AFTER BABI YAR

I visited Babi Yar for the first time in the summer of 2016. We took the metro from the center of Kiev and were there in no time. We walked out of the tram and into a green park. And then, without any help from the kitsch memorials to the more than 33,000 Jews killed there, we found ourselves overwhelmed. Back in 1941. We walked along the tops of the ravines. We thought of those who had once walked that path. My partner walked separately. She said Kaddish. I worried about her. Was she okay? There is something in these places that changes you forever. You are one person before you visit and another after.