Encounter at Babi Yar
Leff, Sylvia
ENCOUNTER AT BABI YAR What happens when an official Soviet guide meets Americans determined to remember SYLVIA LEFT The young, no-nonsense Intourist guide informed us that her name was Valda,...
...I gave her my card...
...I assured her that I believed her and that I had absolutely no doubt that she was translating exactly what was written...
...Is very full program...
...She put her hand under my elbow and guided me across the road to a stone the size and shape of a small double-headstone in an American cemetery...
...Afterwards, will be time for shopping...
...Valda played it straight...
...Boris," she reported, "is not certain where is place, but he knows is far...
...We had arrived at a field at the end of a city street...
...Then," I said, "you can understand that it is important to see the place of Babi Yar...
...There was a moment's pause and then she said, "I must speak to driver...
...But is only small stone...
...Valda turned away, without responding, and called to the group...
...And now,"said Valda, "we visit famous Perchek Monastery...
...I explained that my people had come from a completely different part of Europe and that I could not read a word of Ukrainian...
...TO REMEMBER . . . SOVIET CITIZENS . . . SLAUGHTERED . . . BY . . . FASCIST . . . BEASTS-" She broke off and went back to the beginning...
...It was probably at this point that she realized she was engaged in a contest of wills...
...Immediately after we had settled ourselves in the sightseeing bus deSylvia Leg is Dean of Instruction at City College of San Francisco and a contributor to travel magazines and education journals...
...At that moment, the bus stopped...
...We shook hands, got back on the bus and we all spent the next hour in the Beryozhka Shop...
...were incised on the stone, which was flanked by forlorn clumps of flowers...
...Had not the victims at Babi Yar been rounded up with some help from the local population, lined up along the ridge of the gulley and mowed down in classic Nazi fashion...
...We saw the enormous, new opera house and the gigantic statues of the heroes of Soviet history...
...Some of us had been told by previous visitors that Intourist guides were generally reluctant to take tourists to Babi Yar but that it was possible to take a streetcar the comparatively short distance from the center of town to the site...
...She put it in her shoulderbag and said, "Thank you very much...
...Several of us had decided, during our time together in Yalta, that we would like to see the small marker at Babi Yar that had been put in place only after Yevtushenko's controversial and touching "endless, soundless cry" had come to world attention in 1966, almost 25 years after the massacre occurred...
...But, please...
...Do you really think they will...
...People's Park was large and leafy...
...The mother of my husband is of the Jewish nation...
...When she turned around, she seemed to have regained her composure...
...Two intersecting gashes (decoration or defacement...
...We drove through the broad streets of the city...
...I tried to explain that the circumstances and, therefore, the symbolism were hardly the same...
...Valda," said the social worker from New York, "if we must make a choice between shopping and Babi Yar, we have all agreed that we would prefer going to Babi Yar...
...Her story about a Passover in Italy appeared in The Spice Box in March 1983...
...Here says will be built big one...
...As originally scheduled, our stay would have provided ample time for both official and unofficial sightseeing...
...I hoped that she would not be in great official trouble because of this detour and was about to say so when she said, "Please...
...Valda," said the teacher from Maine, "when do we go to Babi Yar...
...To our great credit, nobody applauded or laughed victoriously...
...But Government will build big one, soon...
...Is enough...
...We both carefully avoided any mention of Babi Yar...
...You will enjoy very much...
...This is what it says...
...Valda," said the lumberman from Oregon, "what about Babi Yar...
...As we stood up, Valda asked if I could read Ukrainian, apparently assuming that my interest was due to family ties...
...Finally, still facing us, she said something to Boris and the bus began to move...
...In a few minutes, Valda came and sat down beside me...
...As we walked back to the parking area, she caught up with me...
...Was it not true that we were talking about armed soldiers in the one case and defenseless civilians in the other...
...Listen," she said, earnestly...
...We have many, many places to visit today more important man Babi Yar...
...It took 25 years to put up the one that is there now...
...I added that I hoped the final monument would be large enough to tell the story in more detail...
...She assured us, however, that our "program" included all the important sights so we were not to worry...
...signed to accommodate 40 and had been introduced to Boris, the "excellent" driver, we made the request...
...However, since our new timetable made such a plan unworkable, we asked the other members of the group if we might make an attempt to get Babi Yar included in the "official" program...
...I suddenly understood that she was embarrassed, not frightened...
...Silence...
...At the end of June in 1976, the Soviet Government unveiled a 50-foot high monument at Babi Yar...
...We passed tremendous blocks of flats that looked like Titans' Tinkertoys...
...She was visibly agitated and I began to feel some concern...
...And now," said Valda, "we go to Beryozhka Shop...
