September 29-30, 1941 – November 6, 1943

85th Anniversary of Atrocities by Nazis and Their Collaborators at Babi Yar, Ukraine

Monuments at Babi Yar, left to right: to Jews; to Soviet citizens and POWS; to Roma; to children.

The war crimes and crimes against humanity committed at Babi Yar 85 years ago, by the Nazis and their Ukrainian collaborators in their campaign against the Soviet Union during World War II, are a cruel reminder of what it means to permit the resurgence of the descendants of the Nazi collaborators who committed those crimes in Ukraine today.

Who these collaborators are and what they did in World War II is well known, as are those who defend and espouse their reactionary ideology in the present. Also well-known is Canada’s disgraceful support for these forces, to whom it gives leading positions within the Canadian polity. The latest such moves can be seen in Canada’s continued support for the U.S./NATO proxy war in Ukraine and the appointment of Chrystia Freeland, the darling of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress which is a known supporter of the Nazi collaborators in Canada, as Canada’s new special representative for the reconstruction of Ukraine.

The crimes of the Nazis and their collaborators at Babi Yar were said to be the worst committed up to that time, only surpassed by even greater crimes they committed after that.

Babi Yar is a ravine in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine. The Nazis carried out massacres in that ravine from September 29, 1941 to November 6, 1943, when Soviet forces liberated Kiev. The first and best documented of these massacres took place on September 29-30,1941 when 33,771 Jews were massacred there. Only 29 were said to have survived.

Overall 100,000-150,000 Jews, Soviet prisoners of war, communists, Roma and disabled persons were massacred at Babi Yar. The Nazis even massacred the Ukrainian collaborators who helped them carry the massacres out.

Monument to a World Crippled and Destroyed by Nazism, at Babi Yar

The 85th anniversary is an occasion to mourn the lives lost, come to terms with the untold suffering of the victims and salute the bravery and heroism of those who fought to bring an end to the Nazi war machine and criminal aim of world domination, no matter what the cost.

It is also necessary at this time to oppose the rewriting of history on the part of forces whose despicable aims can only be to pass off Ukrainian collaborators of the Nazis as freedom fighters, heroes, liberators and victims of the Soviet Union. In Canada, those who promote such despicable portrayals have seats in high places. They were even permitted to build a memorial in Ottawa with the help of the National Capital Commission and funding from forces that carried out atrocities such as those at Babi Yar. Claiming that Canada is a refuge for victims of communism such as themselves, they seek to divert people’s attention away from the verdict of history and the necessity to settle scores with the vicious anti-communist mindset of successive governments of Canada based on conciliation with Nazism, fascism and militarism pursued by the Anglo-American imperialists today.

The propaganda these forces carry out is designed to permit the persecution of those who defend the cause of peace, freedom, democracy and justice, and to put those who stand for progress in a position of having to defend themselves, as if they are the ones who spread disinformation when historical facts are brought to the fore. It is a matter of great sadness that the occasion of erecting a memorial at Babi Yar to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the massacres there was used by such virulently reactionary forces to present a self-serving narrative of what took place there.

On this occasion, the Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada expresses its deepest condolences to the families of all those who suffered at the hands of the Nazis and we condemn official attempts to portray Nazi collaborators as freedom fighters. For the information of readers, we publish an account which gives the example of how history is being rewritten by those who are preparing to plunge the world once again into the abyss of war in order to achieve aims which do not accord with the demands of humanity for peace, freedom and democracy which favours humankind.

(Photos: J. Boyer, A. Long)

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