing to Heydrich's Sicherheitsdienst, which were re- Yiddish Theater, including the Golem, God of Vengeance and Green
Fields,"
is
a
magnificent
work.
Part
of
the
collection
also
is
the
sponsible for the rounding-up and extermination of
the Jews in occupied Russia. The gas chambers of famous David Pinski creation, "King David and His Wives."
Auschwitz, Maidanek, Treblinka and elsewhere were
It is a great work not only because of the noteworthy plays
fed mainly with Jews deported by the Germans from
included in this collection of translations, but even as importantly
Western Europe, including Germany itself. In Russia
because of the explanatory introduction by Dr. Landis, "The
the usual procedure was for the Einsatzgruppen to
Moral Center of Yiddish Literature." Many valuable factors in
round up all the Jews found in a given area of a
the development of the Yiddish theater in America are outlined
city, march them out to a selected spot, force them
in this 14-page essay. Dr. Landis shows how the Yiddish theater
to dig a great trench, then to undress and stand on
"kept pace with the theaters of Europe and America," and while
the edge of the trench to be sprayed with machine-
it also possessed "a great deal of commercial dross," it "presented
gun fire. One of the largest of these massacres took
a drama high in quality . "
KIEV, U.S.S.R.—The evening rush hour crowd
place immeditely outside Khrushchev's own city,
on a bus bound for the suburbs seems the same
It is pointed out in the translator's introduction that while the
Kiev, in a ravine known as Babi Yar, on Sept. 29 and
in any city in any country.
30, 1941, where 33,771 Jews, men,' women and chil- five plays in this paperback originally were written in Yiddish, the
Tired office workers, dozing on their feet or
dren, were killed in two days, the shooting clearly authors were Americans:
reading novels taken from their worn briefcases,
audible
in the center of the city. As the Soviet army
"Peretz Hirshbein and H. Leivick are buried here, each after
filled the No. 18 trolley-bus from downtown Kiev
approached Kiev to retake it in 1943 the Germans some 40 years of residency; David Pinski lived here for half a century
the other evening.
took fright and decided to dig up the corpses and before going off to Israel, where he died; and Sholem Asch, though
Connecting with the main trolley route, the
burn them. A certain SS Colonel Blobel, a failed always a wanderer, was, like the others, a citizen as well as a resi-
No. 56 bus turned into Demyan Bedny Street. On
architect in civilian life, who had supervised the dent for many years. Anski alone never came to these shores."
the right were rows of five-story apartment
shooting, had since fallen into disfavor and was
Dr. Landis, whose introductory article throws much light on Yid-
houses with groceries and little repair shops.
himself forced by Heydrich to conduct the exhuma- dish literature in relation to the theater, concludes his essay by stating:
On the left was Babi Yar.
tion and the burning.
"Only an unfamiliar language has kept these writers from
Once this broad open meadow was a deep
"But the Germans need not hove worried.
the awareness of a large number of American readers and writers.
ravine, where the bodies of tens of thousands of
"The four Einsatzgruppen, according -to their
Of late, the works of Yiddish literature have received increasing
Russians and Poles were hurled by panic-stricken
own official returns to Heydrich, killed more than a
attention. Perhaps the time is rapidly approaching when historians
Germans as they prepared to withdraw from Kiev.
million human beings in this manner, mostly Jews,
and critics will accord them more than silence or passing refer-
This was in 1944. It was one of the most brutal
in
the course of two years, very laregly in Khrush-
ence in literary histories of the American people. American Yid-
massacres of World War H.
chev s Ukraine. The Russians, naturally enough,
dish literature is the heritage of the American people. And there
"I went out to Babi Yar shortly after the war
had a great deal to say about German atrocities in
are relatively few heirs left elsewhere."
was over," said a prominent Ukrainian writer,
general, but they never made the Jews an issue.
Preceding each of the plays in this paperback—"The Dybbuk" by
Aleksei Poltoratsky. "As I walked along I tripped
For years after the war, during all Khrushchev's time
over the torn shoe of a little child. I have never
and later still, Kiev was a forbidden city: the only S. Anski, "God of Vengeance" by Sholem Asch, "Green Fields" by
gone back there since."
foreigners allowed to go there were a handful of Peretz Hirshbein, "King David and His Wives" by David Pinski and
A new generation did go back to Babi Yar, as
UNRWA officials. But I remember very well, when "The Golem" by H. Leivick—Dr. Landis has written an explanatory
Kiev grew out from the center and Demyan
I was first allowed to go there in 1955, asking the note that throws light on each work and defines its background,
Bedny Street became the thoroughfare for a new / ocal director of Intourist to direct me to Babi Yar.
The much-debated theme in Asch's "God of Vengeance" reeeix:,:-.
housing development.
At first he pretended he had never heard of Babi such splendid evaluative treatment in a four-page editorial note tit
A factory worker of about 30 strolled along
Yar. But when I insisted, he said, "Why do you want an old theme emerges in a new and proper light essential for und(
outside his building, carrying his baby son in his
t o go and look at a lot of dead Jews? If you're inter- standing by Jews as well as general readers.
arms. Yes, he knew this used to be Babi Yar, he e sted in Jews you'll see more than enough live ones
Pinsky's plays about King David's wives refer to I Samuel 17 18,
said, but that was a long time ago.
on the streets !'
I Samuel 25, II Samuel 11-12, I Kings 1:1-4; and the characters in-
"Yar" is the Ukrainian word for ravine, and
"There was no monument at Babi Yar—or, for clude Mikhak, Abigail, Bathsheba, Abishag and a group
"In the
the ravine exists no more. For over a decade, t hat matter, at any other places where the Jews Harem."
builders of the suburban development have
had been massacred. There was nothing to show that
In all instances, the plays as presented here have •historical value
dumped waste earth into the ravine.
nything out of the way had ever happened there.
and their presentation in commendable translations assists in perpetuat-
No one knows how many bodies lie deep under
B abi Yar remained a forbidden word until the young ing important dramatic creations. They draw attention to the
creativ-
the earth fill. Estimates range around 70,000. P oet Yevtushenko in 1963 incurred Khrushchev's in- ity
of Yiddish writers. Prof. Landis' labors have earned highest com-
Most were Jews. Babi Yar became a name of in-
t ense displeasure by writing his celebrated poem, mendations.
famy as much as Buchenwald or Auschwitz.
Babi Yar,' in which, as a Russian, he proclaimed
Now couples who have no memories of the war
h is share of the guilt. It will be remembered that
stroll through the wooded fringes. Neighborhood
S hostakovich set the Babi Yar poem for voices and
boys have staked out two soccer fields. A small ° rchestra in the last 'movement of his Thirteenth
girl made mudpies on the sidelines.
Lewis Carroll's name will be revered for a long time to come-
ymphony, performance of which was forbidden at
primarly for his "Snark" work.
Several months ago the civic authorities of
t he last moment."

