8 April (Kyiv) — On this day, The Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center (BYHMC) will unveil a new symbolic synagogue designed by the renowned architect Manuel Herz to commemorate the eightieth anniversary of the Babyn Yar massacre. The synagogue design takes its inspiration from pop-up books and from the wooden synagogues of Ukraine of the 17th and 18th century.
The symbolic synagogue, which is located near the site of the massacre, is an important component of the BYHMC’s efforts to remember the 34,000 Jewish victims shot at the Babyn Yar ravine by the Nazis in September 1941 and the tens of thousands of Ukrainians, Roma, mentally ill and others shot thereafter throughout the occupation of Kyiv. Called Babyn Yar Symbolic Synagogue, the structure takes its inspiration from the pop-up book. When closed, the building is a flat structure that is manually opened, and then unfolds into the three-dimensional space of the synagogue. It is an imaginative, one-of-a-kind design. Meanwhile, the interior references the wooden synagogues of Ukraine from the 17th and 18th century that have since been destroyed.
The symbolic synagogue is the first construction to be completed in the planned Babyn Yar memorial complex, which will stretch over an area of 150 hectares, making it one of the world’s largest Holocaust memorial centers. A dozen buildings will eventually be erected as part of the complex including: A museum to commemorate the Babyn Yar massacre; a museum to commemorate the Holocaust of Ukrainian and Eastern European Jewry as a whole; a structure depicting the names of the victims; a religious/spiritual center; an educational and scientific research center; a multi-media center; a learning and recreational space for children; an information and conference center and more.
Ilya Khrzhanovsky, BYHMC’s Artistic Director said: “Babyn Yar is a place of memory, history is literally absorbed by the ground here. We need to create a space that makes the story of Babyn Yar close, relevant to anyone, regardless of nationality, gender, age or religion. People who come to this territory will inevitably find themselves inside the knowledge of the Babyn Yar tragedy. The last generation of witnesses is passing away. Some more time, and the direct connection of time will disappear, future generations will lose the opportunity to understand, to know, to feel what happened 80 years ago. The Babyn Yar tragedy and the tragedy of the Second World War fade into history and become an abstraction. Our task is to avoid it.”
Herz, whose architectural practice is based in Switzerland, has completed projects including the Synagogue of Mainz and ‘Ballet Mécanique’ in Zurich with moving facades. Presently under development are a hospital in Tambacounda in eastern Senegal, plus other projects in Europe and Africa. Manuel has published widely on questions of space in Judaism and has taught at the ETH Zürich, Harvard Graduate School of Design, and the University of Basel.
For this project, which remarkably was only conceived at the end October 2020, Herz began with the Siddur (the book of prayers) and the Bible. He says: ‘If we conceptualize the synagogue as a building typology in its purest essence, we can consider it as a book. During the religious service, a congregation comes together, to collectively read a book. The shared reading of the book opens a world of wisdom, morals, history and anecdotes to the congregation. It is this notion that informs the design of the new Babyn Yar Synagogue.’
Herz then conflated this with something that is quite playful: the pop-up book. ‘The pop-up book is a magic book, that unfolds into three dimensions. From a flat object of a book, when we open it, new worlds unfold, that we could not imagine before. In a sense, the pop-up book can act as a metaphor for the Synagogue. Furthermore, the pop-up book triggers fascination: no-one can resist the temptation of opening up these books of wonders and explore them. This quality of a “cabinet of wonder” and a new universe that unfolds, is what I wanted to create in the location of Babyn Yar.’
The site for the Babyn Yar Synagogue is situated within the trees, just behind an existing small monument, a Menorah that dates back to the early 1990s. The building sits on a wooden platform that hovers slightly above the ground. Great care was taken to prevent a deep foundation, so as not to disturb the existing soil. The building itself is a wooden construction with an inner steel framework. When closed, the building is a flat, vertical of approximately 8 Meter in width and 11 Meter in height. The building is manually opened, and then unfolds into the three-dimensional space of the synagogue.
The opening process is a collective ritual, performed by the congregation, as a manual and physical task, intentionally without the support of a motor. The unfolding space, with the Bimah (reading platform for the Torah) in the center, with its benches and balcony, is this new universe that has opened by reading the book together.
Says Herz: ‘It’s not a static building that it imposes itself on the site in only one manifestation but the fact that it shrinks back to a slender vertical volume makes it have a tender approach to the ground. It transforms through a ritual a new collective ritual, a congregation who come to pray. They will open the synagogue together, a collective process which goes hand in hand with Jewish worshipping.’
The structure is made entirely of wood, sourced from old oak wood, coming from all parts of Ukraine. This ensures that the building has a unifying quality, down to the very material used in its construction. The wood is more than a hundred years old. It will therefore connect the time from before the massacre, to the contemporary era.
The walls are decorated with prayers and blessings, celebrating a reawakening. The main prayers of the Jewish liturgy, such as the Shma’ Israel, or the Kaddish are written on the walls. But also other less common blessings such as the blessing for turning a nightmare into a good dream, are displayed on the main wall, above the “Aron ha-Kodesh”, the place where the bible scrolls are kept. This blessing was written on the walls of the historic Synagogue of Gwozdziec of Western Ukraine dating back to the 17th century, and it is a perfect theme for the new Synagogue.
