Babi Yar
Book description
The powerful rediscovered masterpiece of Kyiv during the Second World War, told by a young boy who saw it all.
'So here is my invitation: enter into my fate, imagine that you are twelve, that the world is at war and that nobody knows what is going to happen next...'…
Why read it?
2 authors picked Babi Yar as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
When I heard of the 2021 mass murder at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, the fear of anti-Semitism became deeply personal.
I grew up just a few blocks from the synagogue. (I was raised Catholic.) In Kuznetsov’s “documentary novel” about Nazi-occupied Ukraine, the author recounts how, as an 8-year old, he witnessed the German army’s 1941 invasion of Kiev.
They set about massacring over 30,000 Jews within the first week of occupation. This happened in a large ravine only a stone’s throw from the boy’s home. This third edition of the book comprises the heavily censored published Soviet…
From Abby's list on when history gets personal.
First published in a censored version in the Soviet Union in 1966, Kuznetsov managed to publish an uncensored version in 1970 after his defection to the UK. The book was one of the first accounts of the massacre that killed more than 33,000 Jews over the course of two days, September 29-30, 1941. Readers can hear the sense of urgency in Kuznetsov’s voice as he tells the world what happened in that place.
From Jeffrey's list on the Holocaust in Ukraine.
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