Today marked the 70th commemoration of the Nazi massacre of 33,771 Jews in September 1941 at the Ukrainian ravine at Babi Yar.
I visited the site in 1978, at which point a monument had been erected at the site.
Yevgeny Yevtushenko’s 1961 poem, which was not officially published in the Soviet Union for over 20 years, is as powerful now as it was then:
No monument stands over Babi Yar.A steep cliff only, like the rudest headstone.I am afraid.Today, I am as oldAs the entire Jewish race itself.
The rest of the poem is at the link.
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