The ceiling is painted with a myriad of symbols and iconography also referencing the interior of the historic synagogues of Ukraine from the 17th and 18th century that have since been destroyed. It celebrates a colourful universe that will become visible above the heads of the visitors of the Synagogue. But these symbols have an additional meaning: Together, they recreate the star constellation that was visible over Kyiv on the night of September 29th, 1941. For the visitors, looking up into the ceiling of the new synagogue will create a subtle link to the night that the massacre started.
Concludes Herz: ‘I believe the dynamic quality of the building is important. Not only because it is a new ritual, and collective process. But also because it has a subtle quality: It does not impose itself on the territory. In a way it has a very tender approach to the ground. This ground which is almost sacred.’
For press information please contact Albany Arts Communications:
Mark Inglefield
mark@albanyartscommunications.com
t: +44 (0) 20 78 79 88 95; m: +44 (0) 75 84 19 95 00
Michelle Allen
michelle@albanyartscommunications.com
t: +44 (0) 20 78 79 88 95; m: +44 (0) 79 22 80 72 39
Notes to Editors
About the Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center
The Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Centre is a non-governmental charity whose purpose is to preserve and cultivate the memory of the Holocaust and the Babyn Yar tragedy in Ukraine by turning the Babyn Yar area into a place of remembrance. The Foundation’s mission is to worthily honour the memory of the victims of the tragedy and to contribute to the humanization of society through preserving and studying the history of the Holocaust. In September 2020, Ukraine’s government represented by the Minister of Culture Oleksandr Tkachenko, under the auspices of the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, signed a memorandum of understanding and cooperation with BYHMC, represented by Supervisory Board member Ronald S. Lauder, to promote the construction of a fitting memorial to the Babyn Yar tragedy. A series of commemorations during 2021 will mark the eightieth anniversary of the Babyn Yar tragedy.
In order to acquire, study and disseminate knowledge about this tragedy, an international foundation was established to support the creation of the Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center. This non-governmental organization is building the first modern Holocaust museum in Eastern Europe, establishing a center for the study of the tragedy, in which large-scale scientific and educational activities will be carried out. The Memorial Center will bring together a museum, research institutes, a library, an archive and an online multimedia platform. In the coming year, the Center’s focus will be the development of online projects dedicated to biographies of victims of the Babyn Yar tragedy, creation of a visual archive, and the comprehensive study of the distant and recent past of this territory.
In undertaking these activities, the Memorial Center maintains an open dialogue with Ukrainian society and pays special attention to the public discussion of the tragedy and the formation of a humanistic moral judgment on it.
The work of the Memorial Center is based on strict scientific knowledge. Historical materials undergo independent review and are approved by the Scientific Council which consists of 3 prominent experts from different countries. The principles of working with the past are enshrined in a document entitled “The Historical Narrative” which is available to all.
About Manuel Herz
Manuel Herz (1969) is an architect based in Basel, Switzerland. His projects include the Synagogue of Mainz (Germany), several housing projects across Europe, a museum extension in Ashdod (Israel), and the National Pavilion of the Western Sahara at the Venice Biennale, amongst others. Current projects include a hospital in Senegal and the redesign of the historic Synagogue of Cologne. His projects have received several prizes, including the German Facade Prize 2011, the Cologne Architecture Prize 2003, the German Architecture Prize for Concrete in 2004, and a nomination for the Mies van der Rohe Prize for European Architecture in 2011. His work has been featured in countless exhibitions and acquired by several museums, including the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York.
Manuel Herz graduated at the Architectural Association in London. After teaching at the Bartlett School of Architecture, London, and Harvard Graduate School of Design he was head of teaching and research at ETH Studio Basel - Institute of the Contemporary City. Following a visiting professorship at the ETH Zürich, he was appointed professor of architectural and urban design at the University of Basel.
His research focuses on spaces of diaspora and migration as well as on the relationship between the discipline of planning and (state) power. He has worked extensively on the architecture and urbanism of refugee camps, with a regional focus on Saharan and sub-Saharan Africa. His book “From Camp to City—Refugee Camps of the Western Sahara” documents how camps can be spaces of social emancipation. He was the curator and architect of the National Pavilion of the Western Sahara at the Venice Biennale of Architecture 2016. It was the first time that a refugee nation in exile has been represented at the Venice Biennale.
His award-winning book African Modernism—Architecture of Independence presents the architecture of countries such as Ghana, Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya, and Zambia at the time of their independence in the 1960s and 1970s. The accompanying exhibition, shown at the Vitra Design Museum, has been travelling to cities across Europe, the United States, and sub-Saharan Africa.
About the Babyn Yar Massacre
During 36 hours at the end of September, 1941, the German occupiers of Kyiv ordered Jews to report for what was appeared to be deportation. The march to the outskirts of town, however, led to Babyn Yar — Grandmother’s Ravine, also known as Babi Yar — where Germans and Ukrainians slaughtered 33,771 people, according to a preserved SS report. Most of the victims were women, children, and the elderly. In the following months, at least 70,000 people were murdered at the ravine, including Romanis, Ukrainian nationalists, and Soviet prisoners of war.
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