View source for Babi Yar

{{Short description|Ravine and massacre site in Kyiv, Ukraine}}
{{Other uses}}
{{Pp-extended|small=yes}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2021}}
{{Infobox holocaust event
| name          = Babi Yar
| image         = Babi Yar-06-194.jpg
| caption       = Soviet [[Prisoner of war|POWs]] being used by Germany to cover the mass grave after the massacre, 1 October 1941
| AKA           = Babyn Yar
| location      = Kiev, [[Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic|Ukrainian SSR]], Soviet Union
| coordinates   = {{Coord|50|28|17|N|30|26|56|E|type:event_region:UA-30|display=title,inline}}
| date          = 29–30 September 1941
| incident_type = [[Genocide]] and mass murder
| perpetrators  = [[Friedrich Jeckeln]], [[Otto Rasch]], [[Paul Blobel]], [[Kurt Eberhard]], and others
| participants  =
| organizations = ''[[Einsatzgruppen]]'', [[Order Police battalions]], [[Ukrainian Auxiliary Police]], [[Sonderkommandos of Einsatzgruppen|''Sonderkommando'']] 4a, [[Wehrmacht]]
| camp          = [[Syrets concentration camp]]
| ghetto        =
| victims       = {{Plain list|
* 33,771 Jews in initial two-day massacre (29 survived)
* 100,000–150,000 Jews, Soviet prisoners of war and Romani on later dates
}}
| survivors     =
| witnesses     =
| documentation =
| memorials     = [[Babi Yar memorials|On site and elsewhere]]
| notes         = Possibly 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.
{{Infobox historic site
 |embed = yes
 |designation1 = UKRAINE NATIONAL
 |designation1_offname = {{Lang|uk|Комплекс пам'яток на місці масового знищення мирного населення та військовополонених в урочищі Бабин Яр під час гітлерівської окупації}} (''Complex of monuments on the site of mass extermination of civilians and prisoners of war in the Babyn Yar tract during the Nazi occupation'')
 |designation1_type = History
 |designation1_number = 260033-Н}}
}}

'''Babi Yar'''{{efn|The [[English-language]] spelling of key locations in this article has been in flux in recent years; this article uses the traditional English spelling of the specific site  [''Babi Yar'' versus the local ''Babyn Yar''], but now favors the local [[Kyiv|''Kyiv'' for the spelling of the nearby major city]] [versus the previously-English-favored ''Kiev''].}} ({{langx|ru|Бабий Яр}}) or '''Babyn Yar''' ({{langx|uk|Бабин Яр}}) is a [[ravine]] in the [[Ukraine|Ukrainian]] capital [[Kyiv]] and a site of massacres carried out by [[Nazi Germany]]'s forces during [[Eastern Front (World War II)|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 [[prisoner of war|prisoners of war]], communists and [[Romani people]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.jpost.com/Jerusalem-Report/Jewish-World/A-Museum-for-Babi-Yar |title=A Museum for Babi Yar | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130626000548/http://www.jpost.com/Jerusalem-Report/Jewish-World/A-Museum-for-Babi-Yar |archive-date=26 June 2013 | first=Avi |last=Hoffman |newspaper=[[The Jerusalem Post]] |date=23 October 2011}}</ref><ref name="BYUnk2">{{cite web |url=http://www.zionism-israel.com/dic/Babi_Yar.htm |title=Zionism and Israel – Encyclopedic Dictionary: Babi Yar |access-date=26 December 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141227012518/http://www.zionism-israel.com/dic/Babi_Yar.htm |archive-date=27 December 2014}}</ref><ref name=BYUnk1/> It is estimated that a total of between 100,000 and 150,000 people were murdered at Babi Yar during the German occupation.<ref name="rpmag1">
{{cite book
|last= Magocsi|first= Paul Robert
|title= A History of Ukraine|year= 1996
|publisher= University of Toronto Press|page= 633
|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=t124cP06gg0C&q=A+History+of+Ukraine
|isbn= 978-0-8020-7820-9
}}
</ref>

The decision to murder all the Jews in Kiev was made by the German military governor ''[[Generalmajor]]'' [[Kurt Eberhard]], the Police Commander for Army Group South, SS-''[[Obergruppenführer]]'' [[Friedrich Jeckeln]], and the ''Einsatzgruppe'' C Commander [[Otto Rasch]]. [[Sonderkommandos of Einsatzgruppen|Sonderkommando]] 4a as the sub-unit of ''Einsatzgruppe'' C, along with the aid of the [[Sicherheitsdienst|''SD'']] and [[Order Police battalions]] with the [[Ukrainian Auxiliary Police]] backed by the ''[[Wehrmacht]]'', carried out the orders.<ref name="Berkhoff-2">{{cite book | url= https://books.google.com/books?id=hyYGOyX1IQUC&q=%22Ukrainian+sources+also+name+paramilitary+and+auxiliary+police+formations%22&pg=PA303 | title= Babi Yar Massacre | series= The Shoah in Ukraine: History, Testimony, Memorialization | year=2008 | access-date= 23 February 2013 | author= Karel C. Berkhoff | page= 303 | publisher= Indiana University Press | isbn= 978-0253001597}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.yadvashem.org/education/educational-materials/learning-environment/babi-yar/historical-background3.html|title=Holocaust in Kiev and the Tragedy of Babi Yar {{!}} www.yadvashem.org|website=historical-background3.html|language=en|access-date=1 August 2019|archive-date=4 August 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190804201343/https://www.yadvashem.org/education/educational-materials/learning-environment/babi-yar/historical-background3.html|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name=":0" /> 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.<ref name=MtVol4>{{cite web| url=http://www.loc.gov/rr/frd/Military_Law/pdf/NT_war-criminals_Vol-IV.pdf |title=Military Tribunal Volume IV "The Einsatzgruppen Case"|website=[[Library of Congress]]|language=en}}</ref><ref name=Kruglov>{{cite book| url=http://tkuma.dp.ua/images/public_dounload/2011_kruglov_babiy_yar.pdf |title=''Круглов А.'' Трагедия Бабьего Яра в немецких документах. Днепропетровск: Центр «Ткума»; ЧП «Лира ЛТД», 2011. – 140 с. |year=2011 |isbn= 978-966-383-346-0 |trans-title=''Kruglov A.'' The tragedy of Babi Yar in German documents. – Dnepropetrovsk: Center "Tkuma"; PE "Lira LTD", 2011. 140 p. |last1=Kruglov |first1=Aleksandr Iosifovič |publisher=Ткума }}</ref><ref name=Evstafieva>{{cite web| url=http://dspace.nbuv.gov.ua/bitstream/handle/123456789/121969/14-Yevstaf%27yeva.pdf |title=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. |trans-title=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.}}</ref><ref name=ProcISC>{{cite web| url=http://history.org.ua/LiberUA/978-966-2214-15-4/978-966-2214-15-4.pdf |title=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. |trans-title=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.}}</ref>

