In 2019, on the 75th anniversary of the end of the Holocaust in Ukraine, as well as the victory over Nazism in World War II in Europe, two books by Dr. Boris Zabarko of eyewitness memoirs were published in English and German - those who managed to survive in Nazi-occupied Ukraine in 1941-1944. Two volumes by Dr. Boris Zabarko «Life in the Shadow of Death : Recent memories about of the Holocaust in Ukraine Testimonies and Documents». Vol. 1–2. Melitopol, 2019. 1242 p. and fundamental work with German friends and colleagues from Cologne Margaret and Werner Müller "Life and Death in the Holocaust Epoch in Ukraine. Zeugnisse von Überlebenden ». Berlin, 2019. 1100 p.
Boris Zabarko (born 1935) - historian, Honored Worker of Science and Technology of Ukraine, laureate of the prize of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, the prize of the European organization "Bnei Brit" "In Recognition for immortalizing the Holocaust tragic memory" author of more than 200 books and articles published in Austria, Great Britain, the State of Israel, Germany, Russia, the United States, Hungary, Ukraine; Chairman of the All-Ukrainian Association of Jews - former ghetto prisoners and Nazi concentration camps, he was a prisoner of the Shargorod ghetto (Vinnytsia region).
It should be noted that these books by Borys Zabarko are a continuation of previously published German-language ("Nur wir haben überlebt. Holocaust in der Ukraine. Zeugnisse und Dokumente". Köln, 2004. 478 s .; 2016. 576 s. and and English-language“ Holocaust in the Ukraine” London – Portland, 2005. 394 p. collections, but, unlike them, which have become a bibliographic rarity, in new editions of memoirs eyewitnesses cover the entire territory of Ukraine, all zones of occupation, and are located in chronological order. In the new books, the memories of the Holocaust eyewitnesses are translated from 6 volumes of the series "Holocaust in Ukraine. 1941–1944 ». For many years, the historian has worked tremendously to collect and publish testimonies from the Holocaust survivors. Among these memories abound many stories of the rescue of the Jewish population by local residents, including Ukrainians. Multi-volume editions published by B. Zabarko in previous years (Nur wir haben überlebt: Zeugnisse und Documente; Überleben im Schatten des Todes: Holocaust in der Ukraine. Zeugnisse und Dokumente. Bonn: Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Historisches Forschungszentrum; We wanted to live…: Evidence and documents. Book 1-2. Kyiv: Dukh i Litera, 2013–2014) is a tribute to the victims of the Holocaust and those who resisted the Nazi genocide, as well as a valuable historical source for studying the phenomenon of saving Jews by the local population.
Structurally, the publication consists of two parts: the first - in fact, eyewitness testimony, and the second (which is almost a quarter of the total) - scientific notes to the text, which is a thorough scientific material, contain links to scientific and documentary sources, bibliography in different languages, geographical maps, tables, glossary, geographical index, etc. This helps readers to better understand the historical facts about the place, time, names, events related to the Holocaust in Ukraine. Because the books are aimed at foreign audiences, introductory articles to them were written by well-known scientists: Dr. Dieter Paul (Germany), Dr. Karel Berkhoff (Netherlands), Dr. Martin C. Dean (USA).
According to the author, the publications are intended to tell “about the tragedy and resistance of Ukrainian Jewry during the war and the Holocaust as part of world Jewry and Ukrainian society, about the inhuman suffering and life of ordinary people who were doomed to death but resisted and fought for their existence, who preserved the human likeness and conquered death "[1]
The importance and value of eyewitness accounts is clear to everyone. After all, every day moves away from the events of World War II and the Holocaust, and in conditions when there is no documentary evidence of crimes, all traces or witnesses are destroyed, eyewitness memories are the only source of information for reconstructing the events of the past.
The published testimonies of eyewitnesses and survivors make it possible to preserve in memory and in history the names, events and locations associated with the genocide of the Jewish people in Ukraine, which were previously unknown. The publications contain stories of rescuing Jews by the local population, stories of those who, due to certain circumstances, Yad Vashem did not receive the high title of "Righteous Among the Nations." The books recount how these people, in danger, risking their lives and usually the lives of their families, to help the Jewish population, often their relatives, friends and neighbors, but also strangers. They warned of or prevented Jewish pogroms, helped Jews escape from the ghetto and hid in nearby settlements, transported them to areas of Transnistria where it was safer, provided food or forged documents, provided shelter in their own homes, and so on. Among the cases of rescuing Jews by the local population, witnesses, almost for the first time, mention their rescue by "good Germans" [2].
The authors of the memoirs did not ignore the complex, provocative and painful issues of collaboration with the Nazis of local residents, denunciations and sweeps by Ukrainian police.
Therefore, these publications by Boris Zabarko are intended to tell foreign readers about the events of World War II and the Holocaust in the Nazi-occupied territory of Ukraine in 1941-1944. Witness stories of these events contain documentary material about the tragic fate of Ukrainian Jewry during the Nazi genocide and relations between non-Jews, collaborationists, bystanders (a passive part of the population who watched the events inactively) and those brave people who in times of hardship extended a helping hand to the Jewish people, who were recognized as "Righteous Among the Nations" and who were not awarded this title, but, who helped the author of the memories to survive the Holocaust.
[1] Boris Zabarko: "The fewer eyewitnesses and victims of the Holocaust, the more deniers are" Jewish columnist: information-analytical publication of the Jewish Confederation of Ukraine.