SUMMARY:

This review essay discusses the two-volume publication of the diaries by Ivan Lysiak-Rudnyts’kyi, aka Ivan L. Rudnytsky (1919–1984) – a historian who has had a profound influence on modern Ukrainian historical writing. Specifically, the essay looks at what role, if any, Rudnytsky’s Jewish ancestry played in his private contemplations, especially in the 1930s and during the Nazi occupation of Poland and Ukraine, as well as in the aftermath of World War II and the Holocaust. The diaries reveal Rudnytsky’s deeply embedded cultural and racial antisemitism, which can be explained in part by his traumatic realization that he belonged to a stigmatized minority that later became a potential target of genocide. With time, Rudnytsky developed a genuine interest in Judaism and Jewish culture. Still, even decades after the war, he never mentioned the Holocaust and the participation of different Ukrainian political groups in it.