BABI JAR – 1 OF THE SYMBOLS OF THE HOLOCAUS OF POLSKA, JEWS, UKRAINS, ROMANS AND RUSSIANS.
The crime in Babim Jara was 1 of the first attempts to execution all Jews who were residents of the large city. After the outbreak of the German-Soviet War on 22 June 1941, Wehrmacht and the following operating groups – the alleged Einsatzgruppen carried out systematic murders on the judaic population. The Reichsfuehrer SS Heinrich Himmler himself was liable for carrying out the crimes on men, but besides on women and children – according to Adolf Hitler's order of 17 July 1941 ordering the “pacification” of occupied areas.
HIMMLER'S ROAD
"The execution of women and children was a intellectual barrier and the SS chief was determined to break it. At a time erstwhile Einsatzgruppen was inactive killing only men in general, Himmler had already sent units of his Waffen-SS (the armed arm of the SS) to exterminate full communities, including women and children," stressed Prof. Timothy Snyder of Yale University, an expert on the past of Central and east Europe.
As he pointed out, it was Himmler who brutally directed the murders on occupied lands of the USSR and organized the bureaucracy of repression.
To Kiev German troops – confederate Army Group – reached 19 September 1941. 5 days later – 24 September – a series of explosions occurred in occupied buildings, most likely detonated by the remaining NKVD officers in Kiev.
In specified situations, the authorities of the 3rd German Reich acted in accordance with their ideology: even if the Soviets were liable for something, Jews should be blamed. On September 26, the decision was made: all the Jews remaining in Kiev (many fled east) are to be killed.
"The key to the success of the full operation was misinformation. Wehrmacht's propaganda cell printed large announcements ordering Kiev Jews would appear – under threat of death – at the corner of the street in 1 of the western districts of the city. A lie was utilized to get Germans into habit with mass shootings – the goal was supposedly to resettle. Thus, Jews were to bring with them documents, money and valuables," writes Prof. Snyder in a publication entitled "Blooded Lands".
On the day of the massacre – 29 September 1941 – the majority, due to the fact that more than 30,000 remaining Jews in Kiev appeared in the place marked by the Germans. Many of them were convinced that nothing bad could happen due to the fact that it was the eve of Yom Kippur – 1 of the most crucial judaic holidays. However, Nazi officers led them to the area of a deep gorge, called Babi Jar, which was then located just below Kiev (now it lies within the city limits).
TRADING WORK OF WITNESSES
What happened in the following hours the historians know, among others, thanks to the account of a young judaic female – Dina Pronicza, whose miraculously managed to excavat from the bottom of death (Pronicza was 1 of the fewer witnesses of the crime; in total, researchers know about 30 survivors from the massacre in Babim Jara). “When people gave distant valuables and documents, they were forced to undress naked. They were then chased in groups of ten, rushing with threats or shooting into the air, to the edge of a ravine called Babi Jar. Many were beaten: Proniczowa remembered that people “went to shoot already bloody” – she recounts the words of the witness Prof. Snyder.
"They were forced to lay down on their stomachs on the bottom of their bodies and wait for the arrows that fell from above and from behind. Then the next group came. Jews came and died for 36 hours. ... any died reasoning of others alternatively of themselves, like the parent of beautiful 15-year-old Sarah, who begged her to be shot at at the same time as her daughter. Even at the very end, she thought of Sarah and cared for her: if she saw her daughter die, she would not see them rape her. A bare parent breast-fed a baby, knowing it was the last seconds of her life. erstwhile the kid was thrown alive into the jar, she jumped behind him, uncovering death there," wrote Prof. Snyder.
According to the German reports, they were shot in just 2 days.
- 771 people. Further executions continued until October 11. Around 17.00 Jews were killed at the time.
The Germans besides wanted to kill Pronicza. However, she managed to last due to the fact that she first stated that she was Russian. Then erstwhile the villains decided to kill her, after the first shots, she threw herself at the jar and pretended to be dead. She must have been inactive while 1 of the executioners was walking on the corpses, and erstwhile she was buried in the ground, she managed to hollow out the small gap she was breathing through. erstwhile she got out of the pit of death, she had to hide in Kiev, where during the German business there were attempts to catch the Jews hiding.
On the place of the execution in Babim Jar, the Germans formed a concentration camp in which Ukrainians, Poles, Russians and Roma were imprisoned. The prisoners of the camp were forced to mine the murdered in the fall of 1941. Jews and – as part of covering their tracks – burning their remains at the stacks. By 1943, erstwhile the Red Army entered Kiev, about 30,000 people were murdered in the camp. According to various sources, the full number of people shot at Babim Jar from 1941 to 1943 ranges from 100 to 150 1000 people.
PAP/IAR/agkm Polskie Radio S.A.
