Old page wikitext, before the edit (old_wikitext) | '{{other uses}}
{{Infobox holocaust event
| name = Babi Yar
| image = Babi Jar ravijn.jpg
| caption = Babi Yar ravine in [[Kiev]]
| AKA = Babyn Yar, Babi Jar
| location = Kiev
| date = 29–30 September 1941
| incident_type = [[Genocide]], mass murder
| perpetrators = [[Friedrich Jeckeln]], [[Otto Rasch]], [[Paul Blobel]], [[Kurt Eberhard]] and others
| participants =
| organizations = [[Einsatzgruppen]], [[Ordnungspolizei]], [[Schutzstaffel#Special action units|Sonderkommando 4a]]
| camp = [[Syrets concentration camp]]
| ghetto =
| victims = 33,771 Jews in initial two-day massacre {29 survived}<br>100,000–150,000 Jews, Soviet prisoners of war, Romanis and Ukrainian Nationalists on later dates
| survivors =
| witnesses =
| documentation =
| memorials = On site and elsewhere
| notes = Possibly the largest two-day massacre during [[the Holocaust]]. [[Syrets concentration camp]] was also located in the area. Massacres occurred at Babi Yar from 29 September 1941 to 6 November 1943, when Soviet forces liberated Kiev.
}}
'''Babi Yar''' ({{lang-uk|Бабин Яр}}, '''''Babyn Yar'''''; {{lang-ru|Бабий Яр}}, '''''Babiy Yar''''') is a [[ravine]] in the [[Ukraine|Ukrainian]] capital [[Kiev]] and a site of [[massacre]]s carried out by [[Nazi Germany|German]] forces and by local Ukrainian collaborators during [[Eastern Front (World War II) | their campaign]] against the [[Soviet Union]] in [[World War II]]. The first, and best documented, of the massacres took place on 29–30 September 1941, killing approximately 33,771 [[Jews]]. The decision to kill all the Jews in Kiev was made by the military governor, Major-General [[Kurt Eberhard]], the Police Commander for Army Group South, SS-''[[Obergruppenführer]]'' [[Friedrich Jeckeln]], and the ''Einsatzgruppe'' C Commander [[Otto Rasch]]. [[Schutzstaffel#Special action units|Sonderkommando]] 4a soldiers, along with the aid of the [[Sicherheitsdienst|SD]] and [[Ordnungspolizei#Police Battalions|SS Police Battalion]]s backed by [[Ukrainische Hilfspolizei#Participation in Holocaust and Nazi atrocities|the Ukrainian Auxiliary Police]] carried out the orders.<ref name="Berkhoff-2">{{cite web | url= https://books.google.com/books?id=hyYGOyX1IQUC&pg=PA303&dq=%22Ukrainian+sources+also+name+paramilitary+and+auxiliary+police+formations%22#v=onepage&q=%22Ukrainian%20sources%20also%20name%20paramilitary%20and%20auxiliary%20police%20formations%22&f=false | title= Babi Yar Massacre | work= The Shoah in Ukraine: History, Testimony, Memorialization | date = May 28, 2008 | accessdate= February 23, 2013 | author= Karel C. Berkhoff | page= 303 | format= Google book preview | isbn= 0253001595}}</ref>
The massacre was the largest mass-killing under the auspices of the Nazi regime and its collaborators during its campaign against the Soviet Union<ref>{{cite book | title= The Wehrmacht: History, Myth, Reality | author= Wolfram Wette | authorlink = Wolfram Wette | year= 2006 | page= 112 | publisher= Harvard University Press}}</ref> and has been called "the largest single massacre in the history of [[the Holocaust]]" to that particular date,<ref name="Lower">[[Wendy Lower]], {{cite web|url= http://moses.creighton.edu/JRS/pdf/2007-18.pdf |title= From Berlin to Babi Yar. The Nazi War Against the Jews, 1941–1944 |accessdate= 2014-04-24 |deadurl= bot: unknown |archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20090305074504/http://moses.creighton.edu/JRS/pdf/2007-18.pdf |archivedate= 2009-03-05 |df= }} ''Journal of Religion & Society'', Volume 9 (2007). The Kripke Center, [[Towson University]]. I.S.S.N 1522–5658. Retrieved from Internet Archive, May 24, 2013.</ref> surpassed only by the [[1941 Odessa massacre]] of more than 50,000 Jews in October 1941 (committed by [[Romania in World War II#Romania and the Holocaust|German and Romanian troops]]) and by ''[[Aktion Erntefest]]'' of November 1943 in [[occupied Poland]] with 42,000–43,000 victims.<ref name="Browning">{{cite web | url= http://hampshirehigh.com/exchange2012/docs/BROWNING-Ordinary%20Men.%20Reserve%20Police%20Battalion%20101%20and%20the%20Final%20Solution%20in%20Poland%20(1992).pdf | title= Arrival in Poland | publisher= Penguin Books | work= Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland | date= 1992–1998 | accessdate= May 24, 2013 | last= Browning | first= Christopher R. | author-link= Christopher Browning | pages= 135–142 | format= PDF file, direct download 7.91 MB complete | quote= ''Also:'' [https://www.webcitation.org/6GIJ2XpOy?url=http://hampshirehigh.com/exchange2012/docs/BROWNING-Ordinary%20Men.%20Reserve%20Police%20Battalion%20101%20and%20the%20Final%20Solution%20in%20Poland%20%281992%29.pdf PDF cache archived by WebCite.] | deadurl= no | archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20131019043400/http://hampshirehigh.com/exchange2012/docs/BROWNING-Ordinary%20Men.%20Reserve%20Police%20Battalion%20101%20and%20the%20Final%20Solution%20in%20Poland%20(1992).pdf | archivedate= October 19, 2013 | df= }}</ref>{{qn|date=September 2017}}
