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At Babi Yar, members of Einsatzgruppe (mobile killing unit) C force groups of Jews to hand over their possessions and undress before being shot in the ravine. Near Kiev, Soviet Union, September 29 or 30, 1941. (Photo courtesy of the Ernst Klee Archive, per the USHMM website.)
On September 19, 1941, Kiev, the capital of Soviet Ukraine, was captured by German forces. Prior to the invasion, 100,000 of the city’s 160,000 Jews fled Kiev. The majority of those who remained were women, children, the sick, and the elderly.
Shortly after the city was taken, on September 2428, the NKVD (the Soviet security police) bombed the administrative buildings used by the Germans. The Germans retaliated by ordering a mass murder of Jews, who were blamed for the bombings. On September 28, signs were posted around the city ordering all Jews to assemble the next day for relocation.
After being led to Babi Yar, a large ravine outside the city, the Jews were told to strip off all of their clothing and to leave all valuables behind. Then, in small groups, they were taken to the edge of the ravine and shot. After two days, approximately 33,770 Jews were murdered. In the following months, additional killings claimed 70,000 to 80,000 Jews, Gypsies (Roma), and Soviet POWs. Though some Ukrainians helped Jews go into hiding, many denounced Jews and Ukrainian auxiliaries assisted the executions.
When Soviet forces began to advance towards Kiev in 1943, the Germans attempted to erase all evidence of the mass murder. One hundred prisoners were taken from the nearby Syretsk prison camp and forced to exhume the corpses from the ravine so they could be burned. After the bodies were burned, the prisoners were forced to sift through the ash for gold and silver. The Germans left no trace of the massacre. Except for fifteen prisoners who managed to escape, the remaining 85 were killed on September 15.
Kiev was liberated by Soviet forces on November 6, 1943. However, antisemitism and Soviet policy to deemphasize victimization of particular groups prevented any memorial from being built at Babi Yar for many years. Russian poet Yevgeny Yevtuskenko wrote a poem titled “Babi Yar” in protest, bringing the murder of the Jews at Babi Yar and ongoing antisemitism in the Soviet Union to the surface. Finally, in 1976 a memorial at Babi Yar was constructed. Nevertheless, Jewish victims were not mentioned. Only on the 50th anniversary of the massacre were Jewish victims recognized with the unveiling of a menorah inscribed with Yiddish and Hebrew at the ravine.
Teachers may want to discuss with their students the differences between the form of violence and murder at Babi Yar and other types practiced by the Nazis, for example, in the death camps. Were there different degrees of brutality between these methods? Teachers may also address Ukrainian complicity in the murders. Why did so many Ukrainians willingly collaborate with the Nazis?
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