The massacre was the largest mass-murder by the Nazi regime during the campaign against the Soviet Union,<ref>{{cite book | title= The Wehrmacht: History, Myth, Reality | url= https://archive.org/details/wehrmachthistory00wett_0 | url-access= registration | author= Wolfram Wette | author-link = Wolfram Wette | year= 2006 | page= [https://archive.org/details/wehrmachthistory00wett_0/page/112 112]  | publisher= Harvard University Press| isbn= 9780674022133 }}</ref> and it has been called "the largest single massacre in the history of [[the Holocaust]]" to that particular date.<ref name="Lower">{{cite journal |first=Wendy |last=Lower |authorlink=Wendy Lower |url=http://moses.creighton.edu/JRS/pdf/2007-18.pdf |title=From Berlin to Babi Yar. The Nazi War Against the Jews, 1941–1944 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090305074504/http://moses.creighton.edu/JRS/pdf/2007-18.pdf |archive-date=5 March 2009 |journal=Journal of Religion & Society |volume=9 |date=2007 |publisher=The Kripke Center, [[Towson University]] |hdl=10504/64569 |issn=1522-5658 |access-date=24 May 2013 }}</ref> It is only surpassed overall by the later [[1941 Odessa massacre|October 1941 Odessa massacre]] of more than 50,000 Jews (committed by German and [[Romania in World War II#Romania and the Holocaust|Romanian troops]]), and by ''[[Aktion Erntefest]]'' of November 1943 in [[occupied Poland]] with 42,000–43,000 victims.<ref name="Browning">{{cite web | url= http://hampshirehigh.com/exchange2012/docs/BROWNING-Ordinary%20Men.%20Reserve%20Police%20Battalion%20101%20and%20the%20Final%20Solution%20in%20Poland%20(1992).pdf | title= Arrival in Poland | publisher= Penguin Books | work= Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland | date= 1992–1998 | access-date= 24 May 2013 | last= Browning | first= Christopher R. | author-link= Christopher Browning | pages= 135–142 | format= PDF file, direct download 7.91 MB complete | url-status= live | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20131019043400/http://hampshirehigh.com/exchange2012/docs/BROWNING-Ordinary%20Men.%20Reserve%20Police%20Battalion%20101%20and%20the%20Final%20Solution%20in%20Poland%20(1992).pdf | archive-date= 19 October 2013 }}</ref>{{request quotation|date=September 2017}}

==Historical background==
The ''Babi Yar'' (''Babyn Yar'') ravine was first mentioned in historical accounts in 1401, in connection to the sale of it by ''baba'' (an old woman) who was also the ''[[Vivandière|cantiniere]]'' in the [[Dominican Order|Dominican]] Monastery.<ref name=VK>Anatoliy Kudrytsky, editor-in-chief, ''"Vulytsi Kyeva" (The Streets of Kyiv)'', Ukrainska Entsyklopediya, {{ISBN|5-88500-070-0}}</ref> The word ''yar'' is [[Turkic language|Turkic]] in origin and means "gully" or "ravine". Over several centuries, the site was used for various purposes, including military camps and at least two cemeteries, including an [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Orthodox Christian]] cemetery and a Jewish cemetery. The latter was officially closed in 1937.{{Citation needed|date = September 2016}}

==Massacres of September 1941==
{{See also|Battle of Kiev (1941)}}

Axis forces, mainly German, occupied Kyiv on 19 September 1941. Between 20 and 28 September, explosives planted by the [[NKVD|Soviet secret police]] (the NKVD) caused extensive damage in the city, and on 24 September an explosion rocked Rear Headquarters Army Group South.<ref name="kyivpost">{{cite news | title=Remembering the Kyiv Inferno, 1941 | work=Kyiv Post | date=25 September 2016 }}</ref> Two days later, on 26 September, Maj. Gen. [[Kurt Eberhard]], the military governor, and SS-{{lang|de|[[Obergruppenführer]]}} [[Friedrich Jeckeln]], the [[SS and Police Leader]], met at Rear Headquarters Army Group South. There, they decided to exterminate the Jews of Kyiv, claiming that it was retaliation for the explosions.<ref>
* {{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QSpUZ6t6BPwC&q=Kurt+Eberhard+kiev&pg=PA95
|title=War of Annihilation: Combat and Genocide on the Eastern Front |first1=Geoffrey P. |last1=Megargee |author-link=Geoffrey P. Megargee |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-7425-4481-9 |page=95 }}
* {{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=tdYkMPfUSUAC&q=eberhard&pg=PA141 |title=A War to Be Won: Fighting the Second World War |first1=Williamson
|last1=Murray |first2= Allan R. |last2=Millett |publisher=Harvard University Press
|year=2001 |isbn=0-674-00680-1 |page=141 }}</ref> Also present were SS-{{lang|de|[[Standartenführer]]}} [[Paul Blobel]], commander of {{lang|de|Sonderkommando}} 4a of {{lang|de|Einsatzgruppe}} C, and his superior, SS-{{lang|de|[[Brigadeführer]]}} Dr. [[Otto Rasch]], commander of {{lang|de|[[Einsatzgruppen|Einsatzgruppe]]}} C. The mass murder was to be carried out by units under the command of Rasch and Blobel, who were ultimately responsible for many atrocities in Soviet Ukraine during the summer and autumn of 1941.

The implementation of the order was entrusted to {{lang|de|Sonderkommando}} 4a of {{lang|de|Einsatzgruppe}} C commanded by Blobel, under the general command of Friedrich Jeckeln.<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.holocaustchronicle.org/staticpages/270.html |title=1941: Mass Murder |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131029193800/http://www.holocaustchronicle.org/staticpages/270.html |archive-date=29 October 2013 }} The Holocaust Chronicle. p. 270</ref> This unit consisted of {{lang|de|[[Sicherheitsdienst]]}} (SD) and {{lang|de|[[Sicherheitspolizei]]}} (SiPo), the third company of the Special Duties [[Waffen-SS|{{lang|de|cat=no|Waffen}}-SS]] battalion, and a platoon of the 9th Police Battalion. {{lang|de|Sonderkommando}} 4a of {{lang|de|Einsatzgruppe}} C and Police Battalion 45, commanded by Major Besser, conducted the massacre, supported by members of a {{lang|de|Waffen}}-SS battalion. Contrary to the "[[Myth of the clean Wehrmacht|myth of the clean {{lang|de|cat=no|Wehrmacht}}]]", the [[6th Army (Wehrmacht)|Sixth Army]] under the command of Field Marshal [[Walter von Reichenau]] worked together with the SS and SD to plan and execute the mass-murder of the Jews of Kyiv.<ref name=":0">{{cite book|last1=Wette|  first1=Wolfram| author-link1 = Wolfram Wette | title=Die Wehrmacht: Feindbilder, Vernichtungskrieg, Legenden|language=de|date=2005|publisher=Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag|location=Frankfurt am Main|isbn=3596156459|pages=115–128|edition=revised}}</ref>