Victims of other massacres at the site included Soviet [[prisoner of war|prisoners of war]], communists, [[Ukrainian nationalists]] and [[Romani people|Roma]].<ref>[http://www.jpost.com/Jerusalem-Report/Jewish-World/A-Museum-for-Babi-Yar A Museum for Babi Yar] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130626000548/http://www.jpost.com/Jerusalem-Report/Jewish-World/A-Museum-for-Babi-Yar |date=2013-06-26 }}, ''[[The Jerusalem Post]]'' (23 October 2011)</ref><ref name=BYUnk2/><ref name=BYUnk1/> It is estimated that between 100,000 and 150,000 people were killed at Babi Yar during the German occupation.<ref name="rpmag1">
{{cite book
|last= Magocsi|first= Paul Robert
|title= A History of Ukraine|year= 1996
|publisher= University of Toronto Press|page= 633
|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=t124cP06gg0C&printsec=frontcover&dq=A+History+of+Ukraine
|isbn= 978-0-8020-7820-9
}}
</ref>
==Historical background==
The Babi Yar (Babyn Yar) ravine was first mentioned in historical accounts in 1401, in connection with its sale by "baba" (an old woman), the ''cantiniere'', to the [[Dominican Order|Dominican]] Monastery.<ref name=VK>Anatoliy Kudrytsky, editor-in-chiev, ''"Vulytsi Kyeva" (The Streets of Kiev)'', Ukrainska Entsyklopediya
, {{ISBN|5-88500-070-0}}</ref> The word "yar" is [[Turkic language|Turkic]] in origin and means "gully" or "ravine." In the course of several centuries the site had been used for various purposes including military camps and at least two cemeteries, among them an [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Orthodox Christian]] cemetery and a Jewish cemetery. The latter was officially closed in 1937.{{Citation needed|date = September 2016}}
==Massacres of 29–30 September 1941==
{{See also|Battle of Kiev (1941)}}
[[File:Big-babijar14.jpg|thumb|right|Notice dated September 28, 1941 in [[Russian language|Russian]], [[Ukrainian language|Ukrainian]] with [[German language|German]] translation ordering all Kievan Jews to assemble for supposed resettlement]]
[[File:Paul Blobel.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Paul Blobel]] at the [[subsequent Nuremberg trials]], March 1948]]
Axis forces, mainly German, occupied Kiev on 19 September 1941. Between 20 and 28 September, explosives planted by the Soviet [[NKVD]] caused extensive damage in the city; and on 24 September an explosion rocked Rear Headquarters Army Group South.<ref name="kyivpost">{{cite news | title=Remembering the Kyiv Inferno, 1941 | work=Kyiv Post | date=September 25, 2016 }}</ref> Two days later, on 26 September, Maj. Gen. [[Kurt Eberhard]], the military governor, and SS-[[Obergruppenführer]] [[Friedrich Jeckeln]], the [[SS and Police Leader]] met at Rear Headquarters Army Group South. There, they made the decision to exterminate the Jews of Kiev, claiming that it was in retaliation for the explosions.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QSpUZ6t6BPwC&pg=PA95&dq=Kurt+Eberhard+kiev&hl=de&ei=ooaVTb_5L4OVswbYk7C_CA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=9&ved=0CF4Q6AEwCDgK#v=onepage&q=Kurt%20Eberhard%20kiev&f=false
|title=War of Annihilation: Combat and Genocide on the Eastern Front|first1= Geoffrey P.|last1=Megargee|authorlink= Geoffrey P. Megargee| publisher=Rowman&Littlefield|year=2006|isbn=978-0-7425-4481-9|page=95|language=}}<br/>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tdYkMPfUSUAC&pg=PA141&dq=Kurt+Eberhard+kiew&hl=de&ei=aYWVTeWmPMHFswapsrC8CA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=7&ved=0CFsQ6AEwBg#v=onepage&q=eberhard&f=false|title=A War to be won: Fighting the Second World War|first1= Williamson
|last1=Murray|first2= Allan R.|last2=Millett|publisher=Harvard University Press
|year=2001|isbn=0-674-00680-1|page=141|language=}}</ref> Also present were SS-[[Standartenführer]] [[Paul Blobel]], commander of ''Sonderkommando 4a'', and his superior, SS-[[Brigadeführer]] Dr. [[Otto Rasch]], commander of ''[[Einsatzgruppen|Einsatzgruppe C]]''. The mass-killing was to be carried out by units under the command of Rasch and Blobel, who were ultimately responsible for a number of atrocities in Soviet Ukraine during the summer and autumn of 1941.
