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Available
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Publication
Pocket (1971), 404 pages
Description
At the age of twelve, Anatoly Kuznetsov experienced the Nazi invasion of Ukraine, and soon began keeping a diary of the brutal occupation of Kiev that followed. Years later, he combined those notebooks with other survivors' memories to create a classic work of documentary witness in the form of a novel. When Babi Yar was first published in a Soviet magazine in 1966, it became a literary sensation, not least for its powerful and unprecedented narratives of the Nazi massacre of the city's Jews, and later Roma, prisoners of war, and other victims, at the Babi Yar ravine--one of the largest mass killings of the Holocaust. After Kuznetsov defected to Great Britain in 1969, he republished the book in a new edition that included extensive passages censored by the Soviets, along with his later reflections.… (more)
Subjects
Awards
Best Fiction for Young Adults (Selection — 1967)
Notable Books List (1967)
Language
User reviews
LibraryThing member meggyweg
This book is brilliant -- by far a top-tier Holocaust book and World War II book in general. The author was a boy of twelve when the Nazi occupation of Kiev began, and began recording his experiences then; these jottings were part of the basis for this book, which is both a memoir and a documentary
Although the story centers around the September 1941 mass murder of some 33,000 Jews at Babi Yar, a ravine outside Kiev, that's not all this story is. Kuznetsov's writing encompasses far more than that, and you really get a feel of what life must be like in a war-ravaged city. His description of the destruction of the Kreshchatik (the oldest and most beautiful section of Kiev) made me think of how New York City must have been like after 9-11 -- except the Kreshchatik bombings were a lot worse. In his list of "the number of times I should have been shot," Kuznetsov shows that all the inhabitants of Kiev (not just the Jews or soldiers or political activists or partisans, but EVERYONE) had to risk their lives every day, and how many lost their lives simply by being there. He includes printings of actual primary source documents such as memos, reports, handbills etc., from this time period as well as his own writings.
Most intriguingly: Babi Yar was initially published in Russia during the 1960s. I'm surprised it was published at all, as it was very critical of the Soviet regime. In any case the Soviet censors redacted large parts of it. When Kuznetsov defected to England, he took the original manuscript with him on microfilm, and added parts to it before publishing it in full in the West. The original Soviet text is in regular type, the parts the Soviet censors cut out are in boldface, and the parts Kuznetsov added after his arrival in England are in brackets. It's interesting to see what was taken out and what was allowed -- they made some surprising choices.
I really cannot recommend this book highly enough, for Holocaust scholars and World War II scholars alike.
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nonfiction.Although the story centers around the September 1941 mass murder of some 33,000 Jews at Babi Yar, a ravine outside Kiev, that's not all this story is. Kuznetsov's writing encompasses far more than that, and you really get a feel of what life must be like in a war-ravaged city. His description of the destruction of the Kreshchatik (the oldest and most beautiful section of Kiev) made me think of how New York City must have been like after 9-11 -- except the Kreshchatik bombings were a lot worse. In his list of "the number of times I should have been shot," Kuznetsov shows that all the inhabitants of Kiev (not just the Jews or soldiers or political activists or partisans, but EVERYONE) had to risk their lives every day, and how many lost their lives simply by being there. He includes printings of actual primary source documents such as memos, reports, handbills etc., from this time period as well as his own writings.
Most intriguingly: Babi Yar was initially published in Russia during the 1960s. I'm surprised it was published at all, as it was very critical of the Soviet regime. In any case the Soviet censors redacted large parts of it. When Kuznetsov defected to England, he took the original manuscript with him on microfilm, and added parts to it before publishing it in full in the West. The original Soviet text is in regular type, the parts the Soviet censors cut out are in boldface, and the parts Kuznetsov added after his arrival in England are in brackets. It's interesting to see what was taken out and what was allowed -- they made some surprising choices.
I really cannot recommend this book highly enough, for Holocaust scholars and World War II scholars alike.
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LibraryThing member sross008
Babi Yar was included on so many Top 100 lists that I was intrigued, and I can't say I was disappointed in the book, but it wasn't the gripping expose I'd expected. The free-flowing structure makes for an easy read, with anecdotal vignettes loosely fitted together, like pages of an autobiography
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scattered about in a war-torn field (and not necessarily put back together in the "proper" order.) It is an idealistic anti-fascist testimony that documents the massacre of Ukrainian Jews and so many others--some arbitrary bystanders--the Nazis found to be "undesirable." Its compelling account of the sheer circumstances of how some live and many do not survive a war is captivating, and I believe I will remember this book for quite some time. I've spent countless hours examining the horrid images on the U.S. Holocaust Museum website, and Babi Yar gives voice to the helplesness and fatalism that must have been pervasive for all of those tragic victims of the war. Show Less
LibraryThing member miketroll
The story of events during the German occupation of Kiev in WW2, when Nazi soldiers slaughtered 200,000 enemies of the Third Reich, mainly Jews, in the ravine at Babi Yar. Comfortable reading it isn’t.
No less memorable is the fact that, for decades after the war, the Soviet regime refused to
No less memorable is the fact that, for decades after the war, the Soviet regime refused to
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permit any local memorial to the slain. Show Less
LibraryThing member s_mcinally
This is one of the most moving books I have ever read. The urgency of the author's message continues to ring in my ears almost 5 years after having read it. If I had to choose the best book about the horror of war then it would have to be this one. If I were in charge for only one day then this
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would be compulsory reading for everyone when they turn 15, it is terrifying. Show Less
LibraryThing member arubabookwoman
Babi Yar is a ravine near the city of Kiev where the Nazis massacred thousands of Jews during World War II, primarily shooting them as they stood naked on the edge of the ravine. The author was a 12 year old boy living in Kiev, and this book describes his experiences surviving under the Nazi
The author did not directly witness the atrocities at Babi Yar, although he and other residents of Kiev heard the constant sound of gunfire, day after day. He does, however, include what he says are close to verbatim accounts by some of those who narrowly escaped death at Babi Yar. The author himself, although not a Jew, frequently had to dodge deportation to Germany to work in the factories, and daily faced starvation.
I had long heard of this book, and expected a lot more from it than I got, perhaps because there have been so many more personal accounts of surviving the Holocaust that were published after Babi Yar. Babi Yar was important at the time it was published, because it was one of the first, if not the first, open admission by the Soviets that these events occurred. This book, along with Yevtushenko's moving poem opened the dialogue in the Soviet Union, and the world on the massacre.
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occupation of Kiev. As he narrates, he frequently reminds the reader that everything he is saying is true.The author did not directly witness the atrocities at Babi Yar, although he and other residents of Kiev heard the constant sound of gunfire, day after day. He does, however, include what he says are close to verbatim accounts by some of those who narrowly escaped death at Babi Yar. The author himself, although not a Jew, frequently had to dodge deportation to Germany to work in the factories, and daily faced starvation.
I had long heard of this book, and expected a lot more from it than I got, perhaps because there have been so many more personal accounts of surviving the Holocaust that were published after Babi Yar. Babi Yar was important at the time it was published, because it was one of the first, if not the first, open admission by the Soviets that these events occurred. This book, along with Yevtushenko's moving poem opened the dialogue in the Soviet Union, and the world on the massacre.
Show Less
ISBN
0671781081 / 9780671781088