On 26 September 1941, the following order was posted:

{{blockquote|
All Yids{{efn|name="yids"|The order was posted in German, Ukrainian, and in the largest letters, Russian. In only the Russian version is the defamatory word "zhid" ({{lang|ru|жид}}) used for Jews. The respectful Russian word is "yevrey" ({{lang|ru|еврей}}). The word "zhyd" ({{lang|uk|жид}}) in Ukrainian was at the time<!--Wiktionary notes it is now often considered offensive in Ukrainian due to its offensiveness in Russian.--> not defamatory at all, as noted by [[Nikita Khrushchev]] in his memoirs: "I remember that once we invited Ukrainians, Jews and Poles&nbsp;... to a meeting at the Lvov [Lviv] opera house. It struck me as very strange to hear the Jewish speakers at the meeting refer to themselves as 'yids.' 'We yids hereby declare ourselves in favour of such-and-such.' Out in the lobby after the meeting I stopped some of these men and demanded, 'How dare you use the word "yid?" Don't you know it's a very offensive term, an insult to the Jewish nation?' 'Here in the Western Ukraine it's just the opposite,' they explained. 'We call ourselves yids'&nbsp;... Apparently what they said was true. If you go back to Ukrainian literature&nbsp;... you'll see that 'yid' isn't used derisively or insultingly."<ref>{{cite book |first=Nikita |last=Khrushchev |title=Khrushchev Remembers |url=https://archive.org/details/khrushchevrememb00khru |url-access=registration |location=New York |publisher=Bantam Books |year=1971 |page=[https://archive.org/details/khrushchevrememb00khru/page/145 145]}}</ref>}} of the city of Kiev and its vicinity must appear on Monday, 29 September, by 8 o'clock in the morning at the corner of Mel'nikova and Dokterivskaya streets (near the Viis'kove cemetery). Bring documents, money and valuables, and also warm clothing, linen, etc.

Any Yids who do not follow this order and are found elsewhere will be shot. Any civilians who enter the dwellings left by Yids and appropriate the things in them will be shot.|Order posted in Kyiv in Russian, Ukrainian, and German on or around 26 September 1941<ref name=Berenbaum97>[[Michael Berenbaum|Berenbaum, Michael]]. ''The World Must Know'', United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, this edition 2006, pp. 97–98.</ref>}}

[[File:Big-babijar14.jpg|thumb|right|Notice dated 28 September 1941 in [[Russian language|Russian]], [[Ukrainian language|Ukrainian]] with [[German language|German]] translation ordering all Kyivan Jews to assemble for supposed resettlement]]
On 29 and 30 September 1941, the Nazis and their collaborators murdered approximately 33,771 [[Jews|Jewish]] civilians at Babi Yar.<ref name="USHMM">{{cite encyclopedia|url=http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005421|title=Kiev and Babi Yar|encyclopedia=Holocaust Encyclopedia|publisher=[[United States Holocaust Memorial Museum]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070103133722/http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005421|archive-date=3 January 2007}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Prusin|first=Alexander V.|date=Spring 2007|title=A Community of Violence: The SiPo/SD and Its Role in the Nazi Terror System in Generalbezirk Kiew|journal=Holocaust and Genocide Studies|volume=21|pages=1–30|doi=10.1093/hgs/dcm001|s2cid=146390847 |issn=1476-7937 }}</ref><ref name="HC-270">{{cite web|title=The Holocaust Chronicle: Massacre at Babi Yar|website=The Holocaust Chronicle|format=web site|url=http://www.holocaustchronicle.org/staticpages/270.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131029193800/http://www.holocaustchronicle.org/staticpages/270.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=29 October 2013|access-date=17 December 2007}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|first=Victoria |last=Khiterer|author-link1=Victoria Khiterer |year=2004|title=Babi Yar: The tragedy of Kiev's Jews|url=http://www.brandeis.edu/gsa/gradjournal/2004/khiterer2004.pdf|url-status=live|journal=Brandeis Graduate Journal|volume=2|pages=1–16|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071128164646/http://www.brandeis.edu/gsa/gradjournal/2004/khiterer2004.pdf|archive-date=28 November 2007|access-date=20 January 2008}}</ref> The order to murder the Jews of Kyiv was given to {{lang|de|Sonderkommando}} 4a of {{lang|de|Einsatzgruppe}} C, consisting of SD and SiPo men, the third company of the Special Duties {{lang|de|Waffen}}-SS battalion, and a platoon of the No. 9 police battalion. These units were reinforced by police battalions Nos. 45 and 303, by units of the Ukrainian auxiliary police, and supported by local collaborators.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Encyclopedia of the Holocaust|volume=1|last=Gutman|first=Israel|publisher=Macmillan|year=1990|pages=133–136}}</ref> {{lang|de|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.<ref name=MtVol4/><ref name=Kruglov/><ref name=Evstafieva/><ref name=ProcISC/>

The commander of the {{lang|de|[[Einsatzkommando]]}} reported two days later:<ref name="Gilbert">{{cite book |author-link=Martin Gilbert |last=Gilbert |first=Martin |year=1985 |title=The Holocaust: A History of the Jews of Europe During the Second World War |publisher=Holt, Rinehart and Winston |isbn=0-03-062416-9 |page=[https://archive.org/details/holocausthistory00gilb/page/202 202] |url=https://archive.org/details/holocausthistory00gilb/page/202 }}</ref>

{{blockquote|The difficulties resulting from such a large scale action—in particular concerning the seizure—were overcome in Kiev by requesting the Jewish population through wall posters to move. Although only a participation of approximately 5,000 to 6,000 Jews had been expected at first, more than 30,000 Jews arrived who, until the very moment of their execution, still believed in their resettlement, thanks to an extremely clever organization.<ref>Nuremberg Military Tribunal, ''Einsatzgruppen trial'', Judgment, at page 426, quoting exhibit NO-3157.</ref>}}

According to the testimony of a truck driver named Hofer, victims were ordered to undress and were beaten if they resisted:

{{blockquote|I watched what happened when the Jews—men, women and children—arrived. The Ukrainians{{efn|name="Ukrainians"|While the witness referred to {{nowrap|"[t]he}} Ukrainians" there has only been one documented Ukrainian speaker at Babi Yar, and that was Second Lieutenant Joseph Muller, an ethnic German from [[Galicia (eastern Europe)|Galicia]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/the-dark-secrets-of-babi-yar-1583.html|title=The dark secrets of Babi Yar |date=2 October 1998|work=Kyiv Post|access-date=14 March 2018|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150218141949/http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/the-dark-secrets-of-babi-yar-1583.html|archive-date=18 February 2015}}</ref> Thus, it is more accurate to describe these people as "Ukrainian speakers". A German policeman who guarded Babi Yar testified in 1965 that "the Jews were guarded by Wehrmacht units and by a Hamburg Police Battalion, which, as far as I can remember, carried the number 303."<ref>{{cite book |editor-first=Peter |editor-last=Longerich |editor-link=Peter Longerich |year=1989 |title=Die Ermordung der europäischen Juden: Eine umfassende Dokumentation der Holocaust 1941–1945 |language=de |location=Munich and Zurich |publisher=Piper |page=123 |isbn=9783492110600 |oclc=1198514341}}</ref>}} led them past a number of different places where one after the other they had to give up their luggage, then their coats, shoes and over-garments and also underwear. They also had to leave their valuables in a designated place. There was a special pile for each article of clothing. It all happened very quickly and anyone who hesitated was kicked or pushed by the Ukrainians{{efn|name="Ukrainians"}} to keep them moving.|Michael Berenbaum: "Statement of Truck-Driver Hofer describing the murder of Jews at Babi Yar"<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.einsatzgruppenarchives.com/hofer.html |title=Statement of Truck-Driver Hofer describing the murder of Jews at Babi Yar |access-date=9 January 2006 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070606213149/http://www.einsatzgruppenarchives.com/hofer.html |archive-date=6 June 2007 }} Cited in {{cite book |author-link=Michael Berenbaum |last=Berenbaum |first=Michael |title=Witness to the Holocaust |location=New York |publisher=HarperCollins |year=1997| pages=138–139}}</ref>}}

The crowd was large enough that most of the victims could not have known what was happening until it was too late; by the time they heard the [[machine gun]] fire, there was no chance to escape. All were driven down a corridor of soldiers, in groups of ten, and then shot. A truck driver described the scene.

{{blockquote|Once undressed, they were led into the ravine which was about 150 metres long and 30 metres wide and a good 15 metres deep&nbsp;... When they reached the bottom of the ravine they were seized by members of the {{lang|de|Schutzpolizei}} and made to lie down on top of Jews who had already been shot&nbsp;... The corpses were literally in layers. A police marksman came along and shot each Jew in the neck with a [[submachine gun]]&nbsp;... I saw these marksmen stand on layers of corpses and shoot one after the other&nbsp;... The marksman would walk across the bodies of the executed Jews to the next Jew, who had meanwhile lain down, and shoot him.<ref name=Berenbaum97/>}}

In the evening, the Germans undermined the wall of the ravine and buried the people under the thick layers of earth.<ref name="Gilbert" /> According to the {{lang|de|Einsatzgruppe}}'s Operational Situation Report, 33,771 Jews from Kyiv and its suburbs were systematically shot dead by machine-gun fire at Babi Yar on 29 and 30 September 1941.<ref>[http://www.einsatzgruppenarchives.com/osr101.html Operational Situation Report No. 101] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061207163856/http://www.einsatzgruppenarchives.com/osr101.html |date=7 December 2006 }} (einsatzgruppenarchives.com)</ref> The money, valuables, underwear, and clothing of the murdered were turned over to the local [[Volksdeutsche|ethnic Germans]] and to the Nazi administration of the city.<ref>Nuremberg Military Tribunal, ''Einsatzgruppen trial'', Judgment, at p. 430.</ref> Wounded victims were buried alive in the ravine along with the rest of the bodies.<ref>{{cite book|last=Lawrence|first=Bill|title=Six Presidents, Too Many Wars|url=https://archive.org/details/sixpresidentstoo00lawr|url-access=registration|year=1972|publisher=Saturday Review Press|location=New York|page=[https://archive.org/details/sixpresidentstoo00lawr/page/93 93]|isbn=9780841501430}}</ref><ref name="haaretz06">{{cite news |url=https://www.haaretz.com/news/yad-vashem-tries-to-name-babi-yar-victims-but-only-10-identified-1.198036 |title=Yad Vashem tries to name Babi Yar victims, but only 10% identified |access-date=3 August 2010 |newspaper=Haaretz |first=Amiram |last=Barkat |display-authors=etal |date=September 2006 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110523040842/http://www.haaretz.com/news/yad-vashem-tries-to-name-babi-yar-victims-but-only-10-identified-1.198036 |archive-date=23 May 2011 }}</ref>

==Further massacres==
[[File:Luftwaffe aerial photograph of Babi Yar, 1943.jpg|thumb|Luftwaffe aerial photograph of Babi Yar, 1943]]

In the months that followed, thousands more were seized and taken to Babi Yar where they were shot. It is estimated that more than 100,000 residents of Kyiv of all ethnic groups,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://day.kyiv.ua/uk/article/panorama-dnya/babin-yar-dva-dni-dva-roki-dvadcyate-stolittya |title=Бабин Яр: два дні – два роки – двадцяте століття /ДЕНЬ/ |publisher=day.kyiv.ua |date=28 November 2007 |access-date=7 March 2012 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050405015440/http://www.day.kiev.ua/124453/ |archive-date=5 April 2005 }}</ref><ref>Юрій Шаповал (27 February 2009), {{cite web |url=http://litakcent.com/2009/02/27/babyn-jar-dolja-tekstu-ta-avtora.html |title='Бабин Яр': доля тексту та автора. |access-date=28 August 2010 |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100112222214/http://litakcent.com/2009/02/27/babyn-jar-dolja-tekstu-ta-avtora.html |archive-date=12 January 2010 }} {{Cite web |url=http://litakcent.com/2009/02/27/babyn-jar-dolja-tekstu-ta-avtora.html |title=«Бабин Яр»: доля тексту та автора |access-date=28 August 2010 |archive-date=12 January 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100112222214/http://litakcent.com/2009/02/27/babyn-jar-dolja-tekstu-ta-avtora.html |url-status=usurped }} Літакцент, 2007-2009.</ref><ref>Yury Shapoval, "The Defection of Anatoly Kuznetsov", День, 18 January 2005.</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://1000years.uazone.net/babyn_jar.htm |title=Бабин яр – Бабий яр – Babij jar – Babyn jar |publisher=1000years.uazone.net |access-date=7 March 2012 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120308235419/http://1000years.uazone.net/babyn_jar.htm |archive-date=8 March 2012 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005421 |title=Kiev and Babi Yar |publisher=Ushmm.org |access-date=7 March 2012 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120119051904/http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005421 |archive-date=19 January 2012 }}</ref> mostly civilians, were murdered by the Nazis there during [[World War II]].<ref name="USHMM" /><ref name="Spector">Shmuel Spector, "Babi Yar," ''Encyclopedia of the Holocaust'', Israel Gutman, editor in chief, [[Yad Vashem]], Sifriat Hapoalim, New York: Macmillan, 1990. 4 volumes. {{ISBN|0-02-896090-4}}. An excerpt of the article is available at Ada Holtzman, "[http://www.zchor.org/BABIYAR.HTM Babi Yar: Killing Ravine of Kiev Jewry – WWII] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121230194729/http://www.zchor.org/BABIYAR.HTM |date=2012-12-30 }}", ''We Remember! Shalom!''.</ref> The [[Syrets concentration camp]] was also built in the area, which was notorious for its cruelty<ref name=":02">{{Cite journal |last=Aristov |first=Stanislav |date=2015 |title=Next to Babi Yar: The Syrets Concentration Camp and the Evolution of Nazi Terror in Kiev |url=https://doi.org/10.1093/hgs/dcv047 |journal=Holocaust and Genocide Studies |volume=29 |issue=3 |pages=431–459 |doi=10.1093/hgs/dcv047 |via=Oxford Academic|url-access=subscription }}</ref> and execution of three [[Dynamo Kyiv]] football players who played in the [[The Death Match|Match of Death]].<ref name="deathcamps.org">{{cite web |author=ARC |date=9 July 2006 |title=The KZ in Syrets |url=http://www.deathcamps.org/occupation/syrets.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131029234230/http://www.deathcamps.org/occupation/syrets.html |archive-date=29 October 2013 |access-date=28 October 2013 |work=Occupation of the East |publisher=Deathcamps.org}}</ref>

