The story of Babin Yar Holocaust memorial
The story of Babin Yar Holocaust memorial,
Babin Yar is a valley in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, which in the last century witnessed one of the largest massacres against Jews.
German occupying forces murdered 33,000 Jewish men, women, and children on September 29-30, 1941.
The tragic accident occurred during World War II, during the occupation period,
when the site was used as a killing site by German forces.
It is reported that 70 to 100,000 people lost their lives in Babin Yar, and with no architecture for the tragedy and only “shattered” landscapes remaining,
people struggled for memory and public recognition.
The site was wiped out several times, then completely repaired over the years. Upon withdrawal, German soldiers burned the bodies, hoping to leave no physical trace behind.
New buildings replaced historical structures, mudslides occurred frequently in the gorge,
and eventually, it ended up with a 132-hectare public park covering the entire area.
It has also been considered an image of resistance against Soviet occupation,
with the first public acknowledgment of the tragic Ben Yar events in September of 1991,
50 years after the disaster and one month after Ukraine’s independence from the Soviet Union.
While the site contained individual traditional memorials of small size,
it was difficult to commemorate the tragedy on its true scale, with no architectural remains.
The Babin Yar Foundation was created in 2016 to support BYHMC – Babin Yar Holocaust Memorial Center,
in an effort to address the history of this region and reform the Holocaust narrative in bullets.
The story of Babin Yar Holocaust memorial
And in 2019, the Foundation launched its first architecture competition,
with a rigorous and highly detailed brief, leading the competition to a project whose conceptual ambitions were already constrained by the programme.
The competition then recognized that the end result could not look like any typical project,
located anywhere in the world.
The Advisory Committee collectively decided to change the approach,
in order to recognize the potential of the site, by acting and thinking on the scale of Babin Yar itself.
A year later Nick Axel joined the team to direct the Architectural Advisory Board of the Holocaust Remembrance Center
and bring the most persuasive people in the field to discuss and think “How to create a memorial on this 132 hectare site”.
The project was looking to create an interactive and personal experience related to the movements of people throughout the site,
with a new vision and new ambition.
By transforming a natural space into a monument, the first step was to imagine a place that people would like to return to,
with different architectural and artistic interventions.
The story of Babin Yar Holocaust memorial
There is not a single Babin Yar story, as there are arguably at least 100,000 Bayn Yar stories.
Given that it is so important not to limit the narrative, the project cannot be limited to a single museum,
not only mentioning Babin Yar’s story of the violence that occurred on its territory,
but also all the violence that occurred around the world.
Public-private collaboration has built 3 major interventions so far,
with the hope that Babyn Yar will be recognized as one of the major sites of the Holocaust.
The installation of Mirror Field, Babin Yar Synagogue by Manuel Herz,
and The Crystal Wall of Weeping by Marina Abramović.
This created new understandings and connections and site-based projects addressed metaphysical experiences,
reflecting limitations while bringing new ways of engaging with history.
The installation of Mirror Field was the foundation’s first on-site intervention,
designed and built in 6 weeks, setting aesthetic standards and setting future expectations.
Possibly a temporary intervention, it is currently on the site of one of the major future museums.
This composition creates a sound dimension, draws people in, and communicates a deeper level of the story to tell.
In addition to this the Babin Yar Synagogue designed by Manuel Herz was the first architectural element on the site,
realizing the spiritual side, the raison d’être behind the tragedy, the project,
a building-sized pop-up book built in 5 months, re-establishes connections, and brings practice back to Babin Yar .
he Babin Yar Holocaust Memorial Center (BYHMC) pursues bold plans and bold visions to structure
and guide the development of the 132-hectare site in Babin Yar, Kiev, and the international symbol of the Holocaust with bullets.
