Last week, the Ukrainian version of The Day reported on a ruling by an Austrian court sentencing the British historian David Irving to three years in prison for publicly denying the fact that the Nazis exterminated Jews in gas chambers during World War II. Obviously, this subject is tangentially related to the comprehensive exploration of the Ukrainian Holodomor of the 1932- 1933. One year before Ukraine is to make an appeal at the UN General Assembly, urging the international community to recognize the Holodomor as an act of genocide against the Ukrainian nation, some Ukrainians, including members of the Communist Party of Ukraine, are publicly denying it. The Day asked its experts to comment on this issue.
Taras KOMPANICHENKO, kobza player:
“I oppose any revisions of the Holodomor and the Holocaust as acts of genocide, or any other ethnic persecutions no matter whom they targeted: Jews, Ukrainians, Poles, or Armenians. I don’t quite understand what is being subjected to revision. How can one publicly deny the Holocaust at a time when a wealth of documents confirms it. I am a scholar, which is why for me this question lies outside of the realm of politics. We should mind the facts. If this statement is coming from a historian, he must provide his own serious documents and compelling arguments. We have not seen them. If he hasn’t seen these documents, how could he have reached such conclusions? What is this — falsification? What is behind this: politics or documents that no one knows anything about? This is not known. In Ukraine there are also forces that deny the Holodomor. They say: ‘Do what you want, but there was no famine: not in 1921, 1932-1933, or 1947.’ What can we do about this? Meanwhile, people suffered this ordeal. Naturally, a response like that hurts and outrages many people who experienced it. Subjecting human pain to revision is a very sensitive issue. After all, the lives and destinies of people are behind it. To raise similar issues one must be armed with extremely serious arguments.”
Serhiy ARKHYPCHUK, theater director:
“The extent of the Jews’ suffering during World War II is an established fact known to the entire world. For example, the Holocaust of the Jewish people is a frequent subject of media reports and films in such countries as the US, Germany, Italy, France, and Portugal. Ukrainians, especially those in western Ukraine, know this firsthand, because they witnessed collective exterminations of the Jews, especially in Volyn and the Rivne and Zhytomyr areas. Whenever any Jews managed to escape, Ukrainians helped them regardless of national differences. They helped old and young alike because they viewed such people primarily as human beings and paid no attention to ethnic differences. Those kinds of statements can be only provocative or unhealthy. So, it is not even worth discussing the refutations of this British scholar. Refutation of a generally recognized fact can only serve as spur to discussion. Otherwise, it may raise suspicions that such refutation is convenient for certain individuals. The facts of the Holocaust and the Holodomor are indisputable. What was done cannot be undone. Meanwhile, various historians and political intriguers are attempting to interpret the past differently in order to serve their local goals, whims, and desires. The Jews’ attitude to their past and how they cherish it is a good example for other nations.”
Petro TOLOCHKO, member of the Ukrainian National Academy of Sciences:
“Obviously, it is hard to deny the truth. English, Ukrainian, or any other historians cannot deny the fact of one event or another, including the Holocaust or the Holodomor. How they are interpreted and presented is a different matter. I think such negations or refutations of an established fact do no credit to the historian. I do not believe, however, that a person should be placed behind bars for as long as three years just for this. He might have his own special opinion. So what! Let him live with this opinion. I, for one, find it difficult to say what prompts such people to make such statements. Perhaps they are prejudiced against the Holocaust or ethnic affinity. I do not rule this out. Different things happen in life.”
