From Oblivion to Genocide: Historical Memory of the Holocaust in Russia and Ukraine

On January 27, 2020, marking the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, Jews worldwide will light memorial candles and observe a minute of silence to honor the victims. Official commemorative ceremonies will be held at international, national, and regional levels, including within educational institutions across many countries.

We express our gratitude to the authorities of the post-Soviet states for dismantling the discriminatory practices and policies against Jews that prevailed during the Soviet era, and for fostering conditions conducive to the development of Jewish communities. In comparison to several European and Middle Eastern nations, the post-Soviet region has emerged as a secure haven for its Jewish population.

Regrettably, annual commemorative rituals do not preclude collective amnesia. For instance, 48% of respondents surveyed across 11 Russian cities were unable to define the Holocaust, while 72% asserted that "attention to the Holocaust serves only Jewish interests."

Despite a notable decline in documented antisemitic incidents in the post-Soviet states over recent years, antisemitic theories and stereotypes connected to the history of the Holocaust continue to be regularly recorded by researchers and demand public attention.

In post-Soviet territories, Holocaust deniers generally employ narratives pre-established in the West. These include allegations of fabricated documents and diaries, alongside assertions that the majority of Holocaust testimonies are unreliable, supposedly extracted from German prisoners under torture or manufactured for political leverage.

Attempts to manipulate statistical data regarding Holocaust victims stem from the speculative premise that it was technically impossible to systematically eliminate such a vast number of individuals and conceal their remains.

Jews are frequently accused of establishing a "Holocaust cult" that allegedly exerts a negative influence on modern culture and global civilization. There persists a myth that Jewish leaders deliberately orchestrated the destruction of European Jewry. The purported objectives of this grotesque policy are claimed to be the acquisition of territory for the State of Israel, substantial financial reparations, and a so-called "blanket immunity" for past, present, and future "Jewish transgressions" — tracing from the crucifixion of Christ to the alleged central role of Jewish bankers in instigating world wars.

Jews are further reproached for remembering exclusively "their own" victims while ignoring the suffering of other nations, and are accused of charging other nationalities with complicity in the Holocaust solely out of pecuniary motives.

Another critical dimension regarding the perception of the Holocaust in post-Soviet territories is the state of historical memory policy, which is undergoing a complex and contentious formation. This primarily concerns the rehabilitation, glorification, and heroization of Nazi collaborators and public figures associated with antisemitic ideologies.

On January 13, 2020, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Israel officially protested the glorification by Ukrainian authorities of "individuals responsible for the murder of Jews during the Holocaust and pogroms, as well as the antisemitic ideologues of the Ukrainian nationalist movement."

According to Israeli Holocaust historian Aron Weiss, Ukrainian nationalists murdered 28,000 Jews in Western Ukraine alone during the war years. Today, however, many perpetrators of these atrocities are elevated to the status of resistance heroes who fought for national independence. This process often involves the deliberate obscuration of their antisemitic ideology, in direct contradiction to international standards.

The Israeli Ministry of Diaspora Affairs has noted "deeply concerning glorification of persecutors and murderers of Jews as part of the de-communization process and the rise of Ukrainian nationalism, which manifests in government legislative initiatives."

In May 2015, a law was enacted "On the Legal Status and Commemoration of Fighters for Ukraine’s Independence in the 20th Century," which integrated members of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), as well as the army of the Ukrainian People's Republic led by Symon Petliura. The law imposes liability "in accordance with current legislation" on "persons who publicly exhibit a disrespectful attitude toward fighters for Ukrainian independence." Consequently, this legislation not only overlooks egregious atrocities committed against the Jewish population of Ukraine but also restricts objective historical inquiry.

In May 2018, a law was passed concerning the rehabilitation of victims of Soviet political repression. This legislation permits the rehabilitation of OUN-UPA members who were convicted during the Soviet era for participating in punitive actions against civilian populations during World War II. Notably, determinations of rehabilitation are assigned to specialized commissions rather than judicial courts.

In recent years, numerous monuments and plaques have been erected across Ukraine to commemorate various OUN-UPA figures, some of whom were directly involved in the mass murder of Ukrainian Jews. For example, a memorial plaque was unveiled in the city of Kalush honoring Dmitry Paliev, a Hauptsturmführer of the SS Division "Galicia." Contemporary photographs exist depicting Paliev in Nazi uniform standing adjacent to a podium and a bust of Adolf Hitler.

The installation of such monuments continues nationwide. Furthermore, individuals of Hauptsturmführer Paliev's standing have been granted official combatant status and are included in the state-sanctioned list of historic figures whose anniversaries are celebrated at the government level.

The US Department of State's annual Human Rights Report highlights that several public sites in Ukraine are named after individuals directly linked to antisemitic ideology. In 2018, approximately 50 US Congressmen signed a letter to Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan demanding diplomatic pressure on Ukraine and Poland. The congressmen asserted that these governments must "unequivocally reject the distortion of Holocaust history and the honoring of Nazi collaborators, and ensure full prosecution of antisemitic hate crimes." The then-Director of the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory, Volodymyr Viatrovych, dismissed the Congressmen's demands as "a combination of incompetence, deliberate disinformation, and a merging of truth and falsehood."

Attempts to minimize the scale of the Holocaust and glorify Nazi collaborators have regrettably also occurred in Russia. In the Stavropol Krai, local focus has persisted for several years on honoring the writer and public figure Ilya Surguchev, who collaborated with Nazi authorities during the Second World War.

Similarly, controversy surrounded the memorial plaque at Zmievskaya Balka (Rostov-on-Don), the site where approximately 27,000 residents, predominantly Jews, were executed in August 1942. In 2011, municipal authorities replaced the inscription on the memorial plaque with a Soviet-style message referencing "peaceful Soviet citizens killed by fascist invaders," omitting any specific mention of Jews or the Holocaust. The local Jewish community's request to allocate space for a distinct memorial to the Jewish victims was initially denied. However, following a two-year campaign, public pressure, and apparent intervention from federal authorities, a new plaque was installed at Zmievskaya Balka acknowledging Jewish victims alongside those of other nationalities.

According to various polls, a perception remains widespread among Russian citizens that ethnic Russians, rather than Jews, were the primary victims of the Nazi punitive apparatus. Respondents frequently believe that Nazi Germany aimed to exterminate the entire Soviet population indiscriminately, applying no specific criteria for target selection. Concurrently, a myth persists regarding a disproportionate Jewish dominance within the Communist movement and the Soviet political elite.

With each passing year, the Holocaust recedes further into global history. Seventy-five years on, fewer eyewitnesses remain, making the scale of the tragedy harder to comprehend. Nevertheless, research consistently demonstrates a correlation between historical awareness of the Holocaust and levels of tolerance within a society. Consequently, preserving the historical memory of the genocide of the Jewish people is far more than a Jewish concern alone.

In light of rising global antisemitism, it is imperatively urgent to engage political and public leaders in drafting and enacting robust legislative measures, integrating Holocaust education into national curricula, and ensuring the rigorous prosecution of antisemitic acts.