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VVILIT
Volume 2 Number 2 1987
HOLOCAUST
MAP
AND
GENOCIDE
STUDIES
An International Journal
Published in association with the
United States Holocaust Memorial Council and
Yad Vashem, The Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes'
Remembrance Authority, Jerusalem
Editor-in-Chief: YEHUDA BAUER
Associate Editor: HARRY JAMES CARGAS
Chairman of the Editorial Board: ELIE WIESEL
PERGAMON PRESS
OXFORD
NEW YORK
BEIJING
FRANKFURT
SÃO PAULO
SYDNEY
TOKYO
TORONTO
HOLOCAUST AND GENOCIDE STUDIES
An International Journal
Published in association with the
United States Holocaust Memorial Council and
Yad Vashem, The Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes'
Remembrance Authority, Jerusalem
Volume 2 Number 2 1987
CONTENTS
Yehuda Bauer
209
Essay: On the Place of the Holocaust in History
Yaacov Lozowick 221
Rollbahn Mord: The Early Activities of Einsatzgruppe C
Menachem Shelach 243
Sajmište - An Extermination Camp in Serbia
Haim Genizi 261
Christian Charity: The Unitarian Service Committee's Relief Activities on
Behalf of Refugees from Nazism, 1940-5
Luba K. Gurdus 277
Reconstruction of an Artist's Life: Genia (Gela) Seksztajn-Lichtensztajn
Gerald Cromer 289
Negotiating the Meaning of the Holocaust: an Observation on the Debate
about Kahanism in Israeli Society.
Ephraim Tabory and
299
The Impact of Cultural Context on the Mental Health of Jewish Concen-
Leonard Weller
tration Camp Survivors
William B. Helmreich
307
Postwar Adaptation of Holocaust Survivors in the United States
Alice L. Eckardt
317
Reviews
321
Book Reviews
341
Books Received
343
Major Research and Resource Centres on the Holocaust
345
Announcement: 'Remembering for the Future', The Impact of the Holocaust
and Genocide on Jews & Christians, An International Scholars' Conference,
Oxford, 10-13 July 1988; Public Conference, London, 15 July 1988
i
List of Contents and Author Index for Volume 2, 1987
Indexed/Abstracted in
Current Contents/Arts & Humanities, Int. Bibl. Period. Lit.,
Int. Bibl. Book Reviews and ATLA Religion Indexes
PERGAMON PRESS
OXFORD
NEW YORK
BEIJING
FRANKFURT
SÃO PAULO
SYDNEY
TOKYO
TORONTO
ISSN 8756-6583
Printed in Great Britain by Express Litho Service (Oxford)
567
Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Vol. 2, No. 2, pp. 221-241, 1987
8756-6583/87 $3.00 + 0.00
Printed in Great Britain
Pergamon Journals Ltd
ROLLBAHN MORD: THE EARLY ACTIVITIES OF
EINSATZGRUPPE C*
YAACOV LOZOWICK
Graduate Student, Hebrew University, Jerusalem
Abstract - Einsatzgruppe C was active in the Ukraine and became responsible
for the murder of Jews, including the Babi-Yar massacre at Kiev. At first, men only
were murdered, but after a number of weeks, women and children became victims,
too. The Einsatzgruppe was assisted in its task by the Wehrmacht, the German
police, other units of the SS and by both individuals and organized groups of local
Ukrainians and Germans. Though no clear orders regarding the scope of the Final
Solution seem to have been given, Einsatzgruppe C relentlessly continued
pursuing its victims until the act of murder itself became routine.
Das Kommando (EK 4a) war auf der 'Rollbahn Mord' - auf dem Marsche.¹
'Operation Barbarossa', the German invasion of the Soviet Union launched on 22
June 1941, was a turning point in the Nazi war against the Jews. Special SS and police
units, among them the four Einsatzgruppen, embarked on a campaign of murder, directed
mainly against the Jewish population of the newly occupied territories. A detailed
examination of the early activities of the third of these units, Einsatzgruppe C, can
contribute to understanding the development and execution of the 'Final Solution'.
