The Russian Academy Of Arts

A memorial plaque commemorating Vasily Grossman was unveiled on January 26, 2009 on the apartment house, 23 Krasnoarmeyskaya street, where the writer lived.   It has been designed by Alexander Tsygal, People’s Artist of Russia, Full Member of the Russian Academy of Arts in association with the architect Alexander Velikanov, winner of several State Prizes of Russia and timed to the annual International Memorial Day for Victims of Holocaust on January 27.

The writer Vasily Grossman (1905-1964) served in the Soviet Army during the Great Patriotic War. For his heroic deeds in the battle of Stalingrad he was decorated with the Order of Red Star.

The “Black Book”, which contains works by Vasily Grossman and Ilya Erenburg, has been an attempt of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee and members of the American Jewish communities to document crimes against Jewish people in the years of Holocaust and participation of Jews in the resistance to Nazis during World War II.  Vasily Grossman’s documentary reports from the death camps Treblinka and Maidanek in Poland have been one of the first proofs (1943) of the Holocaust.  His article “Treblinka Hades” was presented as a legal document at the Nuremberg Trials.

The “ Black Book” was first published in the Russian language in  Jerusalem in 1980 and later in Kiev in 1997. 

print version