Listed in Scott 2018 as #1077, as a single. No mention of the illustrated sheetlet of 8.
Caption is "Babi Yar Massacre, 75th anniversary".
Scott 2018 lists issues for the Ukraine up to March 4, 2017, Ukrainian Revolution Centenary.
Roy
I read that the massacres by the socalled Einsatzgruppen such as the one at Babi Yar were so huge and horrendous (and costly because of all the bullets that had to be used) that the nazis came up with the concept of creating the extermination camps of Treblinka, Sobibor, Auschwitz etc. in order to make the final solution ('endlösung') more efficient. The camps with their gas chambers were also meant to make the work of the SS troops lighter, which is of course very cynical, this care for occupational health during genocide...
I think this is a very nice stamp to commemorate a very sad event.
It is a gorgeous and effective design, mingling blood red with the Hebrew star and Ukrainian colors and trident. The "75" is ghoulishly dripping, and the figure with candle could be angle, haunting, reminiscence, or.....
With Kaytin, Babi Yar, the concentration camps, the Georgian and Ukrainian genocides, as well as the military purges of the late 30s, this swath of land has seen far more than its fair share of hate and misery, all at the hands of two petty tyrants.
The things I learn about reading your posts, Guthrum. I had never heard of Babi Yar before. I agree with David it is a lovely stamp.
"a heart attack" indeed.
"With Katyn, Babi Yar, the concentration camps, the Georgian and Ukrainian genocides, as well as the military purges of the late 30s, this swath of land has seen far more than its fair share of hate and misery, all at the hands of two petty tyrants."
Bloodlands is a powerful book. Very detailed and probably the first I've ever read with that much detail mainly because it contains many documents or references unavailable until the fall of the USSR.
If anyone has seen the movie Holocaust with Meryl Streep, Joseph Bottoms, James Woods and a host of other major actors, a depiction of Babi Yar is shown in it.
It was a terrible massacre, filmed for "archives" and they actually were running low on ammunition so many were buried alive under the large mound of bodies shot after them. Babies and children were not shot and sadly suffocated in their mothers' arms.
There were miraculously a few people who were able to dig themselves out and survive because they hadn't been shot. Oh it was the worse mass murder before the death camps were created, which as mentioned, were created based on the fact of the "waste" of ammunition and too much time.
This section of the Ukraine was indeed the centre of bloodshed throughout this time from both sides. It was also a place of bloodshed for several centuries earlier as it fell under the area of the Russian Empire as the Ukraine was actually split in half for a large time frame of its existence.
One of the saddest occurrences about the massacre at Babi Yar was the fact that it was one of the first German "recruiting fields" of Ukrainian collaborators. Eagerly seeking an escape from Stalin's starvation program of the area, a Ukrainian corp was created in support of Nazi "hospitality."
I recall learning about Babi Yar at a very young age. Our Jewish schools taught history to all ages as well as being raised in a family (on my Mum's side) with survivors of the Holocaust so these parts of history were part of our lives as long as I can remember. I recall being told about Auschwitz at the age of 5 as we were told why family members had tattoos on their arms and we were never to ask them why.
The other terrible part of Babi Yar was the fact that later in the war all the bodies were dug up and burnt in an attempt to "hide the evidence" despite archives of film reels that were never destroyed.
Such a terrible massacre. Over 30,000 Jews killed over a two day time frame and a mere 29 survivors.
From 1941-1943, an estimated 100,000-150,000 Were murdered in the ravine of Babi Yar.
My apologies for the details above but one that must never be forgotten because it was the beginning of mass murders under Nazi Germany.
Here is the 2011 Ukrainian 70th year memorial stamp.
"The massacre at Babi Yar was not, to my knowledge, featured on stamps until last year..."
I first became aware of the massacre at Babi Yar many years ago when an English translation of Babi Yar, "a document in the form of a novel", was published under the name of "A.Anatoli". It recounted in fictional form (cf. Thomas Keneally's Schindler's Ark) the massacre in a ravine outside Kiev of 200,000 "enemies of the Reich" (i.e. Jews). This extraordinary atrocity does feature in other fiction - D.M.Thomas's The White Hotel and Jonathan Littell's The Kindly Ones to name but two. Both those works, published thirty years apart, were criticised for being too lurid and exploitative of the enormity of what they described.
The massacre at Babi Yar was not, to my knowledge, featured on stamps until last year, when Ukraine released a stamp, cover and sheetlet in what has become their signature forceful style. Some may find these too lurid as well (the response to my previous post showing Ukrainian stamps was mixed!), but you may judge for yourselves.
