Josef Burg, 97; author wrote about Jewish life during WWII Oct 9, 2009
His last book, A Piece of Dry Bread, told of a survivor of the Babi Yar massacre of more than 33,000 Jews outside of Kiev in 1941. Israel awarded Mr. Burg its Segal Prize for Yiddish writing in 1992. (Boston Globe)
Obituaries in the news Oct 3, 2009
Kiev marks Babi Yar anniversary with new monument. Stone-faced Nazi soldiers wielding rifles marched Kiev's sobbing Jews to be killed in the Babi Yar ravine as passers-by held back tears in a dramatic theatrical performance meant to mark the anniversary of the massacre Tuesday. (Fresno Bee -- Nation)
Ban on Kiev massacre-site hotel Sep 30, 2009
Plans to build a hotel near Ukraine's Babi Yar monument caused an outcry ... The approval of plans to build near a monument to victims of the Babi Yar massacre, where 34,000 Jews were killed in 1941, had been widely criticised ... The Babi Yar massacre is seen as one of the worst Nazi atrocities of WWII. (BBC News -- Europe)
* World News Quick Take Sep 30, 2009
Kiev authorities say they have scrapped a widely criticized plan to build a hotel near what experts say is a killing field in the Babi Yar massacre ... More than 33,700 Jews were rounded up and shot at the edge of Kievs Babi Yar ravine over two days in late September 1941. (Taipei Times, Taiwan -- World Business)
Kiev scraps hotel on Nazi killing site Sep 30, 2009
30,000-plus Jews were slain at site of infamous 1941 Babi Yar massacre. A man attends a mourning ceremony near Minora Monument on Babi Yar ravine in Kiev onSunday, marking the 68th anniversary of the beginning of mass execution of Jews there ... KIEV, Ukraine - Kiev authorities, facing withering criticism, have reversed a decision to build a hotel on a killing field used by Nazis during the infamous 1941 Babi Yar massacre, officials said Monday. (MSNBC -- International)
Babi Yar hotel decision condemned Sep 25, 2009
Plans to build a hotel near Ukraine's Babi Yar monument has shocked many ... One will be near a monument to victims of the Babi Yar massacre, where the Nazi killed 34,000 Jews in 1941 ... The hotel is set to be built in the middle of the main site of the killings, according to Vitaliy Nakhmanovich, a leading Ukrainian Babi Yar scholar, reports say. (BBC News -- Europe)
Book review: 'The Years of Extermination: Nazi Germany and the Jews 1939-1945,' by Saul Friedlander Sep 1, 2009
Consider this account of the handful of survivors from the Babi Yar massacre during 1941 in Russia, where tens of thousands of Jewish men, women and children were gunned down and buried in mass graves. a few elderly Jews (witnesses mention that there were nine of them) returned to Kiev and sat by the Old Synagogue. (Mattoon Journal-Gazette, IL)
Atlanta woman recalls Holocaust, playing piano for Nazis Apr 28, 2009
They did not know that a few months earlier, the Nazis had machine-gunned 34,000 Jews at Babi Yar, and buried them in mass graves. Her family was headed toward a similar fate when her father bribed a Ukrainian guard with his gold pocket watch, took off his coat and draped it over her shoulders. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution -- Living)
IN MY LIBRARY: CHRISTOPHER DURANG Apr 5, 2009
" Neither the Index nor the nuns at Our Lady of Peace parochial school kept Durang from reading widely as a child --and writing wildly ever after. The award-winning Yale School of Drama grad has trained his absurdist eye on everything from dogma ("Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It all For You") to dysfunctional family saga ("The Marriage of Bette and Boo") and film-noir satire ("Adrift in Macao"). His latest, a tale of homeland insecurity titled "Why Torture is Wrong, and the People Who Love... (New York Post -- Opinions)
