Between Satan & Beelzebub, It Is Sometimes Worth Choosing
Transcribing and translating the interviews for Baba Babee Skazala was fascinating in many ways. I was impressed by the courage, stamina and cheerfulness of the Ukrainian refugees, and the good humor they brought to their harrowing and heart-rending stories. I was impressed, also, by the deep pride they exhibited in their Ukrainian heritage, and their fluent command of our language. But perhaps the most striking part about these stories was the interviewees’ decision to leave the Soviet Union and settle (if only impermanently) in Nazi Germany...
Мій перший вірш написаний в окопі,
на тій сипкій од вибухів стіні,
коли згубило зорі в гороскопі
моє дитинство, вбите на війні.
Ліна Костенко
My first poem was written in a trench
upon that wall crumbling from explosions
when the stars in the horoscope were killed
by my childhood, executed in the war.
Lina Kostenko
Transcribing and translating the interviews for Baba Babee Skazala was fascinating in many ways. I was impressed by the courage, stamina and cheerfulness of the Ukrainian refugees, and the good humor they brought to their harrowing and heart-rending stories. I was impressed, also, by the deep pride they exhibited in their Ukrainian heritage, and their fluent command of our language. But perhaps the most striking part about these stories was the interviewees’ decision to leave the Soviet Union and settle (if only impermanently) in Nazi Germany...
From what I know of Ukrainian history, I certainly expected to find this kind of unanimous resentment towards the Soviets; yet I did not expect Nazi Germany to be a more favorable alternative. Having experienced both the Soviet regime from 1939 to 1941, and the Nazi occupation from then onwards, many of these Ukrainian immigrants willingly chose to live in Nazi Germany – which says a lot about the Soviet Union.
For instance, Ivanna M. took a three-month-long journey from Ukraine to Czechoslovakia by train, one which had no beds or bathrooms. She subsequently endured two labor camps, one of which was Strasshof, where the food “was impossible to eat.” The Nazis also sent her to work in Germany as an “ostarbeiter.” But even having endured those aspects of the Nazi occupation, she still made the decision to settle in Germany when the Soviet army pushed back against the Nazis in 1943. When she tried to leave Czechoslovakia to go west, the Soviets arrested her at the border and took away all her belongings, but let her go. And she made the decision to go to Germany – barefoot and empty-handed.
Another fascinating case, Sophia W. left her sick 2-year-old child behind in the Soviet Union when escaping to Germany, whom her father-in-law would care for while she fled. Dmytro F. went to school under the Nazis, determined to complete his education, though he had endured multiple hardships and humiliations: he was sent to punitive camps (“straf-lager”s) & forced to pick up small rocks under railway tracks, among other things.
Ukrainian Ostarbeiters Getting on a Train from Kyiv to Germany (PC: InfoUkes)
The interviewees explain their rationale for fleeing the USSR. Born in Western Ukraine, they all experienced the Soviet occupation of 1939, and the reoccupation of the territory by the Red Army in 1943. Orysya S.’s father constructed a factory only to see it expropriated by the Soviets, then by the Nazis. Her brother was arrested twice by the Soviets on charges of nationalist activity. Similarly, Ivanna M. spoke through tears about her sister who was executed by the Soviets for participating in the OUN (Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists). Dmytro F.’s family of farmers had their land taken away by the Soviets.
Joint German-Soviet Military Parade in Brest, Poland, 1939 (PC: Bundesarchiv)
Timothy Snyder’s book Bloodlands captures this unenviable fate of those trapped in between the front lines of the world’s deadliest war, having to choose between Satan and Beelzebub. In this spirit, interviewee Volodymyr H. clearly sees the Soviet Army as a land-hungry aggressor when explaining his reason for going west: “I was afraid that because Russian army was just very aggressive and I was afraid that they will invade all Europe and they will grab England, everything, so I said, as far as I can go, so it is America.” The Red Army is clearly not a liberator, but just as imperialistic as Hitler’s forces.
These stories are more than relevant today, and not just in the context of the refugee crisis. In many parts of Ukraine, Soviet propaganda still clouds people’s perception of the history of World War Two. I grew up in Kharkiv, a city where many people still see the history of the Soviet Union favorably. Until recently, before the decommunization campaign, I could walk along Lenin prospect and Dzerzhinsky street and see Lenin’s monument in Kharkiv’s central square. Unlike my parents, however, I was taught in Ukrainian history classes about the horrors of Stalin’s repression of the intelligentsia, the secret protocol to the Nazi-Soviet non-aggression pact that annexed Western Ukraine to Russia, the Holodomor famine, etc. To many people in the United States who were raised to hate the Soviet Union and everything it stands for, these stories will seem unsurprising. Yet, for modern-day Ukraine, they shed light on some important topics that have long been obscured by Soviet propaganda. Especially today, when Ukraine is suffering from Russian information warfare, the need for oral history of this kind is especially welcome and dire.
Demolition of Lenin Statue in Kharkiv, the Author's Home Town, September 2014 (PC: Kpamua)
Even the Americans' Allied soldiers back in 1945 did not fully understand the oppressive nature of the Soviet state. They were surprised to see, when the Soviets started taking people back home, that the Ukrainians resisted. “There were even cases when they jumped from windows to kills themselves because they did not want to go to Russia, because nothing good awaited them there. Then the Americans started wondering what was going on, why those people were afraid of going back to Russia. Poles went back to Poland, Italians to their country, but Ukrainians did not want to go anywhere, nor did the Lithuanians or the Estonians; they were afraid of coming back. Then the Americans realized who those people were, why they did not want to go back to Russia. They were afraid of being taken to Siberia – even those people who said: “I am going home, they are taking us home” – they were not really taking them home. They took them to Siberia and took away all their possessions.” (Baba Babee Skazala Interviewee)
Timothy Snyder’s book created the image of two evils, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, and raised some ethically difficult - and almost unanswerable questions - about comparing them. Yet people caught in between the fronts did face the real, tangible choice of where to live. And the fact that there were many who chose Nazi Germany makes us want to dig deeper into their pasts and tell their stories, especially to those in Ukraine and Russia who have been barred so long from the truth.