"A.Anatoli" was the pen-name of Anatoli Kuznetsov, a writer whose work was too controversial to be published in Soviet Russia. He eventually got permission to travel to London, concealed microfilm of his manuscripts hidden in the lining of his jacket, slipped his minder and sought asylum. Ten years later, at the age of 49, he died of a heart attack. Or, as we have now sadly learned to interpret such events, "a heart attack".
Finally, a further mention of the inability of Stanley Gibbons to source any Ukrainian stamps now for nine years. Does Scott have the same problem?
re: Babi Yar commemoration
Listed in Scott 2018 as #1077, as a single. No mention of the illustrated sheetlet of 8.
Caption is "Babi Yar Massacre, 75th anniversary".
Scott 2018 lists issues for the Ukraine up to March 4, 2017, Ukrainian Revolution Centenary.
Roy
re: Babi Yar commemoration
I read that the massacres by the socalled Einsatzgruppen such as the one at Babi Yar were so huge and horrendous (and costly because of all the bullets that had to be used) that the nazis came up with the concept of creating the extermination camps of Treblinka, Sobibor, Auschwitz etc. in order to make the final solution ('endlösung') more efficient. The camps with their gas chambers were also meant to make the work of the SS troops lighter, which is of course very cynical, this care for occupational health during genocide...
I think this is a very nice stamp to commemorate a very sad event.
re: Babi Yar commemoration
It is a gorgeous and effective design, mingling blood red with the Hebrew star and Ukrainian colors and trident. The "75" is ghoulishly dripping, and the figure with candle could be angle, haunting, reminiscence, or.....
With Kaytin, Babi Yar, the concentration camps, the Georgian and Ukrainian genocides, as well as the military purges of the late 30s, this swath of land has seen far more than its fair share of hate and misery, all at the hands of two petty tyrants.
re: Babi Yar commemoration
The things I learn about reading your posts, Guthrum. I had never heard of Babi Yar before. I agree with David it is a lovely stamp.
"a heart attack" indeed.
re: Babi Yar commemoration
"With Katyn, Babi Yar, the concentration camps, the Georgian and Ukrainian genocides, as well as the military purges of the late 30s, this swath of land has seen far more than its fair share of hate and misery, all at the hands of two petty tyrants."
re: Babi Yar commemoration
Bloodlands is a powerful book. Very detailed and probably the first I've ever read with that much detail mainly because it contains many documents or references unavailable until the fall of the USSR.
If anyone has seen the movie Holocaust with Meryl Streep, Joseph Bottoms, James Woods and a host of other major actors, a depiction of Babi Yar is shown in it.
It was a terrible massacre, filmed for "archives" and they actually were running low on ammunition so many were buried alive under the large mound of bodies shot after them. Babies and children were not shot and sadly suffocated in their mothers' arms.
There were miraculously a few people who were able to dig themselves out and survive because they hadn't been shot. Oh it was the worse mass murder before the death camps were created, which as mentioned, were created based on the fact of the "waste" of ammunition and too much time.
This section of the Ukraine was indeed the centre of bloodshed throughout this time from both sides. It was also a place of bloodshed for several centuries earlier as it fell under the area of the Russian Empire as the Ukraine was actually split in half for a large time frame of its existence.
One of the saddest occurrences about the massacre at Babi Yar was the fact that it was one of the first German "recruiting fields" of Ukrainian collaborators. Eagerly seeking an escape from Stalin's starvation program of the area, a Ukrainian corp was created in support of Nazi "hospitality."
I recall learning about Babi Yar at a very young age. Our Jewish schools taught history to all ages as well as being raised in a family (on my Mum's side) with survivors of the Holocaust so these parts of history were part of our lives as long as I can remember. I recall being told about Auschwitz at the age of 5 as we were told why family members had tattoos on their arms and we were never to ask them why.
The other terrible part of Babi Yar was the fact that later in the war all the bodies were dug up and burnt in an attempt to "hide the evidence" despite archives of film reels that were never destroyed.
Such a terrible massacre. Over 30,000 Jews killed over a two day time frame and a mere 29 survivors.
From 1941-1943, an estimated 100,000-150,000 Were murdered in the ravine of Babi Yar.
My apologies for the details above but one that must never be forgotten because it was the beginning of mass murders under Nazi Germany.
re: Babi Yar commemoration
Here is the 2011 Ukrainian 70th year memorial stamp.
re: Babi Yar commemoration
"The massacre at Babi Yar was not, to my knowledge, featured on stamps until last year..."