Literature Wrestling With Dark History: Soviet Holocaust Films And The New Ukraine

By Olga Gershenson

Despite the fact that almost half of all Jewish victims of the Nazi Holocaust were killed on the territory of the Soviet Union, their Jewish identity was for decades effaced by Soviet policy. It was the policy of the Soviet Union to systematical- ly minimize the fact that Jews were specifically targeted during the Holocaust. However, despite this policy, the Holocaust was represented in some Soviet films. Olga Gershenson, The author of the groundbreaking 2013 study “The Phantom Holocaust: Soviet Cinema and Jewish Catastrophe”, reflects on the relationship between the history of the Soviet film industry response to the Holocaust, and the future of Ukrainian film.

Our Father. An execution in an Odessan courtyard.

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These policies started taking shape during the war, when the Soviet propaganda ma- chine churned out tremendous amounts of newsreels and documentaries, including The execution scene in “The Unvanquished” those depicting Nazi crimes in Soviet ter- created the very first image of the Holo- ritories. But the footage was edited to ob- caust on Soviet soil, which is also referred fuscate the fact that most of the murdered to as “the Holocaust by bullets.” While this victims were Jews. An award-winning doc- depiction was not historically accurate, it Some million-and-a-half Jews lost their umentary, “Moscow Strikes Back” (“Raz- was cinematically powerful. At least in this lives during the Holocaust in Ukraine. They grom Nemetskikh Voisk Pod Moskvoi,” scene, the particular Jewish predicament were executed, drowned or burned; they 1942), represents all of the human losses was neither universalized nor externalized. were herded in ghettos and camps, and then as generically “Soviet,” but the narrative Alas, this film was an exception, not the killed. The Nazis instigated and organized of the film implies that the issue is one of rule. In the postwar era, as Stalinist poli- the killing, but some Ukrainian locals took Russian national victimhood. Similarly, cy grew more anti-Semitic, “The Unvan- part. And yet, this genocide of unprecedent- the wartime documentaries of the cele- quished” was removed from the screens and ed proportion barely registers on screens, brated Ukrainian filmmaker Aleksandr from festival programs. The “Black Book,” neither in films made in the Soviet era nor Dovzhenko emphasized the Ukrainian a collection of writings and documents me- more recent ones. Despite some strides identity of the victims, avoiding altogether morializing the Holocaust on Soviet soil — that the new Ukrainian government took any mention of the Jewish genocide. Even including Ukraine — was destroyed. Many in commemorating the massacres, much the Soviet documentaries depicting the Jewish public figures were arrested, perse- remains to be done in bringing the history liberation of the Majdanek and Auschwitz cuted, or killed. During this dark era, the of the Holocaust — what the historians call death camps, did not state that most of the subject of the Holocaust was off limits for “the dark past” — to light in Ukraine. victims were Jewish. filmmakers.

A period of relative liberalization in the late 50’s-early 60’s was a time of renewed That obfuscation of the Jewish catastrophe interest in films about World War II in the Soviet Union. Although more personal and has roots in long-lasting Soviet policies reflective than before, most of these new war movies did not touch upon the Holocaust at all, as if it had never happened. But sever- That obfuscation of the Jewish catastrophe Feature films made during the war tell a sim- al films created by courageous filmmakers has roots in long-lasting Soviet policies. Al- ilar story: Jews, even if marginally present in were the exceptions. They were repeatedly though the Soviets never denied the Holo- the original screenplays, were written out of censored: a Belorussian thriller “Eastern caust, in actuality any attempt to speak of the cinematic narrative of the war. And yet, Corridor” [“Vostochnyi Koridor”] (1966, Jewish victims was silenced. The Holocaust some filmmakers attempted to acknowledge dir. Valentin Vinogradov), an Uzbek drama was not to be treated as a unique and sepa- and commemorate the Holocaust in the face “Sons of the Fatherland” [“Syny Otechest- rate phenomenon. Instead, it was universal- of Soviet censorship. The first, and arguably va]” (1968, dir. Latif Faiziev), and the most ized or externalized — subsumed as part of most significant of such films, was “The- Un famous of them — the Russian “Com- the overall Soviet tragedy or located outside vanquished” (“Nepokorennye,” 1945), direct- missar” (1967, dir. Aleksandr Aksoldov). the borders of the Soviet Union. Both of ed by the Odessa-born Mark Donskoi. Re- This film had a remarkable history: set in these mechanisms were used to silence dis- markably, “The Unvanquished” was not just a Ukrainian town during the post-revo- cussion of the Holocaust: universalization the first Soviet film that portrayed the events lutionary Civil War, it features a relation- allowed the Soviets to cast Slavs and com- of the Holocaust — it was one of the first Ho- ship between a Russian commissar woman munists as the main target of Hitler’s attack locaust films worldwide. Its central and most and a poor Jewish family. In the key scene, and to erase Jewish victimhood; external- devastating scene depicts a mass execution, portrayed with great emotional force, the ization was used to avoid any implication of which was filmed in Babyn Yar in newly-lib- commissar has a vision of the Holocaust to local bystanders or Nazi collaborators, and erated Kyiv, the place that came to symbolize come. Because of that scene, “Commissar” it absolved the Soviet leadership from any the Holocaust in the Soviet Union. Although was banned, and the reels languished in historic responsibility for mass Jewish loss- the story of Dr. Fishman (played by the Sovi- limbo for twenty years. The film was finally es on their soil. As a result of this approach, et Yiddish actor Veniamin Zuskin), who was released only during Perestroika, in 1987, to there was no official commemoration of the executed in the ravine, and his young grand- great international success. Holocaust in the Soviet Union. daughter, who was saved by a sympathetic Ukrainian family, is only a subplot in a broad- er narrative, it is undoubtedly the most mov- ing and memorable plot line.