The implementation of the order was entrusted to Sonderkommando 4a, commanded by Blobel, under the general command of Friedrich Jeckeln.<ref>[http://www.holocaustchronicle.org/staticpages/270.html 1941: Mass Murder] {{webarchive|url=https://www.webcitation.org/6DXmHYAY2?url=http://www.holocaustchronicle.org/staticpages/270.html |date=2013-01-09 }} The Holocaust Chronicle. p. 270</ref> This unit consisted of [[Sicherheitsdienst|SD]] and [[Sicherheitspolizei|Sipo]], the third company of the Special Duties [[Waffen-SS]] battalion, and a platoon of the 9th Police Battalion. Police Battalion 45, commanded by Major Besser, conducted the massacre, supported by members of a Waffen-SS battalion. Contrary to the myth of the "[[clean Wehrmacht]]", the [[Sixth Army (Wehrmacht)|Sixth Army]] under the command of Field Marshal [[Walter von Reichenau]] worked together with the SS and SD to plan and execute the mass-murder of the Jews of Kiev.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Wette| first1=Wolfram| authorlink1 = Wolfram Wette | title=Die Wehrmacht : Feindbilder, Vernichtungskrieg, Legenden|date=2005|publisher=Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verl.|location=Frankfurt am Main|isbn=3596156459|pages=115–128|edition=Überarb. Ausg.}}</ref>
On 26 September 1941 the following order was posted:
{{quote|source=|All Yids{{efn|name="yids"}} of the city of Kiev and its vicinity must appear on Monday, September 29, by 8 o'clock in the morning at the corner of Mel'nikova and Dorohozhytska streets (near the Viis'kove cemetery). Bring documents, money and valuables, and also warm clothing, linen, etc.
''Any Yids{{efn|name="yids"|The order was posted in German, Ukrainian, and in the largest letters, Russian. In only the Russian version is the defamatory word "Zhid" used for Jews. The respectful Russian word is Yevrey. Ukrainian and Russian are not the same language. The word "zhyd" in Ukrainian is not defamatory at all, as noted by [[Nikita Khrushchev]] in his memoirs, "I remember that once we invited Ukrainians, Jews and Poles...to a meeting at the Lvov [Lviv] opera house. It struck me as very strange to hear the Jewish speakers at the meeting refer to themselves as "yids." "We yids hereby declare ourselves in favour of such-and-such." Out in the lobby after the meeting I stopped some of these men and demanded, "How dare you use the word "yid?" Don't you know it's a very offensive term, an insult to the Jewish nation?" "Here in the Western Ukraine it's just the opposite," they explained. "We call ourselves yids...Apparently what they said was true. If you go back to Ukrainian literature...you'll see that "yid" isn't used derisively or insultingly." <ref>Nikita Khrushchev, Khrushchev Remembers (New York, Bantam Books, 1971), page 145.</ref>}} who do not follow this order and are found elsewhere will be shot. Any civilians who enter the dwellings left by Yids{{efn|name="yids"}} and appropriate the things in them will be shot.''|Order posted in Kiev in Russian, Ukrainian, and German on or around 26 September 1941.<ref name=Berenbaum97>[[Michael Berenbaum|Berenbaum, Michael]]. ''The World Must Know'', United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, this edition 2006, pp. 97–98.</ref>}}
On 29 and 30 September 1941, a special team of [[Nazi Germany|German]] [[Schutzstaffel|SS]] troops supported by other German units and local collaborators, from western Ukraine mostly, murdered approximetly 33,771 [[Jews|Jewish]] civilians after taking them to the ravine.<ref name="USHMM">[[United States Holocaust Memorial Museum]], "[http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005421 Kiev and Babi Yar] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070103133722/http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005421 |date=2007-01-03 }}," ''[http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/ Holocaust Encyclopedia] {{webarchive|url=http://archive.wikiwix.com/cache/20110224095524/http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/ |date=2011-02-24 }}''.</ref><ref>''A Community of Violence: The SiPo/SD and Its Role in the Nazi Terror System in Generalbezirk Kiew'' by Alexander V. Prusin. Holocaust Genocide Studies, Spring 2007; 21: 1 – 30.</ref><ref name=HC-270>Staff. [http://www.holocaustchronicle.org/staticpages/270.html The Holocaust Chronicle: Massacre at Babi Yar] {{webarchive|url=https://www.webcitation.org/6DXmHYAY2?url=http://www.holocaustchronicle.org/staticpages/270.html |date=2013-01-09 }}, [http://www.holocaustchronicle.org/index.html The Holocaust Chronicle web site] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080920131645/http://www.holocaustchronicle.org/index.html |date=2008-09-20 }}, Access 17 December 2007</ref><ref>{{cite journal|url=http://www.brandeis.edu/gsa/gradjournal/2004/khiterer2004.pdf |title=Babi Yar: The tragedy of Kiev's Jews |author=Victoria Khiterer |year=2004 |journal=Brandeis Graduate Journal |volume=2 |pages=1–16 |accessdate=2008-01-20 |format=PDF |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20071128164646/http://www.brandeis.edu/gsa/gradjournal/2004/khiterer2004.pdf |archivedate=2007-11-28 |deadurl=no |df= }}</ref>
The commander of the [[Einsatzkommando]] reported two days later:<ref name="Gilbert">[[Martin Gilbert]] (1985): ''The Holocaust: A History of the Jews of Europe During the Second World War'', [[Holt, Rinehart and Winston]]. {{ISBN|0-03-062416-9}}, page 202.</ref>
{{quote|The difficulties resulting from such a large scale action—in particular concerning the seizure—were overcome in Kiev by requesting the Jewish population through wall posters to move. Although only a participation of approximately 5,000 to 6,000 Jews had been expected at first, more than 30,000 Jews arrived who, until the very moment of their execution, still believed in their resettlement, thanks to an extremely clever organization.<ref>Nuremberg Military Tribunal, ''Einsatzgruppen trial'', Judgment, at page 426, quoting exhibit NO-3157.</ref>}}
