Mason Bennett – Staff Writer
mxb5302@psu.edu

Babyn Yar is an event Ukrainians—and the rest of the world—will never forget.
Behrend political science professor Dr. Lena Surzhko-Harned delivered a presentation on the
history and significance of Babyn Yar on Wednesday, Sept. 28.
Babyn Yar, a ravine in Kyiv, Ukraine, was a site of mass murder during the Holocaust. The
location, Surzhko-Harned said, saw the deaths of over 100,000 people.
“It was the first big mass murder that started the Holocaust,” Surzhko-Harned said. “It happened
in the first few months of the war.”
Sept. 29 marks the anniversary of the first tragedy at Babyn Yar in 1941. On that day, Nazis and
their collaborators murdered approximately 33,771 Jewish civilians.
“There was massive genocide all over the territory of Ukraine. The world promised to never
repeat it again,” Surzhko-Harned said.
Surzhko-Harned has been an instructor at Behrend for five years. Her research specialties include
comparative politics and European politics, among others.
“Right now, in 2022, there are so many people suffering and dying in Ukraine,” Surzhko-Harned
said. “Wherever Russian occupiers are, people are dying. It’s really traumatizing.”
In February of this year, Russian President Vladamir Putin announced the beginning of a full-
scale land, sea and air invasion of Ukraine. It began a conflict that has resulted in thousands of
lives lost for both sides.
The significance of the tragedy in 1941, Surzhko-Harned says, relates to Behrend students.
“Everything that has happened, everything that is happening now. It matters and it needs to be
talked about,” Surzhko-Harned said.
Surzhko-Harned went on to explain the relationship between Babyn Yar and the contemporary
conflict.
“Those who organized the genocide in 1941 and those who are organizing the genocide in 2022
are the same kind of people,” Surzhko-Harned said.
Babyn Yar is now a place of bereft reflection, where thousands of people travel to every year to
remember those who died. The tragedies of the Holocaust, Surzhko-Harned says, are only
exemplified by Russia today.