Within the span of just two days in 1941, September 29-30, the Nazis rounded up over 30,000 Jews in Kyiv and marched to a ravine known as Babyn Yar, where they were shot. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum notes that, according to reports by the Einzsatzgruppe (the Nazis’ mobile killing unit), 33,771 Jews were murdered at the site northwest of the capital city on those two days.
In the months after that massacre, tens of thousands more were killed. In all, more than 100,000 (some sources give the number as 150,000) were killed at Babyn Yar, which Prof. Paul Magocsi described as “a huge killing field” (see page 1). Among them were not only Jews, but also Ukrainian patriots, including members of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, Roma, prisoners of war, Communists and other “undesirables.” It became, as the Encyclopedia of Ukraine notes in an entry on the Nazi occupation of Ukraine, “one of the most notorious of their killing grounds.” (Editor’s note: The correct term for this sorrowful place is Babyn Yar, from the Ukrainian name, though Babi Yar is often used by various media.)
Writing in Tablet (which describes itself as “a daily online magazine of Jewish news, ideas and culture”) on September 28, correspondent Vladislav Davidzon observed: “President Petro Poroshenko has embarked on the most comprehensive and committed memorializing of the events in the history of the Ukrainian state. This year’s 75th anniversary commemorations of the Babi Yar massacre have felt like one of the most important in the history of the Ukrainian statehood – a sentiment that has been reflected in a number of ceremonial speeches, and echoes here on the streets of Kiev [sic].”
Mr. Davidzon reported that the Babyn Yar site has been refurbished and a new memorial to the Roma has been erected. He credited the Canada-based Ukrainian Jewish Encounter (UJE), which promotes cooperation between Ukrainians and Jews, with organizing “the lion’s share of the commemorative events” – a week’s worth of conferences, symposia, memorial gatherings, exhibitions and concerts.
By all accounts, it truly was an amazing week of events with the participation of over 1,000 foreign dignitaries, including government leaders, and the active involvement of the World Jewish Congress. Among the highlights were a memorial concert performed by the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra at the National Opera House and the presentation of the Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky Medal, named in honor of the heroic leader of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church at the time of World War II who is credited with sheltering and saving Jews. The medal was awarded to former Soviet-era dissident Ivan Dzyuba in recognition of his historic public speech at Babyn Yar in 1966 in which he spoke of the Jews massacred there – at a time when the USSR recognized only Soviet citizens and POWs as the victims – as well as his decades of work in promoting human rights.
The anniversary was marked also with the announcement that the Babi Yar Holocaust Memorial Center will be created at the site of the mass killings. Related to that effort is an international design competition organized by UJE to transform Babyn Yar into a fitting memorial park. A signing ceremony for the declaration of intent to establish the memorial center took place at Taras Shevchenko National Museum, where President Poroshenko underlined: “We, Ukrainians, understand the sorrow of Jews as our own.” He told the gathering that “The Holocaust is the most tragic page in the history of Jews and Ukrainians. The genocide of Jews took place on our land as well, contrary to the will of Ukrainians, because Ukraine was one of the main theaters of the cruelest war in the history of mankind.” And, he concluded his remarks by stating that the establishment of the Babi Yar Holocaust Memorial Center must become a symbol of the nation’s unity.
The milestone 75th anniversary commemorations of the Babyn Yar massacre were indeed most significant. What happened at Babyn Yar in 1941 is a shared tragedy – a tragedy for all the people of Ukraine. We join them in bowing our heads in remembrance. Vichnaya pamiat. May their memory be eternal.