Babi Yar

Babi Yar
Soviet POWs being used by Germany to cover the mass grave after the massacre, 1 October 1941
Also known asBabyn Yar
LocationKyiv, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union
50°28′17″N 30°26′56″E / 50.47139°N 30.44889°E / 50.47139; 30.44889
Date29–30 September 1941
Incident typeGenocide, mass murder
PerpetratorsFriedrich Jeckeln, Otto Rasch, Paul Blobel, Kurt Eberhard and others
OrganizationsEinsatzgruppen, Order Police battalions, Ukrainian Auxiliary Police, Sonderkommando 4a, Wehrmacht
CampSyrets concentration camp
Victims
  • 33,771 Jews in initial two-day massacre (29 survived)
  • 100,000–150,000 Jews, Soviet prisoners of war and Romani on later dates
MemorialsOn site and elsewhere
NotesPossibly 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 Kyiv.

Babi Yar (Russian: Бабий Яр) or Babyn Yar (Ukrainian: Бабин Яр) is a ravine in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv and a site of massacres carried out by Nazi Germany's forces during its campaign against the Soviet Union in World War II. The first and best documented of the massacres took place on 29–30 September 1941, in which some 33,771 Jews were murdered. Other victims of massacres at the site included Soviet prisoners of war, communists and Romani people.[1][2][3] It is estimated that a total of between 100,000 and 150,000 people were murdered at Babi Yar during the German occupation.[4]

The decision to murder all the Jews in Kyiv was made by the military governor Generalmajor Kurt Eberhard, the Police Commander for Army Group South, SS-Obergruppenführer Friedrich Jeckeln, and the Einsatzgruppe C Commander Otto Rasch. Sonderkommando 4a as the sub-unit of Einsatzgruppe C, along with the aid of the SD and Order Police battalions with the Ukrainian Auxiliary Police backed by the Wehrmacht, carried out the orders.[5][6][7] Sonderkommando 4a and the 45th Battalion of the German Order Police conducted the shootings. Servicemen of the 303rd Battalion of the German Order Police at this time guarded the outer perimeter of the execution site.[8][9][10][11]

The massacre was the largest mass-murder by the Nazi regime during the campaign against the Soviet Union,[12] and it has been called "the largest single massacre in the history of the Holocaust" to that particular date.[13] It is only surpassed overall by the later October 1941 Odessa massacre of more than 50,000 Jews (committed by German and Romanian troops), and by Aktion Erntefest of November 1943 in occupied Poland with 42,000–43,000 victims.[14][need quotation to verify]

  1. ^ Hoffman, Avi (23 October 2011). "A Museum for Babi Yar". The Jerusalem Post. Archived from the original on 26 June 2013.
  2. ^ "Zionism and Israel – Encyclopedic Dictionary: Babi Yar". Archived from the original on 27 December 2014. Retrieved 26 December 2014.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference BYUnk1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Magocsi, Paul Robert (1996). A History of Ukraine. University of Toronto Press. p. 633. ISBN 978-0-8020-7820-9.
  5. ^ Karel C. Berkhoff (2008). Babi Yar Massacre. The Shoah in Ukraine: History, Testimony, Memorialization. Indiana University Press. p. 303. ISBN 978-0253001597. Retrieved 23 February 2013.
  6. ^ "Holocaust in Kiev and the Tragedy of Babi Yar | www.yadvashem.org". historical-background3.html. Archived from the original on 4 August 2019. Retrieved 1 August 2019.
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference :0 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ "Military Tribunal Volume IV "The Einsatzgruppen Case"" (PDF). Library of Congress.
  9. ^ Kruglov, Aleksandr Iosifovič (2011). Круглов А. Трагедия Бабьего Яра в немецких документах. Днепропетровск: Центр «Ткума»; ЧП «Лира ЛТД», 2011. – 140 с. [Kruglov A. The tragedy of Babi Yar in German documents. – Dnepropetrovsk: Center "Tkuma"; PE "Lira LTD", 2011. 140 p.] (PDF). Ткума. ISBN 978-966-383-346-0.
  10. ^ "Трагедія Бабиного Яру крізь призму архівних документів Служби безпеки України / Т.О. Євстаф'єва // Архіви України. 2011. № 5. С. 137–158. Бібліогр.: 76 назв. укр" [The tragedy of Babyn Yar through the prism of archival documents of the Security Service of Ukraine / Т.О. Evstafieva // Archives of Ukraine. 2011. № 5. 137–158. Bibliography: 76 titles. ukr.] (PDF).
  11. ^ "Бабин Яр: масове убивство і пам′ять про нього. Матеріали міжнародної наукової конференції 24–25 жовтня 2011 р., м. Київ / В. Нахманович, А. Подольський, М. Тяглий. Український центр вивчення історії Голокосту; Громадський комітет для вшанування пам'яті жертв Бабиного Яру. – К., 2012. – 256 с." [Babyn Yar: mass murder and memory. Proceedings of the International Scientific Conference October 24–25, 2011, Kyiv / V. Nakhmanovych, A. Podolsky, M. Tyagly. Ukrainian Center for Holocaust History Studies; Public Committee to Commemorate the Victims of Babyn Yar. K., 2012. 256 p.] (PDF).
  12. ^ Wolfram Wette (2006). The Wehrmacht: History, Myth, Reality. Harvard University Press. p. 112. ISBN 9780674022133.
  13. ^ Lower, Wendy (2007). "From Berlin to Babi Yar. The Nazi War Against the Jews, 1941–1944" (PDF). Journal of Religion & Society. 9. The Kripke Center, Towson University. hdl:10504/64569. ISSN 1522-5658. Archived from the original (PDF) on 5 March 2009. Retrieved 24 May 2013.
  14. ^ Browning, Christopher R. (1992–1998). "Arrival in Poland" (PDF file, direct download 7.91 MB complete). Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland. Penguin Books. pp. 135–142. Archived (PDF) from the original on 19 October 2013. Retrieved 24 May 2013.

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