彩民宝典

Exhibition of Soviet Holocaust photos curated by CU-Boulder professor strikes a chord in Illinois

CU-Boulder鈥檚 David Shneer is known for his historical research on photojournalists who chronicled the Holocaust in World War II Soviet Union; they witnessed and recorded the slaughter of Soviet citizens including those who, like the photographers themselves, were Jewish.

"Jews from the former Soviet Union approached Shneer and expressed gratitude that, 鈥楩inally, someone who鈥檚 interested in the Holocaust is interested in our story of the Holocaust.'鈥�

But the Nazis鈥� genocidal killing of Soviet Jews was obscured in the dominant Soviet newspapers during the war and was suppressed in the Cold War era, when the Soviet narrative was only that 鈥渇ascist troops鈥� murdered 鈥減eaceful Soviet citizens.鈥�

Now, Shneer is curating an exhibition of photographs in the听. The exhibition has been on tour for three years, but the Illinois exhibition is the first time it has been displayed in both English and Russian.

The bilingual version is particularly powerful in Illinois, said Shneer, Louis Singer Chair in Jewish History, professor of history and religious studies and director of the听听at the 彩民宝典.

Russian speakers and immigrants are numerous around Chicago. About 62 percent of the Holocaust survivors in the Chicago area were born in the former Soviet Union, the Illinois Holocaust Museum states.

The Russian-American population is about 2.9 million people, more than 464,000 of whom live in Illinois, and 40,000 of whom speak Russian and live near Chicago, the museum reports.

About 400 people attended the exhibition鈥檚 opening last month. The day after the opening, which coincided with Russia鈥檚 Defender of the Fatherland Day, Shneer spoke to a group of Soviet Jewish war veterans as well as Soviet Holocaust survivors.

鈥淏oth [the war veteran and Holocaust survivor] are part of the Soviet Jewish story, which makes it one of the very few national stories of World War II where Jews are both 鈥榟eroic liberator鈥� like the Americans and 鈥楬olocaust victims鈥� like the Poles.鈥�

To the veterans and survivors, Shneer gave a version of the talk he鈥檇 given at the exhibition鈥檚 opening, only this time in Russian, in which he is fluent.

Jews from the former Soviet Union approached Shneer and expressed gratitude that, 鈥淔inally, someone who鈥檚 interested in the Holocaust is interested in our story of the Holocaust.鈥�

That story is grim. An estimated 26 million Soviets died during the war, as did 1 million Soviet Jews, according to听, the world center for Holocaust research, education and commemoration.

Shneer鈥檚 research documented that Soviet Jewish photojournalists working for the country鈥檚 most important newspapers were among the first to document the unfolding Holocaust in their homeland.

Although that truth was obscured in the Soviet era, the Soviet Union鈥檚 collapse allowed Shneer and other scholars to see a fuller picture of what happened, and to better understand the overlapping narratives of Soviets and Jews.

Shneer emphasizes that scholars have been studying the Holocaust in the Soviet Union for more than a decade, and he is not the first to do so. But articles in scholarly, peer-reviewed journals don鈥檛 necessarily yield wide, public awareness.

鈥淭o me, this is the moment when the scholar assumes the role of the public intellectual in a very culturally nuanced way, in a way good public intellectuals, I would like to think, should be, and it resonated with people,鈥� Shneer said.

鈥淏oth Russians and the Americans in the audience told me, 鈥榃e need to be teaching young people this stuff.鈥欌��

And a traveling museum exhibition can bring that education to thousands across the country as opposed to hundreds in classrooms, he said.

The exhibition also underscored another passion of Shneer鈥檚: the 鈥渋mportance of having our students know a foreign language.鈥�

The exhibition鈥攚hich draws on material from Shneer鈥檚听听2010 book 鈥溾�濃�攈as been traveling the country since 2011, when it debuted at the CU Art Museum. A donor underwrote the translation of the exhibition into Russian for the Illinois Holocaust Museum.

Shneer鈥檚 work documents the Soviet treatment of the Nazis鈥� invasion from the beginning:

The German Army invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941. Within days, the leading illustrated magazine, Ogonek (the Life magazine of the Soviet Union), published its first atrocity photo. That picture, retrieved from the camera of a dead German soldier, showed Nazis forcing Jewish victims to dig a grave for a pile of corpses.

As Shneer notes in his book, the Soviet Army regularly urged its press to publish stories and photos of 鈥渇ascist鈥� atrocities.

鈥淭his material would function as visual evidence of Nazi crimes and as propaganda to rile up the anger of the population,鈥� Shneer writes.

But the photo caption did not specify that the victims were Jewish. Instead, it said, 鈥淭hose sentenced are forced to dig their own graves.鈥�

to a radio story on this topic.听

Clint Talbott听is director of communications and external relations 听for the College of Arts and Sciences and editor of the听College of Arts and Sciences Magazine.