-

-

Two Lewis Carroll Classics

Kiev opened an architectural competition to se-
lect designs for a monument to be erected at the
edge of Babi Yar.
Yevgeny Yevtushenko, the poet, and other
Soviet writers have criticized the failure to erect
such a monument earlier, and cited it as evidence
of anti-Semitic feelings remaining in the USSR.
Jewish organizations overseas have called
upon the Soviet authorities to let the inscription
in the proposed monument be in Yiddish, as a
fuller tribute to the Jews who died there.
The prevailing official view in Kiev is that the

The Russian attitude remains a puzzle.
T he USSR continues to emphasize the Nazi
ies whenever it serves Russian interests.
When it serves the purpose of condemning
m est Germany while defending East Ger-
any, the Communists speak bluntly. Why
`,!, re they desecrating Babi Yar additionally?
v‘ by are they hiding facts? Why is the trag-
e dy of the Jews relegated to insignificance?
hen the proper answers are given, we will
h ave a better approach to the Russian mind:

Pantheon Books has \ just issued two volumes of great merit for
children and as a delight for the elders who will recall the "Snark"
story and will again admire Carroll's creations.
One of the volumes, beautifully illustrated by Kelly Oechsli, Is
"The Hunting of the Snark." Its subtitle "An Agony in Eight Fits" adds
to the merits of the great tale.
Then there is the second Pantheon book—"The Snark Was a
Boojum," by James Playsted Wood, being the biography of Carroll.
Splendid drawings in this life story of Carroll are by David Levine.
The books supplement: each other. They are in their totality
classics. They will enrich the home library. Parents and children may
well make it a point to read them

-imminsimarronsionamisinw-