Mass executions at Babi Yar continued until the Nazis evacuated the city of Kyiv. On 10 January 1942 about 100 captured Soviet sailors were executed there after being forced to disinter and cremate the bodies of previous victims. In addition, Babi Yar became a place of execution of residents of five Gypsy camps. Patients of the Ivan Pavlov [[Psychiatric Hospital]] were gassed and then dumped into the ravine.{{citation needed|date=October 2011}} Thousands of other Ukrainians were murdered at Babi Yar.<ref>[http://history1900s.about.com/od/holocaust/a/babiyar_2.htm Babi Yar (Page 2)] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070611172138/http://history1900s.about.com/od/holocaust/a/babiyar_2.htm |date=11 June 2007 }} by Jennifer Rosenberg (about.com)</ref> Ukrainian poet and activist [[Olena Teliha]] and her husband, and renowned [[bandurist]] [[Mykhailo Teliha]], were murdered there on 21 February 1942.<ref name="BYUnk1">Ludmyla Yurchenko, "[http://www.cym.org/archives/olena_teliha.asp Life is not to be sold for a few pieces of silver: The life of Olena Teliha] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070814045451/http://www.cym.org/archives/olena_teliha.asp |date=2007-08-14 }}", Ukrainian Youth Association.</ref> Also murdered in 1941 were Ukrainian activist writer [[Ivan Rohach]], his sister, and his staff.

Upon the Soviet liberation of Kyiv in 1943, Soviet officials led Western journalists to the site of the massacres and allowed them to interview survivors. Among the journalists were [[Bill Lawrence (news personality)|Bill Lawrence]] of ''[[The New York Times]]'' and [[Bill Downs]] of [[CBS News|CBS]]. Downs described in a report to ''[[Newsweek]]'' what he had been told by one of the survivors, Efim Vilkis:

[[Image:Syrets (Syretskij concentration camp) Kiev.jpg|thumb|A barbed wire fence of the [[Syrets concentration camp]]]]

{{blockquote|However, even more incredible was the action taken by the Nazis between August 19 and September 28 last. Vilkis said that in the middle of August the SS mobilized a party of 100 [[Soviet prisoners of war (Nazi Germany)|Russian war prisoners]], who were taken to the ravines. On August 19 these men were ordered to disinter all the bodies in the ravine. The Germans meanwhile took a party to a nearby Jewish cemetery whence marble headstones were brought to Babii Yar {{sic}} to form the foundation of a huge [[funeral pyre]]. Atop the stones were piled a layer of wood and then a layer of bodies, and so on until the pyre was as high as a two-story house. Vilkis said that approximately 1,500 bodies were burned in each operation of the furnace and each funeral pyre took two nights and one day to burn completely. The cremation went on for 40 days, and then the prisoners, who by this time included 341 men, were ordered to build another furnace. Since this was the last furnace and there were no more bodies, the prisoners [realized] it was for them. They made a break but only a dozen out of more than 200 survived the bullets of the Nazi machine guns.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Downs|first=Bill|title=Blood at Babii Yar – Kiev's Atrocity Story|journal=Newsweek|url=https://archive.org/details/sim_newsweek-us_1943-12-06_22_23/page/22/mode/1up|date=December 6, 1943|page=22}}</ref> }}

=== Number of people who were murdered ===
Estimates of the total number of people who were murdered at Babi Yar during the Nazi occupation vary. At the [[Nuremberg trials]] in 1946, Soviet prosecutor [[Lev Smirnov]] claimed that approximately 100,000 corpses were lying in Babi Yar; he made this estimate using documents which were published by the [[Extraordinary State Commission]] which the Soviets set up in order to investigate Nazi crimes after the liberation of Kyiv in 1943.<ref name="Spector" /><ref>Materials of the Nuremberg Trial in Russian: {{lang|ru|Нюрнбергский процесс, т. III. M., 1958. с. 220–221.}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |first=Iosif |last=Kremenetsky |url=http://shoa.com.ua/php/content/view/84/9/ |title="Babi Yar – September 1941" |access-date=16 May 2007 |archive-date=29 September 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070929083508/http://shoa.com.ua/php/content/view/84/9/ |url-status=dead }} {{Cite web |url=http://shoa.com.ua/php/content/view/84/9/ |title=Шоа. Информационно-аналитический портал - Бабий Яр - сентябрь 1941 |access-date=16 May 2007 |archive-date=29 September 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070929083508/http://shoa.com.ua/php/content/view/84/9/ |url-status=dead }} {{in lang|ru}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://nurnbergprozes.narod.ru/011/6.htm |title=Из Сообщения Чрезвычайной Государственной Комиссии о Разрушениях и зверствах, Совершенных Немецко – Фашистскими Захватчиками в Городе Киеве |trans-title=From the Communication of the Extraordinary State Commission on the Destruction and Atrocities Committed by the German-Fascist Invaders in the City of Kyiv |access-date=29 August 2007 |archive-date=6 December 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071206193239/http://nurnbergprozes.narod.ru/011/6.htm |url-status=dead }} Нюрнбергский Процесс. Документ СССР-9. {{in lang|ru}}</ref>

In a recently published letter to the Israeli journalist, writer, and translator Shlomo Even-Shoshan which was dated 17 May 1965, [[Anatoly Kuznetsov]] commented on the Babi Yar [[wikt:atrocity|atrocity]]:

{{blockquote|In the two years that followed, Ukrainians, Russians, Gypsies and people of all nationalities were murdered in Babi Yar. The belief that Babi Yar is an exclusively Jewish grave is wrong... It is an international grave. Nobody will ever determine how many and what nationalities are buried there, because 90% of the corpses were burned, their ashes were scattered in ravines and fields.<ref name=shapoval>Yury Shapoval, [https://day.kyiv.ua/en/article/history-and-i/defection-anatoly-kuznetsov "The Defection of Anatoly Kuznetsov"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090113132258/http://www.day.kiev.ua/130699/ |date=January 13, 2009 }}, ''{{lang|uk|День}}'', 18 January 2005.</ref>}}Researchers studying Ukrainian archives opened in the wake of the [[2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine|2022 Russian invasion]] added 1,031 names of slain Jews to a database maintained by the [[Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center]], bringing the total to 33,771. The new names were read along with a recitation of the [[Kaddish]] in a ceremony in September 2025.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Stub |first=Zev |date=2025-09-29 |title=84 years after Babyn Yar massacre, names of 1,000 previously unknown victims revealed |url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/84-years-after-babyn-yar-massacre-names-of-1000-previously-unknown-victims-revealed/ |access-date=2025-09-29 |work=The Times of Israel |language=en-US |issn=0040-7909}}</ref>

==Survivors==
[[File:Dina pronicheva trial big.jpg|thumb|[[Dina Pronicheva]] on the witness stand, 24 January 1946, at a Kyiv war-crimes trial of fifteen members of the German police responsible for the occupied Kyiv region]]

One of the most often-cited parts of [[Anatoly Kuznetsov]]'s documentary novel [[Babi Yar: A Document in the Form of a Novel|''Babi Yar'']] is the testimony of [[Dina Pronicheva]], an actress of the [[Kyiv Academic Puppet Theatre|Kyiv Puppet Theatre]], and a survivor.<ref name="Brandon">{{cite book|author1=Ray Brandon|title=The Shoah in Ukraine: history, testimony, memorialisation|author2=Wendy Lower|publisher=Indiana University Press|year=2008|isbn=978-0-253-35084-8|page=12|author-link2=Wendy Lower}}</ref> She was one of those ordered to march to the ravine, to be forced to undress and then be shot. Jumping before being shot and falling on other bodies, she played dead in a pile of corpses. She held perfectly still while the Nazis continued to shoot the wounded or gasping victims. Although the SS had covered the mass grave with earth, she eventually climbed through the soil and escaped. Since it was dark, she had to avoid the torches of the Nazis finishing off the remaining victims still alive, wounded, and gasping in the grave. She was one of the very few survivors of the massacre and later related her story to Kuznetsov.<ref>"[https://www.pbs.org/wnet/heritage/episode8/documents/documents_13.html A Survivor of the Babi Yar Massacre] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080314025912/http://www.pbs.org/wnet/heritage/episode8/documents/documents_13.html|date=2008-03-14}}," ''Heritage: Civilization and the Jews'' ([[Public Broadcasting Service|PBS]]). Gilbert (1985): 204–205.</ref> At least 29 survivors are known.<ref>{{cite web|title=Рувим Штейн, чудом спасшийся с места казни: "Наверное, я настоящий умер там, в Бабьем Яре" Янина Соколовская (Киев) |trans-title=Reuben Stein, who miraculously escaped from the place of execution: "Probably, I really died there, in Babi Yar" |first=Янина (Yanina) |last=Соколовская (Sokolovskaya) |url=http://www.izvestia.ru/hystory/article3096753/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080217041238/http://www.izvestia.ru/hystory/article3096753/|archive-date=17 February 2008|access-date=17 February 2008}}</ref>

In 2006, [[Yad Vashem]] and other Jewish organisations started a project to identify and name the Babi Yar victims. However, so far, only 10% have been identified. Yad Vashem has recorded the names of around 3,000 Jews murdered at Babi Yar, as well as those of some 7,000 Jews from [[Kyiv]] who were murdered during [[the Holocaust]].{{citation needed|date=September 2022}}

==Concealment of the crimes==
Before the Nazis retreated from Kyiv ahead of the Soviet offensive of 1944, they were ordered by [[Wilhelm Koppe]] to conceal their atrocities in the East. [[Paul Blobel]], who had been in control of the mass murders in Babi Yar two years earlier, supervised the "special action" ''[[Sonderaktion 1005]]'' to eliminate its traces. The ''Aktion'' was carried out earlier in all [[extermination camp]]s. The bodies were exhumed, burned and the ashes were scattered over farmland in the vicinity.<ref name="YV">[http://www.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/Microsoft%20Word%20-%205721.pdf Aktion 1005.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151108194719/http://www.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/Microsoft%20Word%20-%205721.pdf |date=8 November 2015 }} Yad Vashem. Shoa Resource Centre. Retrieved 25 April 2013.</ref> Several hundred prisoners of war from the [[Syrets concentration camp]] were forced to exhume the bodies for cremation in funeral pyres built atop layers of stolen Jewish gravestones.<ref>{{cite book|last=Lawrence|first=Bill|title=Six Presidents, Too Many Wars|url=https://archive.org/details/sixpresidentstoo00lawr|url-access=registration|year=1972|publisher=Saturday Review Press|location=New York|page=[https://archive.org/details/sixpresidentstoo00lawr/page/94 94]|isbn=9780841501430}}</ref>

== Trials ==
[[File:Paul Blobel.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Paul Blobel]] at the [[subsequent Nuremberg trials]], March 1948]]

In the aftermath of the war, several SS commanders who had planned and supervised the massacre were arrested and put on trial. [[Paul Blobel]], the overall commander of the SS unit responsible for the massacre, was sentenced to death by the [[Subsequent Nuremberg Trials]] in the [[Einsatzgruppen Trial]]. He was hanged on 7 June 1951 at [[Landsberg Prison]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Nuremberg SS-Einsatzgruppen Trial, 1945–1958: Atrocity, Law, and History|last=Earl|first=Hilary Camille|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2009|pages=293}}</ref> [[Otto Rasch]] was also indicted in the Einsatzgruppen Trial but his case was discontinued for health reasons, and he died in prison in 1948. [[Friedrich Jeckeln]] was convicted of war crimes by a Soviet military tribunal in the [[Riga Trial]], sentenced to death, and hanged on 3 February 1946. [[Kurt Eberhard]] was arrested by US authorities; he killed himself in 1947, while in custody awaiting trial.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Mt0mEAAAQBAJ&dq=%22Kurt+Eberhard%22+suicide&pg=PT365 | isbn=9781526742278 | title=Myths and Legends of the Eastern Front: Reassessing the Great Patriotic War | date=19 January 2020 | publisher=Pen and Sword }}</ref>

In January 1946, 15 former members of the German police (including [[:de:Paul Scheer (General)|Paul Scheer]]) were tried in Kyiv over their roles in the massacre and other atrocities. Twelve of them were sentenced to death (Fritz Beckenhof, Karl Burckhardt, Georg Heinisch, Wilhelm Hellerforth, Hans Isenmann, Emil Jogschat, Emil Knoll, Willi Meier, Paul von Scheer, Eckart Hans von Tschammer und Osten, Georg Truckenbrod, and Oskar Walliser). The other three received prison sentences. Those condemned to death were publicly hanged in the town square of Kyiv on 29 January 1946.<ref>Documentary ''[[Babi Yar. Context]]'' 2021, director [[Sergey Loznitsa]], {{IMDb title|qid=Q109264697}}.</ref> [[Erich Koch]], who had been ''[[Reichskommissar]]'' of Ukraine at the time, was tried and sentenced to death by a Polish court for his atrocities in occupied Poland. However, he was never tried for his crimes in occupied Ukraine. His death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment, and he died in prison in 1986.<ref name="USHMM" />