A number of issues must be addressed. The Einsatzgruppe systematically murdered
tens of thousands of people. Both the methods used and their evolution are therefore
significant. The theatre of operations was occupied by many diverse German formations,
military and other. The relations between the murderers and their colleagues in other units
were generally good, although not always without friction, a subject which will be examined
closely. Likewise, the reactions of the local population had an important effect on the fate of
many victims. The ideology of the perpetrators also contributed to the outcome, of course,
as it helped them to persevere in a task that generally would be regarded as extremely
repugnant.
One final issue, currently under debate, will need to be addressed: What were the
orders given to the unit? Was their mission to murder all Jews, or only specific groups? If
an order for total eradication existed, was it given before the operation, and therefore must
have been part of a pre-conceived plan, or did it filter down piecemeal, its origin unclear? It
would seem that the answers to these questions differed in the various Einsatzgruppen,
necessitating a detailed examination of each one of them individually.
I. GENERAL OVERVIEW
Einsatzgruppe C numbered between 800 and 1000 men and was commanded by Dr.
*This article is an extensively revised and translated version of the Hebrew article in Yalkut Moreshet,
No. 40 (December 1985), 67-90.
221
222
YAACOV LOZOWICK
Leningrad
front
North Sea
Baltic Sea
au!!
Riga
EINSATZGRUPPE A
Moscow
Kovno
Minsk
December
Vilna
EINSATZGRUPPE B
Berlin
Bialystok
1941
Warsaw
River Volga
EINSATZGRUPPE C
GREATER GERMANY
Rovno
Schmiedeberg
Kiev
Prague
Zhitomir
Poltava
Lvov
Kremenchug
Vienna
EINSATZGRUPPE D
Rostov-on-Don
Odessa
Bucharest
Adriatic Sea
Belgrade
Black
Sea
o
miles
300
0
kilometres 400
©
Martin Gilbert 1986
VOLHYNIA
Ushomir
GREATER
Luck
GERMANY
(Lutsk)
Rowne
Kiev
Radomys!
(Rovno)
Novgorod-
Zhitomir
Fastov
Russo German 1939 line (Lvov) Lwow
Volynsk
Sokal
Ivankov
Belaya Tserkov
Zborow
Berdichev
Kovshevata
Rudki
Tarnopol
1221-1939 au!!
Russo Polish
Khmelnik
UKRAINE
Stryj
Vinnitsa
Boryslaw
Chortkow
Kamenets Podolsk
Dobromil
Uman
Kirovograd
Sambor
(Kirovo)
VINGHING
BUKOVINA
0
miles
100
©
Martin Gilbert 1986
o
kilometres 150
Fig. 1.
Editor's Note. The Editor wishes to thank Martin Gilbert, Fellow of Merton College,
Oxford for his generous assistance in preparing the maps accompanying this article.
THE EARLY ACTIVITIES OF EINSATZGRUPPE C
223
Otto Rasch. It was divided into four subunits, known as Einsatzkommando (EK). Paul-
Blobel commanded EK 4a, Gunter Hermann commanded EK 4b, Erwin Schulz led EK 5
and Dr. Erhard Kroeger led EK 6.² Each Einsatzkommando was mobile and included
officers, staff, translators and drivers.³ Until approximately 10 July, this battalion was called
Einsatzgruppe B, only afterward being renamed Einsatzgruppe C.⁴
Einsatzkommando 4a were the first to set out, from Bad Schmiedeberg in Prussian
Saxony, on 23 June 1941. 5 In early July, the entire Einsatzgruppe converged on Lvov
(Lemberg), the only time that all the subunits were together. Thousands of the local Jews
were then murdered.⁶
Until mid-July, the units advanced swiftly eastwards and many Jewish communities
were hit.⁷ The method changed in mid-month when the various subunits set up
headquarters in towns and despatched search squads to comb the villages and
countryside for victims. 8 There was no substantial advance for the next month, while the
Einsatzgruppe waited for Kiev to fall. Since the Wehrmacht failed to capture the city, the
plan was changed and Einsatzgruppe C moved southeast towards Kirovograd.⁹
Einsatzkommando 4a remained in Zhitomir, near Kiev, its squads systematically
combing the region. 10 In mid-September, they murdered the 3145 Jews still alive in
Zhitomir.¹¹
At the same time, the unit in Kirovograd was preparing to advance to Poltava, 12 when
Kiev fell. Einsatzkommando 4a went to Kiev immediately, and within a few days the
headquarters of the Einsatzgruppe and part of EK 5 also arrived. 13 After the city was
captured, a series of detonations occurred and fires broke out, severely damaging the
whole centre of town. 14 Only after several days did the Germans manage to bring the
situation under control. In an operation that had been coordinated with other units, 33,771
Kiev Jews were shot at Babi-Yar on 28-29 September 1941, 15 dates which mark the
time-frame of the research.