According to the testimony of a truck driver named Hofer, victims were ordered to undress and were beaten if they resisted:
{{quote|I watched what happened when the Jews—men, women and children—arrived. The Ukrainians{{efn|name="Ukrainians"|It must be noted that while the witness referred to "[t]he Ukrainians" there has only been one documented Ukrainian speaker at Babi Yar, and that was Second Lieutenant Joseph Muller, an ethnic German from [[Galicia (eastern Europe)|Galicia]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/the-dark-secrets-of-babi-yar-1583.html|title=The dark secrets of Babi Yar - Oct. 02, 1998|author=|date=2 October 1998|website=kyivpost.com|accessdate=14 March 2018|deadurl=no|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150218141949/http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/the-dark-secrets-of-babi-yar-1583.html|archivedate=18 February 2015|df=}}</ref> Thus, it is more accurate to describe these people as "Ukrainian speakers." A German policeman who guarded Babi Yar testified in 1965 that "the Jews were guarded by Wehrmacht units and by a Hamburg Police Battalion, which, as far as I can remember, carried the number 303.<ref>[[Peter Longerich]], ed., Die ermordung der euopaischen Juden: Eine umfassende Dokumentation de Holocaust 1941-1945 (Munich and Zurich, 1989), p. 123.</ref>}} led them past a number of different places where one after the other they had to give up their luggage, then their coats, shoes and over-garments and also underwear. They also had to leave their valuables in a designated place. There was a special pile for each article of clothing. It all happened very quickly and anyone who hesitated was kicked or pushed by the Ukrainians <small>[''sic'']</small>{{efn|name="Ukrainians"}} to keep them moving.|Michael Berenbaum: "Statement of Truck-Driver Hofer describing the murder of Jews at Babi Yar"<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.einsatzgruppenarchives.com/hofer.html |title="Statement of Truck-Driver Hofer describing the murder of Jews at Babi Yar" |accessdate=2006-01-09 |deadurl=yes |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070606213149/http://www.einsatzgruppenarchives.com/hofer.html |archivedate=2007-06-06 |df= }} cited in [[Michael Berenbaum|Berenbaum, Michael]]: ''Witness to the Holocaust.'' New York: [[HarperCollins]]. 1997. pp. 138–139. Retrieved from Internet Archive, April 26, 2013.</ref>}}
The crowd was large enough that most of the victims could not have known what was happening until it was too late; by the time they heard the [[machine gun]] fire, there was no chance to escape. All were driven down a corridor of soldiers, in groups of ten, and then shot. A truck driver described the scene.
{{quote|Once undressed, they were led into the ravine which was about 150 metres long and 30 metres wide and a good 15 metres deep … When they reached the bottom of the ravine they were seized by members of the ''Schutzpolizei'' and made to lie down on top of Jews who had already been shot … The corpses were literally in layers. A police marksman came along and shot each Jew in the neck with a [[submachine gun]] … I saw these marksmen stand on layers of corpses and shoot one after the other … The marksman would walk across the bodies of the executed Jews to the next Jew, who had meanwhile lain down, and shoot him.<ref name=Berenbaum97/>}}
[[File:Dina pronicheva trial big.jpg|thumb|[[Dina Pronicheva]] on the witness stand, 24 January 1946, at a Kiev war-crimes trial of fifteen members of the German police responsible for the occupied [[Kiev]] region.]]
In the evening, the Germans undermined the wall of the ravine and buried the people under the thick layers of earth.<ref name="Gilbert" /> According to the Einsatzgruppe's Operational Situation Report, 33,771 Jews from Kiev and its suburbs were systematically shot dead by machine-gun fire at Babi Yar on 29 September and 30 September 1941.<ref>[http://www.einsatzgruppenarchives.com/osr101.html Operational Situation Report No. 101] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061207163856/http://www.einsatzgruppenarchives.com/osr101.html |date=2006-12-07 }} (einsatzgruppenarchives.com)</ref> The money, valuables, underwear, and clothing of the murdered were turned over to the local [[volksdeutsche|ethnic Germans]] and to the Nazi administration of the city.<ref>Nuremberg Military Tribunal, ''Einsatzgruppen trial'', Judgment, at page 430.</ref> Wounded victims were buried alive in the ravine along with the rest of the bodies.<ref>{{cite book|last=Lawrence|first=Bill|title=Six Presidents, Too Many Wars|year=1972|publisher=Saturday Review Press|location=New York|page=93}}</ref>
==Survivors==
One of the most often-cited parts of [[Anatoly Kuznetsov]]'s documentary novel [[Babi Yar: A Document in the Form of a Novel|''Babi Yar'']] is the testimony of [[Dina Pronicheva]], an actress of the Kiev Puppet Theatre, and a survivor.<ref name="Brandon">{{cite book |title=The Shoah in Ukraine: history, testimony, memorialisation |page=12 |author1=Ray Brandon |author2=Wendy Lower | authorlink2=Wendy Lower | isbn=978-0-253-35084-8 |year=2008 |publisher=Indiana University Press}}</ref> She was one of those ordered to march to the ravine, to be forced to undress and then be shot. Jumping before being shot and falling on other bodies, she played dead in a pile of corpses. She held perfectly still while the Nazis continued to shoot the wounded or gasping victims. Although the SS had covered the mass grave with earth, she eventually managed to climb through the soil and escape. Since it was dark, she had to avoid the torches of the Nazis finishing off the remaining victims still alive, wounded and gasping in the grave. She was one of the very few survivors of the massacre and later related her horrifying story to Kuznetsov.<ref>"[https://www.pbs.org/wnet/heritage/episode8/documents/documents_13.html A Survivor of the Babi Yar Massacre] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080314025912/http://www.pbs.org/wnet/heritage/episode8/documents/documents_13.html |date=2008-03-14 }}," ''Heritage: Civilization and the Jews'' ([[Public Broadcasting Service|PBS]]). Gilbert (1985): 204–205.</ref> At least 29 survivors are known.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.izvestia.ru/hystory/article3096753/ |title=Archived copy |accessdate=2008-02-17 |deadurl=no |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080217041238/http://www.izvestia.ru/hystory/article3096753/ |archivedate=2008-02-17 |df= }}</ref>
