This Jewish association of Toulouse sees in the war in Ukraine a reminder of “Nazi barbarism”
The Independent Opinion: Were you shocked by the words of Russian President Vladimir Putin who said he wanted to “denazify” Ukraine when Volodymyr Zelensky, the President, is Jewish?
Yves Bounan: Of course, I am extremely shocked by these words of hatred, this shameful vocabulary which is only the most scandalous expression of Russian propaganda which definitely wants to wrongly make people feel guilty, in order to justify in the eyes of international opinion, its intervention assassin.
The historical reality is complex. This is clear proof of a fundamental change in mentalities in this country, which in the past has experienced heavy and tragic responsibilities in the murderous pogroms from which the Jews have suffered for centuries.
Fortunately, notable changes have taken place, to the point that the Ukrainian population has been appointed a Jew to head the country. There is also a real important Jewish cultural heritage: synagogues, museums, writers like Isaac Babel, musicians like Vladimir Horowitz, klezmer music, and many politicians like Moshe Dayan, Vladimir Jabotinsky or Goldman Meir…
In a video, the president called on Ukrainian Jews not to “remain silent” after Russian bombings hit the national television, adjoining the site of Babi Yar (Kiev), site of the largest Holocaust massacre in Ukraine. Putin is accused by the Ukrainian camp of wanting to “erase” history. Do you share this observation?
YB: The Babi Yar massacre constitutes the greatest massacre of the Holocaust by bullets to which Father Patrick Desbois (he was director of the National Service of the Bishops of France for relations with Judaism, editor’s note) a total his life. 33,771 Jews were murdered by the Nazis and their zealous local collaborators on September 29-30, 1941, west of Kiev. Other massacres took place under identical conditions which will increase the number of victims to more than 130,000 Jews until the establishment of the Syrets concentration camp in Ukraine.
It is therefore an extremely painful memory of the Holocaust. On reaching the television tower, this ‘unfortunate’ Russian fire, very violent, hit the monument of Babi Yar. The Ukrainians spontaneously interpreted this tragedy as the irrefutable proof of the deliberate will of the Russians to erase history.
Have you had any contact with the Jewish community in Ukraine? How did they react to this military operation?
YB: We have had no direct contact with the Jewish community in Ukraine. There are, of course, people who have made business or pleasure trips, but it is true that it is not a natural tourist destination. On the other hand, we know from other contacts, affected or American, that the population is paralyzed, panicked and like prisoners, stuck in the big cities in particular, those which are the targets chosen by the Russians.
There are nearly 70,000 Jews in Ukraine and many have found themselves or will have to find refuge abroad. What do you plan to do here in Haute-Garonne to help them?
YB: As French citizens, we participate in all efforts of solidarity with the martyred Ukrainian population, Jewish or not: donations, distribution of food, clothing, toys, medicine, participation in collective demonstrations, community radio broadcasts . We are preparing with the Jewish Social Action Committee of Toulouse a flexible reception system to accommodate migrants authorized to come to France.
Did these Jewish refugees of today remind you of the Jewish refugees of yesterday who were fleeing Nazi barbarism?
YB: These frightened refugees, with all the distress in the world in their eyes, obviously remind us of the sad reality of all populations displaced to escape misfortune, such as the Jews who wanted to flee Nazi barbarism. However, there is a huge difference. During the apocalyptic moments of the Second World War, Jews were not accepted anywhere and they were very rarely welcomed into European countries. No impulse of spontaneous solidarity identical to that which we see developing today. With the exception of the village of Chambon-sur-Lignon and the Anonymous Righteous who managed to hide and save Jews doomed to death.
They are designated as Righteous Among the Nations by the Yad Vashem Institute in Israel and we pay them a collective tribute every year, during the commemorations of the Vel’ d’Hiv Roundup on July 16, 1942. never or almost a piece of major information. Nearly a million Jews were driven out and fled with nothing in their pocket from their Arab country of origin when the State of Israel was created in May 1948.
Do you think Ukrainian Jews could ever return to Kyiv?
YB: You would have to be a diviner and interrogate the stars of human destiny to give you a reliable answer. We hope that one day they will allow us to return home, because tiny hopes remain and as the Talmud affirms: “In all tears a hope lingers.