II. PREPARATIONS AND METHODS
The men in the ranks were not aware of the nature of their task until the operation
began. Only after EK 4a arrived in Sokal on 27 June and was about to begin its murder
operations did its commander, Blobel, gather all of his men and explain that 'the Jews and
potential enemies must be put to death'. 16 He described the method and added that
everybody must participate. There was no need to repeat the order; Blobel's men
understood that their victims were being shot 'because they were Jews'. 17 One of them
once explained to some Wehrmacht soldiers observing an execution that this was a
'Führer-order'.¹⁸
The men of EK 5 were informed of their task only about half an hour before they joined
the men of EK 6, who had been shooting thousands of Jews in Lvov since early the same
morning. 19 It appears that there were some initial difficulties in EK 6. After they shot 90
Jews in Dobromil on 30 June, their commander, Kroeger, saw the need the next morning to
assemble his men for a 'pep-talk'. He encouraged them and repeated the importance of
their mission. 20
In order to boost their effectiveness, the units tried to advance with the first troops. An
example of this is the three vehicles of EK 4a which reached Lvov even before the capture
of the city had been completed and then became embroiled in the fighting. 21
Einsatzkommando 6 reached the city a few hours later, 22 while a squad of EK 4b arrived in
Kremenchug 'before all other units' (except, presumably, the conquerors themselves). 23
224
YAACOV LOZOWICK
There were various methods of capturing the victims. Einsatzkommando 4a arrived at
Luck, shot several hundred Jews, and then issued a proclamation ordering Jewish men to
report for labour. The 1160 Jews who obeyed dug their own graves and were shot. 24
Posters were also used in Belaya Tserkov and Kiev. 25 The commander of EK 4b
summoned the rabbi of Vinnitsa and ordered him to bring forward the Jewish intellectuals.
When there were not enough Jews the next day, the order was repeated again and again.
Shortly thereafter, the Jews were shot. 26 The Jews of Rovno hid outside the town and
returned only by night. They were caught one evening in a joint Einsatzgruppe-Wehrmacht
operation. 27 As more and more Jews fled from the advancing Germans, the units
developed a new tactic. Upon entering a town whose Jews had fled, they harmed no one.
Jews in hiding interpreted this to mean that the rumours of mass murders had been
exaggerated, and they returned to their homes. There was then no problem in capturing
them. 28 Individuals in hiding were occasionally turned in by local non-Jews. There were
also cases of SS-men and locals together raiding Jewish areas and forcefully collecting the
victims from their homes. 29
The efficiency achieved in these operations is evident in the case of Uman,
where EK 5 arrived in the town shortly after the Wehrmacht and the local population had
perpetrated a pogrom, resulting in the flight of many Jews. The SS then established order,
searched homes for loot, and collected Jews, 1412 of whom were murdered the next
morning.³⁰
While rounding up the Jews, graves had to be prepared. At times, anti-tank trenches
or large shell-holes were used. 31 In Luck, Jewish men dug the graves, whereas
prisoners-of-war prepared the graves for the thousands of Jews of Zhitomir. 32
If the murder-site was distant, as in Lvov, the Jews were transported by truck. 33 On the
other hand, the Jews of Ivankov and Kiev were marched to their deaths. 34 Before the mass
murders' at Zhitomir and Kiev, the Jews were registered, then forced to disrobe. Until then,
the victims had been shot and buried in their clothing.³⁵
The victims knew their fate just before the end. At the point of concentration they were
still ignorant of what awaited them, but as they approached the murder site, they could no
longer have harboured any illusions. 36 Whereas small 'actions' lasted only a few minutes,
the larger 'actions', where thousands were murdered, gave some victims a few more
moments to consider their fate. 37 In most cases, the SS-men cordoned off the area, at
times with the assistance of other units.³⁸
There were various methods of killing. In some cases, two SS-men shot each victim,
but in other cases only one. The victims stood, facing their murderers. 39 Blobel testified
that he disliked methods that were too 'personal'.' 40 In EK 4b, one man shot bursts of
machine-gun fire at groups of victims.⁴¹ If cruelty can be measured, it would seem that the
most horrible murder method was that used at Babi-Yar, where the Jews were ordered to
