80th anniversary of the Babi Yar tragedy. Never again!

This year marks the 80th anniversary of the tragedy of Babi Yar, one of the most terrible symbols of the Holocaust.

On September 29-30, 1941, in Nazi-occupied Kiev, the first mass execution by the military of an unarmed civilian population was carried out. In total, from September 29 to October 11, 1941, the SS men killed almost the entire Jewish population of the city - more than 50 thousand men, women and children. In the first two days of executions alone, nearly 34,000 people were killed. On October 1, 2, 8 and 11, those who did not appear on the orders were shot - about 17 thousand more people.

The prerequisite for the action was an outright lie about the participation of Jews in mining and explosions on Khreshchatyk, as a result of which many soldiers and officers of the Wehrmacht died. The place of mass executions was chosen Babiy Yar - a gully in the north-west of Kiev, two and a half kilometers long, which in some places reached a depth of 50 meters. At the end of the street, a gate was set up through which people were allowed in in groups of 30-40 people. Previously, they were forced to undress, their personal belongings were confiscated, then the policemen drove the victims with truncheons to the passages in the embankments at the edge of the ravine. Machine gunners sat on the opposite side. The bodies of the executed rolled down the slope to the bottom. After the moat was filled with 2-3 layers of corpses, they were covered with earth from above.

In total, during the years of World War II in Babi Yar, according to various estimates, from 100 to 150 thousand people died - Jews, Gypsies, Karaites, Soviet prisoners of war, members of the Ukrainian nationalist resistance movement, patients of a psychiatric clinic, representatives of other national or social groups. , which the invaders considered "superfluous". The shootings at Babi Yar continued until the liberation of Kiev from the invaders in 1943.

In Soviet times, they preferred to keep silent about terrible events. Among the first to raise the taboo topic were writers Viktor Nekrasov, Anatoly Kuznetsov, as well as dissident Ivan Dzyuba, who on September 29, 1966 delivered a speech to the participants in the mournful ceremony, calling Babi Yar "a common tragedy of the Jewish and Ukrainian peoples." Babi Yar, along with Auschwitz, became a terrible symbol of the Holocaust in Eastern Europe and an example of what misanthropic theories lead to.

The memory of the tragedy of Babi Yar in Ukraine is honored at the state level, which indicates that in the collective memory of the people such sorrowful events do not have any time intervals and statutes of limitations - they are always alive, like the pain of loss for everyone who has passed the road of death and died in the mass grave of Babi Yar.

These days ICF “Jewish Hesed“ Bnei Azriel ”is filled with sadness and grief, which united the wards, employees and volunteers, because our life is not only common holidays and fun, but also grief, divided equally and experienced together. Undoubtedly, we will continue to support not only our wards who survived the difficult war years, but also cherish the memory of the tragic days of 1941.

In memory of those who died in Babi Yar, we are holding an online event on October 1, 2021. Host - Boris Korotkov. We invite you to join the conversation using the link

Administrator invites you to a scheduled meeting: Zoom.

Topic: Dedicated to the memory of the victims of Babi Yar ...

Time: 1 oct. 2021 11:00 AM Kiev

Join a Zoom meeting

https://zoom.us/j/95770003298?pwd=U01aYkRmcWMwYXdKTHNPaGNDaGZZdz09

Conference ID: 957 7000 3298

Access code: 045913

We will remember those who remained in the distant 1941. Let's talk about what to do so that the horrors of Babi Yar never happen again. Let Nazism never return to the Ukrainian land. May innocent people never suffer at the hands of fanatics. Let the memory of the victims of Babi Yar live for centuries as a warning for future generations.

80th anniversary of the Babi Yar tragedy. Never again!

See also

Archive

Hot links

Social Cultural Projects

Need assistance

Contact