Terwijl in Duitsland in iedere stad wel een monument staat voor de vermoorde Joden uit die stad, en men zich - terecht - heeft uitgeput in verontschuldigingen, wordt in Oost-Europa nog steeds het pijnlijke verleden niet onder ogen gezien. Polen, de Oekraine en Rusland hebben niet alleen een verleden van bloedige pogroms voor de oorlog, in deze landen werden de nazi's actief geholpen bij het vermoorden van een groot deel van de Joodse bevolking. Schaamte, schuldgevoel en excuses daarvoor bleven nagenoeg uit na de oorlog, en antisemitisme werd er geen taboe zoals in het Westen, maar werd openlijk beleden. In deze traditie moeten de plannen voor de bouw van hotels op de plaats waar meer dan 30.000 Joden werden vermoord tijdens de oorlog, dan ook worden gezien.
RP
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Those who think the bad old days of European Anti-Semitism are passed, should think again. Babi Yar was the site of the brutal massacre of tens of thousands of Jews in the Ukraine in 1941. The Nazi invaders could not have done it without the willing help of locals. Of course, the Ukrainians had already done their share in the murder of about 200,000 Jews in the Pogroms of the Russian Civil War. Ukrainians have steadily denied their role in these massacres and are anxious to cover up the traces. Now there is a popular plan to turn the site of Babi Yar into a resort area with hotels. To be sure, there are some decent people who are opposed.
Ami Isseroff
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The opening line from Yevgeny Yevtushenko's most famous poem, "Babi Yar" - "No monument stands over Babi Yar" - may once again be an accurate reflection of reality if Kiev's municipality carries out its plan to build a hotel on the memorial site of one of the most notorious massacres of Jews during the Holocaust.
On September 29 and 30, 1941, German SS troops, supported by other German units and local collaborators, gathered 33,771 Jewish civilians at the ravine outside Kiev and murdered them with machine guns.
Attempts to commemorate the massacre after the war were thwarted by the Soviet Union.
Yevtushenko, a Russian poet, novelist, essayist, dramatist and film director born July 18, 1933, was politically active during the Khrushchev Thaw. He wrote what would become perhaps his most famous poem, "Babi Yar," in 1961.
Yevtushenko, a Russian poet, novelist, essayist, dramatist and film director born July 18, 1933, was politically active during the Khrushchev Thaw. He wrote what would become perhaps his most famous poem, "Babi Yar," in 1961.
Noting the absence of a memorial in Babi Yar, the poem denounces the Soviet distortion of history concerning the Nazi massacre of Kiev's Jews as well as anti-Semitism in the Soviet Union.
Soccer tourism
After the Soviet Union's collapse, Ukraine set up a monument on the site.
Last week, however, the Kiev municipality approved a plan to build 28 hotels to accommodate the tens of thousands of visitors expected for soccer's 2012 European Championships. One of these hotels is planned to be set up on the Babi Yar site, now in a residential area of Kiev.
Kiev Mayor Leonid Chernovetskyi has reportedly been interested in turning his city's remaining green space into real estate and is taking advantage of Euro 2012 to implement his plan, city sources said.
City councilman Sergei Melnik, one of the many who oppose the plan, on Tuesday leaked the details to the media.
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