In 2006, [[Yad Vashem]] and other Jewish organisations started a project to identify and name the Babi Yar victims, but so far only 10% have been identified. Yad Vashem has recorded the names of around 3,000 Jews killed at Babi Yar, as well as those of some 7,000 Jews from [[Kiev]] who were killed during [[the Holocaust]].<ref name="haaretz06">{{cite web |url=http://www.haaretz.com/news/yad-vashem-tries-to-name-babi-yar-victims-but-only-10-identified-1.198036 |title=Yad Vashem tries to name Babi Yar victims, but only 10% identified |accessdate=2010-08-03 |publisher=Haaretz |author=Amiram Barkat and Haaretz Correspondent |date=September 2006 |deadurl=no |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110523040842/http://www.haaretz.com/news/yad-vashem-tries-to-name-babi-yar-victims-but-only-10-identified-1.198036 |archivedate=2011-05-23 |df= }}</ref>
==Further massacres==
{{See also|List of victims of the Babi Yar massacre}}
In the months that followed, thousands more were seized and taken to Babi Yar where they were shot. It is estimated that more than 100,000 residents of Kiev of all ethnic groups,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.day.kiev.ua/124453/ |title=Бабин Яр: два дні — два роки — двадцяте століття /ДЕНЬ/ |publisher=Day.kiev.ua |date=2007-11-28 |accessdate=2012-03-07 |deadurl=no |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20050405015440/http://www.day.kiev.ua/124453/ |archivedate=2005-04-05 |df= }}</ref><ref>Юрій Шаповал (February 27, 2009),{{cite web|url=http://litakcent.com/2009/02/27/babyn-jar-dolja-tekstu-ta-avtora.html |title="Бабин Яр": доля тексту та автора. |accessdate=2010-08-28 |deadurl=bot: unknown |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20100112222214/http://litakcent.com/2009/02/27/babyn-jar-dolja-tekstu-ta-avtora.html |archivedate=2010-01-12 |df= }} Літакцент, 2007-2009.</ref><ref>Yury Shapoval, "The Defection of Anatoly Kuznetsov", День, January 18, 2005.</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://1000years.uazone.net/babyn_jar.htm |title=Бабин яр – Бабий яр – Babij jar – Babyn jar |publisher=1000years.uazone.net |date= |accessdate=2012-03-07 |deadurl=no |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120308235419/http://1000years.uazone.net/babyn_jar.htm |archivedate=2012-03-08 |df= }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005421 |title=Kiev and Babi Yar |publisher=Ushmm.org |date= |accessdate=2012-03-07 |deadurl=no |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120119051904/http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005421 |archivedate=2012-01-19 |df= }}</ref> mostly civilians, were murdered by the Nazis there during [[World War II]].<ref name="USHMM" /><ref name=Spector>Shmuel Spector, "Babi Yar," ''Encyclopedia of the Holocaust'', Israel Gutman, editor in chief, [[Yad Vashem]], Sifriat Hapoalim, New York: Macmillan, 1990. 4 volumes. {{ISBN|0-02-896090-4}}. An excerpt of the article is available at Ada Holtzman, "[http://www.zchor.org/BABIYAR.HTM Babi Yar: Killing Ravine of Kiev Jewry – WWII] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121230194729/http://www.zchor.org/BABIYAR.HTM |date=2012-12-30 }}", ''We Remember! Shalom!''.</ref> A concentration camp was also built in the area.
Mass executions at Babi Yar continued until the Nazis evacuated the city of Kiev. On 10 January 1942 about 100 captured Soviet sailors were executed there after being forced to disinter and cremate the bodies of previous victims. In addition, Babi Yar became a place of execution of residents of five Gypsy camps. Patients of the Ivan Pavlov [[Psychiatric Hospital]] were gassed and then dumped into the ravine.{{citation needed|date=October 2011}} Thousands of other Ukrainians were killed at Babi Yar.<ref>[http://history1900s.about.com/od/holocaust/a/babiyar_2.htm Babi Yar (Page 2)] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070611172138/http://history1900s.about.com/od/holocaust/a/babiyar_2.htm |date=2007-06-11 }} by Jennifer Rosenberg (about.com)</ref> Among those murdered were 621 members of the [[Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists]] (OUN).<ref name=BYUnk2>{{cite web |url=http://www.zionism-israel.com/dic/Babi_Yar.htm |title=Archived copy |accessdate=2014-12-26 |deadurl=no |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20141227012518/http://www.zionism-israel.com/dic/Babi_Yar.htm |archivedate=2014-12-27 |df= }} Zionism and Israel - Encyclopedic Dictionary - Babi Yar</ref> Ukrainian poet and activist [[Olena Teliha]] and her husband, and renowned [[bandurist]] [[Mykhailo Teliha]], were murdered there on 21 February 1942.<ref name=BYUnk1>Ludmyla Yurchenko, "[http://www.cym.org/archives/olena_teliha.asp Life is not to be sold for a few pieces of silver: The life of Olena Teliha] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070814045451/http://www.cym.org/archives/olena_teliha.asp |date=2007-08-14 }}", Ukrainian Youth Association.</ref> Also killed in 1941 was Ukrainian activist writer [[Ivan Rohach]], his sister, and his staff.
