Babi Yar is the name of a ravine in the northwestern section of Kiev.
I had heard of this story many years ago and finally a week ago was able to visit this site.
After the Nazis attacked the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, they pushed east. By September 19, they had reached Kiev.
Looting began immediately. Then the Germans moved into Kiev's downtown on Kreshchatik Street. On September 24 - five days after the Germans entered Kiev - a bomb exploded around four o'clock in the afternoon at the German headquarters. The Germans were shocked. Then they cordoned off the area and gathered people in the vicinity as suspects. Then another building on Kreshchatik exploded. The Germans - and those they had assembled - fled for safety.
For days, bombs exploded in buildings on Kreshchatik that had been occupied by Germans. Many Germans and civilians were killed and injured.
After the war, it was determined that a group of NKVD members were left behind by the Soviets to offer some resistance against the conquering Germans. But during the war, the Germans decided it was the work of Jews, and retaliated for the bombings against the Jewish population of Kiev.
By the time the bombings finally stopped on September 28, the Germans already had a plan for retaliation. On this day, the Germans posted a notice all over town that read: ....... All [Jews] living in the city of Kiev and its vicinity are to report by 8 o'clock on the morning of Monday, September 29th, 1941, at the corner of Melnikovsky and Dokhturov Streets (near the cemetery). They are to take with them documents, money, valuables, as well as warm clothes, underwear, etc. Any [Jew] not carrying out this instruction and who is found elsewhere will be shot. Any civilian entering flats evacuated by [Jews] and stealing property will be shot...........
On the morning of September 29, tens of thousands of Jews arrived at the appointed location. Some arrived extra early in order to ensure themselves a seat on the train.
The Jews were forced to march several kilometers, soon machine gun firing could be heard in the distance. But then it was to late. In small groups of ten, the Jews were taken along the edge of the ravine. One of the very few survivors remembers she "looked down and her head swam, she seemed to be so high up. Beneath her was a sea of bodies covered in blood. Once the Jews were lined up, the Nazis used a machine-gun to shoot them. When shot, they fell into the ravine. Then the next were brought along the edge and shot.
According to the Einsatzgruppe Operational Situation Report No. 101, 33,771 Jews were killed at Babi Yar on September 29 and 30.
The Babi Yar massacre is considered to be "the largest single massacre in the history of the Holocaust".