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Not every censored project was that lucky. Another screenplay, “Our Father,” based on a story by the famous Soviet writer, Valen- tin Kataev, written in the 1960’s, was also a non-starter for Soviet censors. The plot tells a devastating story: a nameless Jewish wom- ences. The only film that persevered in this an wanders the streets of occupied Odessa harsh economic climate was “Ladies’ Tai- with her little son, hoping to hold out until lor” — it was TV reruns that saved it from the deportation ends. She tries to find shelter oblivion. Even today, it is by far the best- from the cold and a safe haven for her boy, but known Soviet Holocaust film. The events of the Holocaust are reflected in to no avail. Both freeze to death. The censors the subplots of several later films, the best forced numerous changes on the screenplay, At the end of 1991, the Soviet Union was dis- of them being the 2004 “Daddy” (“Papa,” only to ban it in the end. This long-suffering solved. Along with the state, the entire Sovi- dir. Vladimir Mashkov), which is based on screenplay was finally made into a film in et film industry ceased to exist. By the early a play by the famous Soviet author and song- the Perestroika era, when the Soviet censor- 2000’s, new national film industries gradu- writer Alexander Galich. The film features ship retreated. “Our Father” (“Otche Nash,” ally came into being, and several Holocaust a heartbreaking scene of an execution in the 1989; dir. Boris Ermolaev), sadly, resulted in films were made. But this was not necessari- Tulchin ghetto. Later, an important nov- a strange allegorical tale stripped of historic ly a cause for celebration as the films were in el, “Heavy Sand” by Anatolii Rybakov, was detail and overloaded with Christian allu- many instances not much better than those dramatized for TV. The novel was for years sions and dark symbolism. that were made in the Perestroika era. one of the very few works of Soviet litera- ture that gave expression to Jewish history Several other films made during that time A Belarussian-German co-production, and culture. The resulting sixteen-part TV focus on the events of the Holocaust, none “Babyn Yar” (dir. Jeff Kanew, 2003), set in series (2008, dir. Anton Barschevskii) was of which are very memorable or significant. occupied Kyiv, is supposed to tell the trag- state-funded and broadcast on the Russian For instance, “Exile” (“Izgoi,” 1991; dir. ic story of a Jewish family as well as that state-owned Channel One, signaling that Vladimir Savel’ev) tells of the tragic fate of of their non-Jewish neighbors, but its dra- the new Kremlin regime now sanctioned a Jewish Polish family in occupied Ukraine. maturgy and unconvincing acting turn it the representation of the Holocaust (albeit It is beautifully shot, but the story is told in into cheap melodrama. Another “Babyn not in Russia). At the center of the epic plot a melodramatic and even sensationalist way. Yar,” a TV film, made in Ukraine (dir. Ni- is the life story of a Jewish couple and their By far the best of these films was “Ladies’ kolai Zaseev-Rudenko, 2002), tells the sto- offspring, set a town of Snovsk, Ukraine (the Tailor” (“Damskii Portnoi,” 1990) by Leonid ry of a Jewish woman, a survivor of Babyn actual place where Rybakov spent his child- Gorovets, a Kyiv native. Set in Kyiv on the Yar, who goes to visit the site of the atrocity hood). The last episodes depict the horrors eve of the mass execution in Babyn Yar, it many years later. Improbably, in the ravine of their life in the ghetto, and eventual up- tells the story of an old Jewish tailor (played she encounters a former Nazi who has also rising and escape. Unfortunately, the series by beloved Soviet actor Innokenti Smoktun- come to visit, and the two share a bizarre represents Jews with idealized simplicity. ovsky) who spends the last night with his vision of the Madonna as they partake in This idealization revisits the tenets of social- family in their soon-to-be-lost home. The bouts of grandiloquence. Predictably, none ist realism, only now, instead of workers and film ends with a procession of Jews being of these films achieved critical or box-office revolutionaries, Jews are model citizens and marched to Babyn Yar — that is to certain success. exemplary human beings. death. But the film’s treatment of the Holo- caust is limited by heavy-handed symbolism and a simplistic representation of complex historic events, issues that that were char- The wartime documentaries of the cele- acteristic of Perestroika-era films. During the period when those films were made, the brated Ukrainian filmmaker Aleksandr Soviet economy collapsed, and the normal channels of distribution were cut off. Thus, Dovzhenko emphasized the Ukrainian these films were barely seen by mass audi- identity of the victims, avoiding altogether any mention of the Jewish genocide