Upon the Soviet liberation of Kiev in 1943, Soviet officials led Western journalists to the site of the massacres and allowed them to interview survivors. Among them were [[Bill Lawrence (news personality)|Bill Lawrence]] of ''[[The New York Times]]'' and [[Bill Downs]] of [[CBS News|CBS]]. Downs described in a report to ''[[Newsweek]]'' what he had been told by one of the survivors, Efim Vilkis:
{{quote|However, even more incredible was the actions taken by the Nazis between August 19 and September 28 last. Vilkis said that in the middle of August the SS mobilized a party of 100 [[Soviet prisoners of war (Nazi Germany)|Russian war prisoners]], who were taken to the ravines. On August 19 these men were ordered to disinter all the bodies in the ravine. The Germans meanwhile took a party to a nearby Jewish cemetery whence marble headstones were brought to Babii Yar [sic] to form the foundation of a huge [[funeral pyre]]. Atop the stones were piled a layer of wood and then a layer of bodies, and so on until the pyre was as high as a two-story house. Vilkis said that approximately 1,500 bodies were burned in each operation of the furnace and each funeral pyre took two nights and one day to burn completely. The cremation went on for 40 days, and then the prisoners, who by this time included 341 men, were ordered to build another furnace. Since this was the last furnace and there were no more bodies, the prisoners decided it was for them. They made a break but only a dozen out of more than 200 survived the bullets of the Nazi machine guns.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Downs|first=Bill|title=Blood at Babii Yar - Kiev's Atrocity Story|journal=Newsweek|date=December 6, 1943|page=22}}</ref> }}
=== Numbers murdered ===
Estimates of the total number killed at Babi Yar during the Nazi occupation vary. In 1946, Soviet prosecutor L. N. Smirnov at the [[Nuremberg trials]] claimed there were approximately 100,000 corpses lying in Babi Yar, using materials of the [[Extraordinary State Commission]] set out by the Soviets to investigate Nazi crimes after the liberation of Kiev in 1943.<ref name= Spector/><ref>Materials of the Nuremberg Trial in Russian: {{lang|ru|Нюрнбергский процесс, т. III. M., 1958. с. 220–221.}}</ref><ref>Iosif Kremenetsky, [http://shoa.com.ua/php/content/view/84/9/ "Babi Yar – September 1941"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070929083508/http://shoa.com.ua/php/content/view/84/9/ |date=2007-09-29 }} {{Ru icon}}</ref><ref>[http://nurnbergprozes.narod.ru/011/6.htm Из Сообщения Чрезвычайной Государственной Комиссии о Разрушениях и зверствах, Совершенных Немецко – Фашистскими Захватчиками в Городе Киеве.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071206193239/http://nurnbergprozes.narod.ru/011/6.htm |date=2007-12-06 }} Нюрнбергский Процесс. Документ СССР-9. {{Ru icon}}</ref> According to testimonies of workers forced to burn the bodies, the numbers range from 70,000 to 120,000.
In a recently published letter to Israeli journalist, writer and translator Shlomo Even-Shoshan dated 17 May 1965, [[Anatoly Kuznetsov]] commented on the Babi Yar [[Wiktionary:atrocity|atrocity]]:
{{quote|In the two years that followed, Ukrainians, Russians, Gypsies and people of all nationalities were murdered in Babi Yar. The belief that Babi Yar is an exclusively Jewish grave is wrong... It is an international grave. Nobody will ever determine how many and what nationalities are buried there, because 90% of the corpses were burned, their ashes scattered in ravines and fields.<ref name=shapoval>Yury Shapoval, [http://www.day.kiev.ua/130699/ "The Defection of Anatoly Kuznetsov"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090113132258/http://www.day.kiev.ua/130699/ |date=January 13, 2009 }}, ''{{lang|uk|День}}'', January 18, 2005.</ref>}}
For his [[war crime]]s, [[Paul Blobel]] was sentenced to death by the [[Subsequent Nuremberg Trials]] in the [[Einsatzgruppen Trial]]. He was hanged in June 1951 at the [[Landsberg Prison]].
