Babyn Yar anniversary: memory of largest mass murder of Jews in Europe
On September 29-30, 1941, tens of thousands of Jews walked the streets of Kyiv. They thought they were going to save themselves. In fact, without knowing it, they came to their own execution. The tragedy of Babyn Yar hurts to this day. This crime against humanity, against one nation, still cannot be understood.
Babyn Yar is a tract of land in Kyiv, where more than one tragedy happened during the last century. But one of the most terrible was the mass shooting of Jews during the Second World War. At that time, about 100,000 people were killed at the hands of the fascists in just two years. Among them were mainly Jews.
The German occupation of Kyiv began in mid-September 1941. Then the Soviet army committed sabotage when leaving the city, blowing up buildings on Khreshchatyk. It was this precedent that the Germans used to shoot Jews. Although they did not need an official reason, because the fascists carried out more than one mass shooting on the way to Kyiv. However, the Germans accused the Jews of blowing up the buildings on Khreshchatyk and ordered all representatives of the people to come to the specified place on September 29.
Flyers in three languages - russian, Ukrainian and German - began to appear in Kyiv, which said that all Jews must appear on September 29 at the corner of Dehtiarivska and Yuriia Ilienka Streets in Kyiv near the Jewish cemetery. They were ordered to have valuables, warm clothes, etc. with them. Those who do not appear will be discovered later, as was announced, and shot. The occupiers deliberately spread rumors in the city that all Jews would be deported to another country, to the land of their ancestors, to the Middle East. There was also a train station near the place of future executions, so many Jews really believed that they would be taken away. And only a small number understood: time to hide.
September 29, 1941. Tens of thousands of Jews with their belongings and full of hopes for departure, walk along the street, which will later be called the road of death. Everyone goes to the indicated meeting place: elderly people, children, people with disabilities. But instead of trains, they find themselves surrounded by fascists. German soldiers force them to give up their valuables, take off their clothes and approach the cliff. There, one by one, everyone is shot. People who still do not know anything about the tragedy continue to go to the meeting place by the thousands.
On the first day, the fascists killed more than 22,000 Jews. Mass shootings continued actively for another month and a half. Jews who did not come to Babyn Yar on their own were caught in the city, raids were made on various apartments and information was gathered from informers. Those who did not voluntarily come to Babyn Yar could no longer leave the city, because it was completely surrounded and controlled, they could only hide.
The killings continued for two years, until the Soviet army began to advance towards Kyiv. Jews continued to be killed in Babyn Yar. In addition, patients of the psychiatric hospital and Roma were shot there. Prisoners of war, communists and Ukrainian nationalists were also killed there. In total, during the occupation, more than 100,000 people were killed in the tract, most of them representatives of the Jewish people.
The shootings in Babyn Yar became the largest mass murder of Jews in all of Europe. Kyiv is the only city where the fascists almost completely exterminated the entire Jewish community.