Babyn Yar and the Holocaust

Babyn Yar and the Holocaust

Tuesday, 12pm PST

On March 1, 2022, a Russian missile struck the proximity of the Bab​yn Yar Holocaust Memorial in Kyiv during the invasion of Ukraine. Jewish groups around the world immediately condemned the strike, but what happened at the Babyn Yar ravine during WWII? Why does it remain so important in our understanding of the Holocaust in Ukraine? The Nazis murdered 70,000-100,000 people there, including nearly all of Kyiv's Jewish population. They carried out one of the largest mass killings during their campaign against the Soviet Union, massacring 34,000 Jews over two days in September 1941. 

Join Paul Shapiro, the Director of International Affairs at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and founding director emeritus of the museum's Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, in conversation with esteemed AJU professor Michael Berenbaum to learn about the tragic history of this ravine in Kyiv, as well as the history of the Holocaust in Ukraine. 

Paul A. Shapiro is Director of International Affairs and Director Emeritus of the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. He served on the Congressionally-mandated archival declassification effort of the Interagency Working Group on Nazi War Crimes and Japanese Imperial Government Records and led the successful effort to open the archives of the International Tracing Service (ITS). In 2003-4 he was a member of the International Commission on the Holocaust in Romania, chaired by Elie Wiesel. He is the author of The Kishinev Ghetto 1941-1942: A Documentary History of the Holocaust in Romania’s Contested Borderlands (2015) and numerous articles and book chapters on the Holocaust. Earlier, he served in the United States Information Agency and the Department of State and was an editor of the journal Problems of Communism (Washington, DC) and Editor in Chief of the Journal of International Affairs (New York). He was a consultant to the Board for International Broadcasting and the Justice Department’s Office of Special Investigations (OSI). Mr. Shapiro earned degrees from Harvard and Columbia University. He is the recipient of the Cross of the Order of Merit (Verdienstkreuz) of the Federal Republic of Germany (2010) and the Order of Merit-Commander Class of the Republic of Romania (2009).

Michael Berenbaum is a Professor of Jewish Studies and Director of the Sigi Ziering Institute at the American Jewish University. He is a writer, a scholar and a creator of Museums. His work has been recognized by the Emmys and Academy Awards.