Two additional perpetrators were given prison sentences at the [[Nuremberg Trials]].<ref name="USHMM" /> In 1967, 11 men were charged for participating in the massacre in a German court in [[Darmstadt]]. After a 14 month trial, seven were convicted and sentenced to prison terms ranging between four and fifteen years.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.jta.org/archive/7-ex-nazis-including-babi-yar-murderers-sentenced-to-prison-for-1941-killings |title=7 Ex-nazis, Including Babi Yar Murderers, Sentenced to Prison for 1941 Killings |work=www.jta.org |date=3 December 1968 |access-date=1 March 2022}}</ref> In 1971, three more former German police officials were put on trial in [[Regensburg]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.jta.org/archive/three-ex-nazis-charged-with-organizing-massacre-of-jews-at-babi-yar-go-on-trial |title=Three Ex-nazis, Charged with Organizing Massacre of Jews at Babi Yar, Go on Trial |work=www.jta.org |date=7 May 1971 |access-date=1 March 2022}}</ref> The vast majority of the perpetrators were never tried for their roles in the massacre.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/80-years-after-babi-yar-lawyer-seeks-trial-for-last-living-alleged-perpetrator/ |title=80 years after Babi Yar, lawyer seeks trial for last living alleged perpetrator |work=[[The Times of Israel]] |access-date=1 March 2022 |issn=0040-7909}}</ref>

==Remembrance==
{{Main|Babi Yar memorials|Babi Yar Holocaust Memorial Center}}
[[File:70 років трагедії Бабиного Яру.jpg|thumb|upright|Ukrainian postage stamp, released on the 70th anniversary of the massacre in Babi Yar]]
[[File:Babi Jar ravijn.jpg|thumb|The ravine in 2003]]

After the war, specifically Jewish and Roma commemoration efforts encountered difficulty because of the Soviet Union's emphasis on secular remembrances honoring all nationalities of the Soviet Union, so memorials (including at Babi Yar) would generally refer to "peaceful victims of fascism." Memorials were not explicitly forbidden, but successive Soviet leaders preferred instead to emphasise the wide-ranging origins of those murdered at the site. This meant that both Jewish and Roma peoples were not specifically memorialised at the Babi Yar site until the Soviet Union collapsed.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kotljarchuk |first=Andrej |date=2022-04-30 |title=Babi Yar and the Nazi Genocide of Roma: Memory Narratives and Memory Practices in Ukraine |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/DF98FCF821384B0FDCE6A437D70F2ACA/S0090599221000040a.pdf/div-class-title-babi-yar-and-the-nazi-genocide-of-roma-memory-narratives-and-memory-practices-in-ukraine-div.pdf |journal=Nationalities Papers |volume=50 |issue=3 |pages=452–453|doi=10.1017/nps.2021.4 }}</ref> Indeed, [[Yevgeny Yevtushenko]]'s 1961 poem on Babi Yar begins "Над Бабьим Яром памятников нет/Nad Babim Yarom pamyatnikov nyet" ("Over Babi Yar there are no monuments"); it is also the first line of [[Shostakovich]]'s [[Symphony No. 13 (Shostakovich)|Symphony No. 13]].

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, several memorials were erected on the site and elsewhere. The events also formed a part of literature. Babi Yar is located in [[Kyiv]] at the juncture of today's [[Kurenivka]], [[Lukianivka]] and [[Syrets]] [[subdivisions of Kyiv|districts]], between Kyrylivska, Melnykov, and Olena Teliha streets and [[St. Cyril's Monastery (Kyiv)|St. Cyril's Monastery]]. After the [[Orange Revolution]], President [[Viktor Yushchenko]] of Ukraine hosted a major commemoration of the 65th anniversary in 2006, attended by Presidents [[Moshe Katsav]] of [[Israel]], [[Filip Vujanović]] of [[Montenegro]], [[Stjepan Mesić]] of [[Croatia]] and [[Chief Rabbi]] of [[Tel Aviv]] Rabbi [[Yisrael Meir Lau]]. Rabbi Lau pointed out that if the world had reacted to the massacre of Babi Yar, perhaps the Holocaust might never have happened. Implying that this impunity emboldened Hitler, Lau speculated:

{{blockquote|Maybe, say, this Babi Yar was also a test for Hitler. If on 29 September and 30 September 1941 Babi Yar may happen and the world did not react seriously, dramatically, abnormally, maybe this was a good test for him. So a few weeks later in January 1942, near Berlin in Wannsee, a convention can be held with a decision, a final solution to the Jewish problem&nbsp;... Maybe if the very action had been a serious one, a dramatic one, in September 1941 here in Ukraine, the [[Wannsee Conference]] would have come to a different end, maybe.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.worldholocaustforum.org/eng/past_events/2/speech/meir_lau.php |title=Rabbi Lau's Statement at the International Forum 'Let My People Live!', Kyiv, September 27, 2006; World Holocaust Forum |publisher=Worldholocaustforum.org |access-date=2012-03-07 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130620221724/http://www.worldholocaustforum.org/eng/past_events/2/speech/meir_lau.php |archive-date=June 20, 2013 }}</ref>}}

In 2006, a message was also delivered on behalf of [[Kofi Annan]], Secretary-General of the United Nations,<ref>{{cite web |author= |url=http://www.worldholocaustforum.org/eng/past_events/2/letters/2274/ |title=Message of Kofi Annan, UN Secretary General, delivered by Francis O'Donnell, UN Resident Coordinator in Ukraine |publisher=Worldholocaustforum.org |date=27 September 2006 |access-date=7 March 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120311042451/http://www.worldholocaustforum.org/eng/past_events/2/letters/2274/ |archive-date=11 March 2012 }} {{Cite web |url=http://www.worldholocaustforum.org/eng/past_events/2/letters/2274/ |title=WORLD HOLOCAUST FORUM &#124; Past Events &#124; International Forum 'Let My People Live!', September 27, 2006 &#124; Message of the UN Secretary-General delivered by Mr. Francis O'Donnell, UN Resident Coordinator in Ukraine |access-date=15 December 2010 |archive-date=11 March 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120311042451/http://www.worldholocaustforum.org/eng/past_events/2/letters/2274/ |url-status=dead}}</ref> by his representative, [[Resident Coordinator]] [[Francis Martin O'Donnell]], who added a Hebrew prayer {{not a typo|O'seh}} Shalom,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.un.org.ua/en/information-centre/news/420-2006-09-28 |title=Full text with post-script by O'Donnell |publisher=Un.org.ua |date=27 September 2006 |access-date=7 March 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120315163636/http://www.un.org.ua/en/information-centre/news/420-2006-09-28 |archive-date=15 March 2012 }} {{Cite web |url=http://www.un.org.ua/en/information-centre/news/420-2006-09-28 |title=The Secretary-General message commemorating the 65th anniversary of the tragedy of Babi Yar - United Nations in Ukraine |access-date=1 December 2010 |archive-date=15 March 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120315163636/http://www.un.org.ua/en/information-centre/news/420-2006-09-28 |url-status=dead }}</ref> from the Mourners' [[Kaddish]].

