On Sept. 29 Ukraine marked the 67th anniversary of Babyn Yar, the Nazi massacre of tens of thousands of victims in a Kyiv ravine. After German forces entered Kyiv in 1941, members of the Einsatzgruppe (Nazi mobile killing unit), supported by other SS and German police units, murdered over half the Jewish population of Kyiv.
According to reports by the Einsatzgruppe to headquarters, 33,771 Jews were massacred in two days as well as non-Jews including Romas (Gypsies), communists, and Soviet prisoners of war. It is estimated that some 100,000 people were murdered at Babyn Yar.
Today Ukraine commemorates the genocide victims and has opened its archives in an effort to ensure that such a massacre never happens again. Last week, a fuller version of the book “Babi Yar” by Anatoliy Kuznetsov, an eyewitness of the tragedy, was released. The book was first published in 1961, but heavily censored by Soviets. For the first time, the full version will be available in Ukrainian and Russian languages. Kuznetsov’s book includes memoirs of the tragedy’s eyewitnesses, archive information and official documents from 1941-1943.
Ukraine’s top politicians also commemorated the tens of thousands of massacre victims by laying flowers at the monument commemorating Babiy Yar victims in Kyiv’s Syrets region.