...ON . . . THIS . . . PLACE . . . WILL BE . . . MONUMENT...
...This word says will be...
...This word is future tense...
...She said she was fortunate to have her mother-in-law available to look after her 3-year-old...
...Valda called our attention to the enormous, impressive monument to the Soviet soldiers killed in defense of the homeland in the war against Fascism...
...She has told us that she would not now be living if she does not jump on train that day...
...I never heard from Valda again...
...Boris remembers that Babi Yar is so far from monastery that would be left no time for shopping because you all go to performance at beautiful opera house tonight and must have dinner before...
...Right now, we must go to monastery...
...We were an atypical group in size, character and background, with little in common other than reasonably extensive travel experience—none of which had prepared any of us for either Intourist or the Soviet Union in the summer of 1971...
...I said that I did not live in the same city as my mother and had stopped working until my daughter was old enough to go to school a few years ago...
...Look,"shepleaded...
...You believe me...
...Valda," said the lawyer from New Jersey, "what about Babi Yar...
...Someone said "thank you" and we all looked out of our respective windows as the town rolled by...
...Here in Ukraine we make famous dolls which fit one in other and we make beautiful, painted Easter eggs of wood...
...Valda—no-nonsense, in-control Valda—was utterly baffled...
...Now—to People's Park...
...Then we talk more...
...If it is not built in our lifetime," she said very seriously, "my daughter will write to your daughter...
...Was it not important to pay a visit of respect to their memory...
...She was, after all, a pleasant young woman doing a reasonably good job of shepherding a flock of foreigners through the prescribed paths of Soviet sightseeing...
...You know is very small monument...
...ENCOUNTER AT BABI YAR What happens when an official Soviet guide meets Americans determined to remember SYLVIA LEFT The young, no-nonsense Intourist guide informed us that her name was Valda, that during the winter months she was an English teacher, that she would be with us for our entire stay in Kiev and that she regretted very much that our visit had been reduced from three days to one and a half...
...Americans who would rather sightsee than shop were totally out of her range of experience...
...Conversation turned to the problems of working mothers the world over...
...In due time, we climbed back on the bus...
...No word 'Jews.' Is no room on small marker for everything...
...Valda and 1 sat together at lunch...
...Her back was to us...
...Look...
...You have just seen big, beautiful monument...
...The trip had taken about 10 minutes...
...She clapped her hands in the teacher's universal gesture to get a class moving...
...Instead, she extended her hand to seal the conspirators' bargain...
...But, we see...
...She was intent on the good intentions...
...The word 'Jews' appears nowhere on the inscription...
...Is nothing to see...
...And then-we were back at the hotel...
...She lives together with us and looks after my small daughter...
...Will be something some day but now is nothing...
...A brief exchange followed...
...With a unanimity rarely encountered in tour groups, they agreed...
...This time, she stood close to him and they spoke in lowered tones...
...By now, we had reached the bus...
...Please...
...She reddened slightly...
...As we walked back to the bus, I asked if she would write and let me know when the promise was kept...
...You will find many things to bring back to United States...
...At that point, we were all too weary to worry since Intourist, after inexplicably extending our stay in sweltering Yalta, had scheduled a 3:00 a.m...
...Will Yevtushenko have to write another poem...
...After lunch, we see...
...So now," she said, crisply, "is no need to visit Babi Yar...
...Please," she said and put her hand on my arm...
...The monastery visit lasted about an hour...
...We drove over bridges and along the banks of the Dnieper...
...What word says 'Jews...
...So, you see, I know about Babi Yar...
...Now is lunchtime," said Valda...
...As she started to read, she placed her index finger under each word as if, by so doing, the accuracy of the translation and, therefore, the validity of the sentiment was guaranteed...
...Valda's bewilderment was complete...
...Is time for lunch," announced Valda...
...There was not a sound on the bus as she stared at each of us, in turn...
...We have not much time...
...And now," said Valda, impassively, "we go to Babi Yar...
...Then she stopped and looked directly at me...
...We were back on the bus by 3:00...
...Many lovely souvenirs to buy in Kiev...
...arrival at the brand-new, falling-apart Kiev hotel in whose barebones lobby our little party of eleven was now, at 9:00 a.m., gathered...
...Valda brought me up close to the inscription...
...We must return to bus now...
...And then she smiled a smile that should have been accompanied by a nudge or a wink or both...
...I was very much interested in an answer from a citizen, not a guide...
...I told her that I was pleased to have seen the promise with my own eyes...
...We were all appropriately impressed and said so...
...She has told us many stories of the war and how she escaped on terrible day of massacre...
...Another conversation with Boris was in order...
Vol. 8 • July 1984 • No. 7