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All these films differ radically from the ones made during the Soviet era. With the So- viet censorship restrictions removed, these films no longer need to universalize: they can speak openly about the Jewish identi- ty of their characters. Similarly, instead of externalizing the Holocaust, they can locate the events in the Soviet territories; some of them even cautiously address instances of local anti-Semitism and collaboration with the Nazis. At the same time, there are so few films that actually attempt to represent the Holocaust, that one wonders whether the Soviet legacy of silencing continues. This is also part of a larger problem: memory work is still not being carried out to an adequate degree in post-Soviet countries, which in- cludes Ukraine. Despite the bombastic war memorials and official rhetoric about the glorious victory, the memory of WWII and the memory of the Holocaust are not inte- grated into the educational curriculum or everyday discussions. The Unvanquished. An execution in Babyn Yar.

goal, according to Loznitsa, is to create a sense of having been present at the site and The execution scene in “The Unvanquished” to elicit deeply-felt empathy and personal created the very first image of the Holo- involvement with the events. This ambitious and high-budgeted project is caust on Soviet soil, which is also referred still in the midst of seeking European fund- ing, but it has already received support from to as “the Holocaust by bullets.” the state of Ukraine. For Loznitsa, receiving Ukrainian public funding carries symbolic rather that financial weight. The finalization But there is potentially hope on the hori- historical project aside to make a documen- of the project, which would doubtless be zon. Several years ago, auteur director Ser- tary about the remarkable events that he was a significant film, and its widespread screen- gei Loznitsa (who grew up in Kyiv and is witnessing. “Maidan” premiered at Cannes ing in Ukraine and across the post-Sovi- now based in Germany) started working on to great acclaim. Since then the filmmaker et world are still in the future. Embracing a narrative feature based on the Babyn Yar has returned to his original intent, with the Loznitsa’s film would constitute the next massacre of 1941. A masterful craftsman, current filming planned for 2019. Loznitsa step in helping Ukraine to deal honestly with Loznitsa has made multiple, prize winning envisions his future film without conven- its complex and morally fraught past. films that have dealt with historical issues tional narrative plot — for him standard relating to the war, including “In The Fog” dramatic tension is irrelevant when trying (2012). Originally, he planned to film on to convey massive tragic events. Instead location, in Kyiv. But history interfered, his film will consist of a complex mosaic and by the time that he had arrived in the of scenes represented from various vantage Ukrainian capital in late 2013, the city was points, including those of Jewish victims, Olga Gershenson is Professor of Judaic already engulfed in protests. Loznitsa set his Red Army fighters, Nazi officials, NKVD and Near Eastern Studies at the University operators, and local bystanders and collab- of Massachusetts-Amherst. orators. Instead of a traditional protagonist, all these characters will play their parts in this large-scale production, to be filmed in his unflinching documentarian style. The

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