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It's time to lift the Iron Curtain over the memory of 2.7 million of the Jews murdered in the Holocaust - Walla! news

2021-04-07T17:28:30.590Z


Almost half of the victims of the Holocaust perished in the Soviet Union. Just before the survivors who arrived in Israel in the 1990s leave us, it is important to focus on perpetuating the story of their heroism.


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Holocaust Martyrs 'and Heroes' Remembrance Day

It is time to lift the Iron Curtain over the memory of 2.7 million of the Jews murdered in the Holocaust

Nearly half of the victims of the Holocaust perished in the Soviet Union - not in extermination camps, not in gas chambers, but in extremely cruel methods, and using deception that led many of them to the killing pits.

Just before the survivors who arrived in Israel in the 1990s leave us, it is important to focus on perpetuating the story of their heroism.

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  • Holocaust Martyrs 'and Heroes' Remembrance Day

  • Soviet Union

  • The Holocaust

Ronen Plot

Wednesday, 07 April 2021, 20:00

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The monument to the murdered in Babi Yar, Ukraine (Photo: Berni Ardov)

Marina Basevich was 16 years old when the German army invaded the Soviet Union and reached as far as her hometown of Minsk, on its way to implementing the mass extermination plan and beginning the "Final Solution to the Jewish Question."



Marina managed to escape the terror of the Nazis.

Despite her young age, she volunteered for the Red Army and took part in World War II battles, holding a "carbine" rifle in one hand and a small cloth doll in the other, which she managed to hide under her shirt when she escaped.



When she survived the war, Marina believed that the doll was the mascot that protected her.

Since then and for 80 years, she has been collecting puppets in the shape of the mascot and keeping them in a wooden sideboard with a glass door in the living room of her home.

Last week, after learning that the annual theme of this year's Holocaust Martyrs 'and Heroes' Remembrance Day is the 80th anniversary of the German invasion of the Soviet Union, Marina decided it was time to part with the puppet collection and donate it to the Holocaust Museum in her hometown, Nof Hagalil.

"I am already 96 years old," she said excitedly, "it is time for the mascot to preserve the memory of the Holocaust of the Jews of the Soviet Union."



Marina, like many of the Holocaust survivors who immigrated from the Commonwealth of Independent States, lives with the feeling that the horrific memory of the Jews of the Soviet Union is not sufficiently recognized in the public discourse on the Holocaust.

Under communist rule, the Holocaust of the Jews of the Soviet Union did not receive public expression, although in many places Jews worked to commemorate it.

The Iron Curtain of the Soviet bloc prevented access to the murder sites, the voices of those who saw and survived as well as comprehensive research and well-founded information.

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Under communist rule, the Holocaust of the Jews of the Soviet Union did not find public expression.

Military parade marking Soviet victory over the Nazis, 2017 (Photo: Reuters)

Even after the mass immigration of Soviet Jews to Israel in the 1990s, the collective memory focused on the victory narrative over Nazi Germany marked by events commemorating May 9, the end of World War II in Europe, a day that was best photographed in veteran parades dressed in Red Army uniforms.

Due to the lack of tangible documentation of videos and images from the murder scene (they could not have been issued under Soviet rule), to this day many are unaware of the sheer number - 2.7 million Jews out of the six million - who perished in mass destruction in the Soviet Union and its occupied territories in 1939.

The infiltration into the public consciousness is still slow

Holocaust survivor Marina Basevich (Photo: courtesy of the photographers, Sasha Weissman)

In recent years, under the leadership of Yad Vashem, much work has been done to support foundations and philanthropists in the field of research and teaching of the Holocaust of the Jews of the Soviet Union.

Among other things, the International Institute for Holocaust Studies at Yad Vashem established a center for the study of the Holocaust of the Jews of the Soviet Union in the name of Moshe Mirelshvili.

At the same time, the subject began to be discussed in various circles, for example in his film "The Guardians of the Memory" director Boris Mitzfir tried to make accessible to the Israeli public the forgotten part of the historical puzzle and show how almost half of the Holocaust victims perished in the Soviet Union - not in extermination camps, Extremely cruel, in face-to-face murders, and using sophisticated acts of deception that led the Jews to settle in the concentration camps from where many of them were taken on foot to the killing pits.



The communist regime preferred to reinforce the narrative of victory over the scenes of the mass and systematic murder of the Jews of the Soviet Union, which was the beginning of the "Final Solution."

Patriotic heroism in the "Great War of the Homeland," military power, and ideological victory were the flags waved — and no place was left for the terrible fate of the Jew.

For many years the Soviet archives dealing with the war were not open to Holocaust scholars, thus contributing to its silence.



The Holocaust in this part of the world was almost non-existent and had no hand for a long time.

The change began after the fall of the communist regime, only then the voices and information began to float to the surface, research developed greatly, but the infiltration into the public consciousness is still slow.

On Holocaust Martyrs 'and Heroes' Remembrance Day this week, marking the 80th anniversary of the beginning of mass extermination, it will be at the center of national memory.

Just before the survivors who arrived in Israel in the 1990s approach the age of 100 and leave us, we will perpetuate the story of their heroism - it is never too late to remember.



Ronen Plot is the acting chairman of Yad Vashem

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Source: walla

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