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A Priest Methodically Reveals Ukrainian Jews' Fate

[New York Times] Elaine Sciolino - Patrick Desbois, 52, a French Roman Catholic priest, has been quietly seeking out the terrified witnesses to mass slaughter, roaming the back roads of Ukraine, hearing their stories and searching for the unmarked common graves. The Nazis killed nearly 1.5 million Jews in Ukraine after their invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941. But with few exceptions, most notably the 1941 slaughter of 34,000 Jews in the Babi Yar ravine in Kiev, much of that history has gone untold. Over four years, Father Desbois has videotaped more than 700 interviews with witnesses and bystanders and has identified more than 600 common graves of Jews, most of them previously unknown. Unlike in Poland and Germany, where the Holocaust remains visible through the searing symbols of the extermination camps, the horror in Ukraine was hidden away, first by the Nazis, then by the Soviets. "There was nothing to see in Ukraine because people were shot to death with guns," said Thomas Eymond-Laritaz, president of the Victor Pinchuk Foundation, Ukraine's largest philanthropic organization. "That's why Father Desbois is so important."
2007-10-12 01:00:00
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