==Syrets concentration camp==
{{Main|Syrets concentration camp}}
[[Image:Syrets (Syretskij concentration camp) Kiev.jpg|thumb|[[Syrets concentration camp]]. Barbed wire fence]]
In the course of the German occupation, the [[Syrets concentration camp]] was set up in Babi Yar. Interned [[communists]], Soviet [[prisoners of war]] (POWs), and captured resistance members were murdered there, among others. On 18 February 1943, three [[Dynamo Kyiv]] football players (Trusevich, Klimenko, and Putistin) who took part in the [[The Death Match|Match of Death]] with the German [[Luftwaffe]] team were also murdered in the camp.<ref name="deathcamps.org">{{cite web |url=http://www.deathcamps.org/occupation/syrets.html |title=The KZ in Syrets |publisher=Deathcamps.org |work=Occupation of the East |date=July 9, 2006 |accessdate=October 28, 2013 |author=ARC |deadurl=no |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20131029234230/http://www.deathcamps.org/occupation/syrets.html |archivedate=October 29, 2013 |df= }}</ref>
==Concealment of the crimes==
Before the Nazis retreated from Kiev ahead of the Soviet offensive of 1944, they were ordered by [[Wilhelm Koppe]] to conceal their atrocities in the East. [[Paul Blobel]], who was in control of the mass murders in Babi Yar two years earlier, supervised the [[Sonderaktion 1005]] in eliminating its traces. The ''Aktion'' was carried out earlier in all [[extermination camp]]s. The bodies were exhumed, burned and the ashes scattered over farmland in the vicinity.<ref name="JVL">[https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/aktion1005.html Aktion 1005.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150518060443/http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/aktion1005.html |date=2015-05-18 }} Jewish Virtual Library. Retrieved 2013-04-25.</ref><ref name="YV">[http://www.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/Microsoft%20Word%20-%205721.pdf Aktion 1005.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151108194719/http://www.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/Microsoft%20Word%20-%205721.pdf |date=2015-11-08 }} Yad Vashem. Shoa Resource Centre. Retrieved 2013-04-25.</ref> Several hundred prisoners of war from the Syrets concentration camp were forced to build funeral pyres out of Jewish gravestones and exhume the bodies for cremation.<ref>{{cite book|last=Lawrence|first=Bill|title=Six Presidents, Too Many Wars|year=1972|publisher=Saturday Review Press|location=New York|page=94}}</ref>
==Remembrance==
{{Main|Babi Yar memorials}}
[[File:70 років трагедії Бабиного Яру.jpg|thumb|upright|Ukrainian postage stamp, released on the 70th anniversary of the tragedy in Babi Yar]]
After the war, specifically Jewish commemoration efforts encountered serious difficulty because of the Soviet Union's policies.<ref>[[Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945]] by [[Tony Judt]], [[Penguin Books]], Reprint edition (September 5, 2006),{{ISBN|0143037757}} ([https://books.google.com/books?id=aU8laRbSvrMC&pg=PA182&dq=Babiy+Yar+Soviet+communists+Ukrainian+nationalists&hl=nl&sa=X&ei=56e0UcalE7Ga0AW9goH4Bg&ved=0CFYQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=Babiy%20Yar%20Soviet%20communists%20Ukrainian%20nationalists&f=false page 182])</ref> After the collapse of the Soviet Union, a number of memorials have been erected on the site and elsewhere. The events also formed a part of literature. Babi Yar is located in [[Kiev]] at the juncture of today's [[Kurenivka]], [[Lukianivka]] and [[Syrets]] [[subdivisions of Kiev|districts]], between Kyrylivska, Melnykov and Olena Teliha streets and [[St. Cyril's Monastery]]. After the [[Orange Revolution]], President [[Viktor Yushchenko]] of Ukraine hosted a major commemoration of the 65th anniversary in 2006, attended by Presidents [[Moshe Katsav]] of [[Israel]], [[Filip Vujanovic]] of [[Montenegro]], [[Stjepan Mesić]] of [[Croatia]] and [[Chief Rabbi]] of [[Tel Aviv]] Rabbi [[Yisrael Meir Lau]]. Rabbi Lau pointed out that if the world had reacted to the massacre of Babi Yar, perhaps the Holocaust might never have happened. Implying that Hitler was emboldened by this impunity, Lau speculated:
{{quote|Maybe, say, this Babi Yar was also a test for Hitler. If on 29 September and 30 September 1941 Babi Yar may happen and the world did not react seriously, dramatically, abnormally, maybe this was a good test for him. So a few weeks later in January 1942, near Berlin in Wannsee, a convention can be held with a decision, a final solution to the Jewish problem... Maybe if the very action had been a serious one, a dramatic one, in September 1941 here in Ukraine, the [[Wannsee Conference]] would have come to a different end, maybe.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.worldholocaustforum.org/eng/past_events/2/speech/meir_lau.php |title=Rabbi Lau's Statement at the International Forum "''Let My People Live!''", Kiev, September 27, 2006; World Holocaust Forum |publisher=Worldholocaustforum.org |date= |accessdate=2012-03-07 |deadurl=no |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20130620221724/http://www.worldholocaustforum.org/eng/past_events/2/speech/meir_lau.php |archivedate=June 20, 2013 |df= }}</ref>}}
In 2006, a message was also delivered on behalf of [[Kofi Annan]], Secretary-General of the United Nations,<ref>{{cite web |author=27.09.2006 |url=http://www.worldholocaustforum.org/eng/past_events/2/letters/2274/ |title=Message of Kofi Annan, UN Secretary General, delivered by Francis O'Donnell, UN Resident Coordinator in Ukraine |publisher=Worldholocaustforum.org |date=2006-09-27 |accessdate=2012-03-07 |deadurl=no |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120311042451/http://www.worldholocaustforum.org/eng/past_events/2/letters/2274/ |archivedate=2012-03-11 |df= }}</ref> by his representative, [[Resident Coordinator]] [[Francis Martin O'Donnell]], who added a Hebrew prayer {{not a typo|O'seh}} Shalom,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.un.org.ua/en/information-centre/news/420-2006-09-28 |title=Full text with post-script by O'Donnell |publisher=Un.org.ua |date=2006-09-27 |accessdate=2012-03-07 |deadurl=no |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120315163636/http://www.un.org.ua/en/information-centre/news/420-2006-09-28 |archivedate=2012-03-15 |df= }}</ref> from the Mourners' [[Kaddish]].