lie face down on the dead bodies while the SS-men walked on the mounds shooting them
at close range with their pistols. 42
Not everyone died immediately. Some of the victims of Babi-Yar managed to escape
at night and made their way to a nearby hospital. Those who were still alive but did not
manage to crawl away were buried alive the next day, when the SS exploded the walls of
the ravine. In doing so, they were aware that there were still living Jews among the dead. 43
There are very few testimonies relating to the perpetrators themselves. Rasch ordered
that all personnel participate in the executions, and apparently he was obeyed. 44 One
report tells us that during the first shooting, one of the men of EK 4a fainted. 45 There is no
evidence of drunkenness. One of the killers at Babi-Yar recalled that the men received
THE EARLY ACTIVITIES OF EINSATZGRUPPE C
225
rum, but he made no mention of being drunk. 46 A few days after the operation began,
Blobel was hospitalized because of excessive drinking, but this was not the first such
incident of his life. 47
The SS-men aimed at efficiency, and only seldom were there reports of mistreatment
beyond what was deemed necessary. When they sensed that the populace was not
cooperating, out of 'fear of Jewish power', they marched the Jews through the streets,
thereby demonstrating Jewish powerlessness. 48 At the public execution of the Soviet judge
Kiper, in Zhitomir, 402 Jews were forced to sit on the ground, hands above their heads, and
to proclaim: 'Our Father, return us our leader Moses, we want to enter the Promised
Land.
,49
At the outset of the shootings in Lvov, many detainees were interrogated. Those who
could prove they had no communist connections were set free, while all others were shot. 50
It is conceivable that before the murderers adapted to their task they sought justification in
the Jews' alleged ties to the Bolshevik enemy. In this case, such justifications would
diminish or disappear with time. There are no other known reports of setting Jews free.
A search for traces of humaneness in the reports will be all but futile. At Babi-Yar,
Blobel and one of his officers did allow a small blonde girl to escape, though her fate is
unknown.
51 Even Himmler was reputed to have once been willing to save a victim whose
appearance was 'Aryan', but the man was shot when he told Himmler that he was definitely
Jewish. 52
Kroeger related that he informed the first victims (at Dobromil) that they were being
shot in retaliation for Soviet atrocities. His announcement was met with curses. Thereafter,
the victims died without explanations. 53 There are no records of victims pleading for their
lives, although the absence of such reports is not conclusive proof.
Another indication that the men adapted to their task is the issue of booty. Efficient
collection of Jewish property began only towards the end of September, when trucks were
needed to remove the 20 to 25 tons of booty taken from the Jews of Zhitomir. 54 The reports
do not specify the weight of the loot collected at Babi-Yar, but they note with satisfaction
that the disposal of almost 35,000 Jews would contribute to solving the lack of housing
created by the destruction of central Kiev. 55
The Einsatzgruppe had other tasks in addition to killing. They also supervised the
agricultural work of the Ukrainians. At times they joined the Wehrmacht in the campaign
against the remnants of the Red Army, referred to euphemistically as 'partisans'.
Occasionally, the units sustained casualties in these operations. 56 The writers of these
reports complained that more time was dedicated to the war against these 'bandits' than to
the main mission. However, through these actions, good relations with the Wehrmacht
were established, allowing Einsatzgruppe units to enter towns immediately upon their
conquest and to move freely throughout the military zone. 57 It is possible that the
Wehrmacht agreed that the Ukrainian militia be attached to the Einsatzgruppe to make up
for time 'lost' assisting the Wehrmacht. 58
Since these were units of the security police, they also collected intelligence material.
However, they were not overly successful because the Soviets managed to destroy most
of their official documents before their retreat. 59
At the time the units were organized, in the spring of 1941, a distinction was drawn
between sonderkommandos, active near the front, and Einsatzkommandos, active in the
rest of the conquered territories. 60 The reality represented in the reports reflects no such
distinction.