==Mudslide==
{{Main|Kurenivka mudslide}}

In the spring of 1961, Babi Yar was the site of a massive [[mudslide]]. An earthen dam in the ravine was used to hold [[loam]] pulp which had been pumped from the local [[brick]] factories without sufficient drainage over the course of ten years. The dam collapsed after it was hit by a heavy rainstorm, resulting in a mudslide that swept away the low-lying [[Kurenivka]] neighborhood and several other areas. The death toll was estimated to be between 1,500 and 2,000 people.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Smoliy|first1=V. A.|last2=Goryak|first2=G. V.|last3=Danilenko|first3=V. M.|title=Куренівська трагедія 13 березня 1961 р. у Києві: причини, обставини, наслідки. Документи і матеріали|date=2012|publisher=Institute of Ukrainian History NAN Ukraine|isbn=978-966-02-6392-5|pages=18|url=https://www.archives.gov.ua/Publicat/Kurenivska_tragediya.php|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170928005649/http://www.archives.gov.ua/Publicat/Kurenivska_tragediya.php|archive-date=28 September 2017|access-date=20 December 2017}}</ref>

==2022 Russian bombing==
{{Main|Russian invasion of Ukraine}}
{{Further|Ukrainian cultural heritage during the 2022 Russian invasion}}

On 1 March 2022, during the [[Russian invasion of Ukraine]], the site was struck by Russian forces while they were trying to destroy the nearby [[Kyiv TV Tower]]. The attack resulted in the death of at least five people.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.jpost.com/international/article-699034|title=Russians attack Babyn Yar Holocaust massacre site in Kyiv|date=1 March 2022|website=[[The Jerusalem Post]]|access-date=1 March 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220301173043/https://www.jpost.com/international/article-699034|archive-date=1 March 2022}}</ref><ref name="Smithsonian 2022">{{cite web | last=Veidlinger| first=Jeffrey | title=What Happened at Babi Yar, the Ukrainian Holocaust Site Reportedly Struck by a Russian Missile? | website=Smithsonian Magazine | date=8 March 2022 | url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/babi-yar-ukraine-massacre-holocaust-180979687/ | access-date=30 September 2022}}</ref><ref name="Wertheimer 2022">{{cite news| last=Wertheimer | first=Tiffany | title=Babyn Yar: Anger as Kyiv's Holocaust memorial is damaged | website=BBC News | date=3 March 2022 | url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-60588885 | access-date=30 September 2022}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Antisemitism in Ukraine]]
* {{anl|Babi Yar Holocaust Memorial Center}}
* {{anl|Babi Yar in poetry}}
* [[Consequences of Nazism]]
* [[Genocides in history#Nazi Germany and occupied Europe|Genocides in history]]
* [[History of the Jews in Ukraine]]
* [[List of massacres in Ukraine]]
* {{anl|Mass graves in the Soviet Union}}
* [[Nazi crimes against Soviet POWs]]
* {{anl|Operation Barbarossa}}
* {{anl|Reichskommissariat Ukraine}}
* Symphony No. 1 [[In Memoriam to the Martyrs of Babi Yar]] by [[Dmitri Klebanov]] (1945)
* [[Symphony No. 13 (Shostakovich)|Symphony No. 13]] by [[Dmitri Shostakovich]], which includes a setting of [[Yevgeny Yevtushenko]]'s poem ''{{ill|Babi Yar (Yevtushenko poem)|ru|Бабий Яр (поэма)|lt=Babi Yar}}''
* [[The Holocaust in Ukraine]]
* {{anl|The Kindly Ones (Littell novel)|''The Kindly Ones''}}
* [[Ukrainian collaborationism with the Axis powers]]
* [[Ukrainian cultural heritage during the 2022 Russian invasion]]
* {{anl|Valley of Death (Bydgoszcz)}}

==Explanatory notes==
{{Notelist}}

== Citations ==
{{Reflist|30em}}

== General and cited sources ==
* A. Anatoli ([[Anatoly Kuznetsov]]), trans. David Floyd (1970), ''[[Babi Yar: A Document in the Form of a Novel]]'', Jonathan Cape Ltd. {{ISBN|0-671-45135-9}}
* "Babi Yar in the mirror of science, or the map of Bermuda Triangle", an article in ''[[Dzerkalo Tyzhnia]]'' (''The Mirror Weekly''), July 2005, [https://dt.ua/SOCIUM/babin_yar_u_dzerkali_nauki,_abo_mapa_bermudskogo_trikutnika.html available online] {{In lang|uk}}

==Further reading==
* [[Bibliography of the Soviet Union during World War II]]
* {{section link|Bibliography of Ukrainian history|Holocaust}}

==External links==
{{commons category|Babi Yar}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20120112124143/http://www1.yadvashem.org/yv/en/holocaust/about/04/ussr.asp?WT.mc_id=wiki The Invasion of the Soviet Union and the Beginnings of Mass Murder] on the [[Yad Vashem]] website
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20120916093716/http://www1.yadvashem.org/yv/en/holocaust/barbarossa/index.asp?WT.mc_id=wiki Marking 70 Years to Operation Barbarossa] on the [[Yad Vashem]] website
* [http://history1900s.about.com/library/holocaust/aa080799.htm Babi Yar: Mass Murder] ({{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060721222347/http://history1900s.about.com/library/holocaust/aa080799.htm |date=21 July 2006 }}) (history1900s.about.com)
* [http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/einsatz/babiyar.html In-depth study on Babi Yar]
* [http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/holocaust/h-b-yar.htm The Massacre at Babi Yar Near Kyiv] (historyplace.com)
* [http://www.zchor.org/BABIYAR.HTM Babi Yar: Killing Ravine of Kyiv Jewry – WWII] ({{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121230194729/http://www.zchor.org/BABIYAR.HTM |date=30 December 2012 }}) (zchor.org)
* [http://www.berdichev.org/babi_yar.htm Babi Yar] (berdichev.org)
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070926223355/http://shoa.com.ua/php/content/view/106/9/ "History. Geography. Memory"] by Tatyana Yevstafyeva {{in lang|ru}}, 15 August 2002 (a reprint from ''[[The Jewish Observer]]'')

{{National landmarks of cultural heritage in Kyiv}}{{National Sanctuaries of Kyiv}}{{Holocaust Ukraine}}
{{Massacres of Jews}}
{{Einsatzgruppen}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Babi Yar| ]]
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