"Turangawaewae" - Standing Place
"Baba Babee Skazala" may have had its genesis when I was born (more on that in a later blog post), but I think it was really birthed as I came of age. Two and a half years ago, at the University of California, Berkeley, I auditioned for and enrolled in Berkeley Dance Project 2014. I could only dance in one piece because of my skating schedule - the piece was "Turangawaewae," choreographed by Jack Gray. This was perhaps providential.
Subtitled:
Where I Began to Consider My Ukrainian Ancestry in New Ways
photo credits for Turangawaewae pictures: unknown, believed to be Yvonne Portra.
"Baba Babee Skazala" may have had its genesis when I was born (more on that in a later blog post), but I think it was really birthed as I came of age. Two and a half years ago, at the University of California, Berkeley, I auditioned for and enrolled in Berkeley Dance Project 2014. I could only dance in one piece because of my skating schedule - the piece was "Turangawaewae," choreographed by Jack Gray. This was perhaps providential.
I cannot improve upon the class description for this piece, nor the process that led to it, so I will provide that description here, with attribution:
"Turangawaewae is the Maori word for Standing Place. It is a cultural concept of belonging and power. It means literally that your genealogy affiliates somewhere that connects you to the land where your ancestors lived, breathed, fought, loved, ate, hunted, dreamt and placed their stories of triumph and failure into the mountains, rivers and ocean. Even though we now find ourselves in the new generations of mixed descent, being raised away from where our blood and DNA comes from – the concept of Standing Place is important. It means that regardless of these things you have a right. The human right to belong to land. Not the land that you have bought from the Bank. But the Mother. The Earth. The country and nation that keeps your secrets and lineage close to her heart. Through blood and tears, oceans and desert, mountains to plains. The beauty of our earth is that we see the rise and lowering of the sun every day. The enlightenment of the moon and the passage way of the stars and galaxies that helped our ancestors navigate their futures across continents.
In 2014 we will dance this dance for us. The sacred ceremony of our peoples upon a land so distressed by the forgotten memory of the ancestors who once took care of it. We met each other, face to face, breath to breath and shared our stories. Shared the few words we knew of our languages, now decimated by English. We learnt to move our expression and we learnt to be together. Sharing times of intimacy. What lifts us, what lifts each other – we will discover and we will put our hearts and minds towards. The changing times and dimensions are here and we acknowledge this all through the honesty and truth of our REAL selves and our DANCE.
Mauriora tatou katoa – Life force to you all."
At first blush, one might wonder what a Maori concept has to do with Ukraine or being Ukrainian, but this description of Turangawaewae will, I think, resonate with many Ukrainians and the diaspora and refugees of many other peoples.
We were asked to contribute to the blog for the course. EuroMaidan was gripping my attention. Russia invaded Crimea. I started thinking. My blog entries are quoted here:
"I started thinking...where is my Standing Place?"
I am Ukraine
Berkeley is Russia.
СЛАВА УКРАЇНІ!
ГЕРОЯАМ СЛАВА!
Matej's Spring Break - Welcome Back All (you will have to visit this link to see me during one of my first trips to Ukraine, about age 3, and dancing at Soyuzivka, about age 7 :) )
"As spring break comes to a close, I wanted to share with everyone how amazing my break was. Unfortunately, I do not have any pictures, but I have my stories. I cannot wait to share these stories with all of you in person soon.
I wanted to share a little more about my family and where we come from – as well as my upbringing as a youngster. My interest in learning more of my family and ancestors has grown substantially with the influence of this dance project and Jack Gray’s insight, but also because of the recent events that have been happening in Ukraine. As some of you know already, I consider myself Ukrainian. My father’s side of the family is the Ukrainian side. His family is part of the diaspora, forced to flee their home during World War 2. The country’s history is one of struggle for national identity, as the name even means “borderlands,” and the land has been fought over for centuries. Through it all, Ukrainians have maintained a sense of identity that has not been extinguished – even through the “Holodomor,” the forced famine created by Stalin that killed millions of Ukrainians. Today, Ukrainians are again fighting for their country, as seen in the news.
In dedication to these current events, a friend and I did a little video for a video contest that was dedicated to those in Ukraine from us ->
[By the way, readers, that friend was Evan Yee, a childhood friend from Verona, NJ, cinematographer extraordinaire & collaborator on "Baba Babee Skazala"!]
It’s somewhat funny how I started dancing as part of that ethnic heritage and that I continue to dance today.
Unlike my father’s side of the family, my mother really contrasts with looking at her heritage, as someone who was adopted, and has no access to actual family background. So, her and then me, in a sense – adopt the English background of her adoptive parents. But, since we have no way of knowing what the background really is, she always feels that she has to go deeper to “find her center” and she has said that, “I have always felt that somehow that place is not a physical place – maybe because I don’t really have one to go back to.”
There is a combination of physical standing place in my Ukrainian heritage and the “deeper” place that is embedded in me and I would like to show you all. Maybe that is the passion that I am often associated with."
I hope you enjoy this clip of "Turangawaewae," and join us on the journey of developing "Baba Babee Skazala"!