==Mudslide==
{{Main|1961 Kurenivka mudslide}}
Babi Yar was also the site of a large [[mudslide]] in the spring of 1961. An earthen dam in the ravine had held [[loam]] pulp that had been pumped from the local [[brick]] factories for ten years without sufficient drainage. The dam collapsed after heavy rain, inundating the lower-lying [[Kurenivka]] neighborhood. The death toll was estimated to be between 1,500 and 2,000 people.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Smoliy|first1=V. A.|last2=Goryak|first2=G. V.|last3=Danilenko|first3=V. M.|title=Куренівська трагедія 13 березня 1961 р. у Києві: причини, обставини, наслідки. Документи і матеріали|date=2012|publisher=Institute of Ukrainian History NAN Ukraine|isbn=978-966-02-6392-5|pages=18|url=https://www.archives.gov.ua/Publicat/Kurenivska_tragediya.php|deadurl=yes|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20170928005649/http://www.archives.gov.ua/Publicat/Kurenivska_tragediya.php|archivedate=2017-09-28|df=|access-date=2017-12-20}}</ref> According to Kusnetsov, this was part of a sustained and massive effort of the Soviets to obliterate the site, including what remained of the old Jewish burying ground.
==See also==
*[[Babi Yar in poetry]]
*[[Symphony No. 13 (Shostakovich)|Babi Yar Symphony by Shostakovich]]
*[[Consequences of Nazism]]
*[[Genocides in history#Nazi Germany and occupied Europe|Genocides in history]]
*[[History of the Jews in Ukraine]]
*[[List of massacres in Ukraine]]
*[[Mass graves in the Soviet Union]]
*[[Operation Barbarossa]]
*[[Reichskommissariat Ukraine]]
*[[Ukrainian collaborationism with the Axis powers]]
*[[Nazi crimes against Soviet POWs]]
*[[The Kindly Ones (Littell novel)|The Kindly Ones]]
==Notes==
{{notelist}}
==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}
==Sources==
*A. Anatoli ([[Anatoly Kuznetsov]]), trans. David Floyd, (1970), ''[[Babi Yar: A Document in the Form of a Novel]]'', Jonathan Cape Ltd. {{ISBN|0-671-45135-9}}
*"Babi Yar in the mirror of science, or the map of Bermuda Triangle", an article in [[Zerkalo Nedeli]] (''the Mirror Weekly''), July 2005, available online [http://www.zerkalo-nedeli.com/ie/show/555/50608/ in Russian]{{dead link|date=December 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} and [https://web.archive.org/web/20051104004022/http://www.zn.kiev.ua/ie/show/555/50608 in Ukrainian]
* [http://wek.kiev.ua/wiki/index.php/%D0%91%D0%B0%D0%B1%D0%B8%D0%BD_%D1%8F%D1%80 Encyclopedia of Kiev]
==External links==
{{commons category|Babi Yar}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20120112124143/http://www1.yadvashem.org/yv/en/holocaust/about/04/ussr.asp?WT.mc_id=wiki The Invasion of the Soviet Union and the Beginnings of Mass Murder] on the [[Yad Vashem]] website
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20120916093716/http://www1.yadvashem.org/yv/en/holocaust/barbarossa/index.asp?WT.mc_id=wiki Marking 70 Years to Operation Barbarossa] on the [[Yad Vashem]] website
* [http://history1900s.about.com/library/holocaust/aa080799.htm Babi Yar: Mass Murder] (history1900s.about.com)
* [http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/einsatz/babiyar.html In-depth study on Babi Yar]
* [http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/holocaust/h-b-yar.htm The Massacre at Babi Yar Near Kiev] (historyplace.com)
* [https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/babiyar.html Babi Yar] ([[Jewish Virtual Library]])
* [http://www.zchor.org/BABIYAR.HTM Babi Yar: Killing Ravine of Kiev Jewry – WWII] (zchor.org)
* [http://www.berdichev.org/babi_yar.htm Babi Yar] (berdichev.org)
* {{Ru icon}} [https://web.archive.org/web/20070926223355/http://shoa.com.ua/php/content/view/106/9/ History. Geography. Memory] by Tatyana Yevstafyeva. August 15, 2002 (a reprint from newspaper "Jewish Observer")
{{National landmarks of cultural heritage in Kiev}}
{{Holocaust Ukraine}}
{{Massacres of Jews}}
{{Einsatzgruppen}}
{{Authority control}}
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[[Category:Babi Yar| ]]
[[Category:1941 in the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Eastern Front (World War II)]]
[[Category:Einsatzgruppen]]
[[Category:Holocaust massacres and pogroms in Ukraine]]
[[Category:1940s in Kiev]]
[[Category:Jewish Ukrainian history]]
[[Category:Mass graves]]
[[Category:Mass murder in 1941]]
[[Category:Massacres in the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Nazi war crimes in Ukraine]]
[[Category:Reichskommissariat Ukraine]]
[[Category:World War II massacres]]
[[Category:World War II sites in Ukraine]]
[[Category:World War II sites of Nazi Germany]]
[[Category:1941 in Ukraine]]
[[Category:Ravines]]
[[Category:September 1941 events]]' |