226
YAACOV LOZOWICK
III. EINSATZGRUPPE AND ARMY
In preparation for Operation Barbarossa, there were discussions at the highest
echelons of the Wehrmacht and the regime regarding the upcoming tasks of the security
police in occupied areas. In the context of these discussions, the commander of the army,
von Brauchitsch, issued a 28 April 1941 command giving the Einsatzgruppen the
responsibility for carrying out the special tasks of the security police. They had the authority
to take action against the local populations as well. 61
On 13 May 1941, Hitler issued a directive to Wehrmacht soldiers ordering that
punishment of the local population should not be brought before military courts. The
soldiers were permitted to shoot partisans, even when they surrendered, and to execute
summarily anyone operating against the army. Furthermore, when those responsible for
such acts could not be definitely identified, collective punishment could be imposed, and
the soldiers performing any of the above acts would not be tried by military courts unless
they had disrupted military discipline. 62
On 6 June, the army command issued the Kommissarbefehl (Commissar Order), at
first only to the most senior officers. Others received the order verbally. The order asserted
that the enemy would not abide by international law or humanitarian considerations, and
especial cruelty was expected to be inflicted upon German POWs by Soviet political
commissars. Therefore, political commissars in the Soviet army should be shot on capture.
For other commissars and functionaries of the Soviet regime, a distinction was to be drawn
between active opponents of Germany, who were to be executed immediately, and others
who could be left alone. In the rear territories, all doubtful cases were to be transferred to
the Einsatzgruppen. 63 Although the nature of the actions authorized for the Einsatz-
gruppen was vague, the Wehrmacht commanders could have harboured no doubts that
they would not be within the scope of accepted behaviour in warfare.
The report writers of the Einsatzgruppen were pleasantly surprised to be able to relate
that 'the attitude of the Wehrmacht to the Jews is downright heartening' 64, A month and a
half later, towards the end of August, we read that 'the relations are still excellent, the
Wehrmacht personnel are showing interest and understanding. for the actions of the
Einsatzgruppen, and specifically towards the executions'. 65 Following the murder of 537
Jews at the beginning of October, the report states that 'the action was received with
satisfaction by the army'. 66 Walter Hänsch, who commanded EK 4b, testified at
Nuremberg that the units of the Einsatzgruppen could not have acted without the
acquiescence of the Wehrmacht. At any rate, the relations between his officers and those
of the military were more than collegial, they were friendly.67
These testimonies reflect the feeling of the Einsatzgruppe troops that the army was
not disturbed by their activities. A number of facts lend credence to this. Einsatzgruppe C
received requests from the Wehrmacht to dispose of the Jews and communists in
Radomysl and Kremenchug. 68 One case stands out: when the Germans suspected the
Red Army of using dum-dum bullets, contrary to international law, a military doctor was
commissioned to investigate the subject. At Zhitomir, Blobel placed SS-men and POWs at
his disposal. To determine if the Soviet ammunition was indeed illegal, the SS-men used it
on the prisoners. Consequently, the doctor returned to Berlin and published a 'scientific'
article condemning Soviet methods of warfare and expressing abhorrence at their violation
of international law. 69
In many instances, Einsatzgruppe actions were planned, and at times carried out, in
cooperation with Wehrmacht units. The headquarters of the Seventeenth Army offered
THE EARLY ACTIVITIES OF EINSATZGRUPPE C
227
assistance in inciting the populace against the Jews and communists. 70 The Wehrmacht
and the Einsatzgruppe worked together to round up the Jews of Rovno, Novgorod-Volinski
(Zwiahel), Zhitomir and other locations, 71 while at Zhitomir and Babi-Yar, the massacres
themselves were planned in conference with representatives of local army units. 72
Members of EK 5 were present at the registration of all the men of Kiev by the army, after
Babi-Yar, and arrested anybody identified as Jewish. 73
Jews in Lvov and Zhitomir were brutally beaten by soldiers before they were handed
over to the EG for shooting. 74 Personnel of the Todt Organization also participated in the
murder of Jews at Luck and Zhitomir. 75 There were cases where soldiers murdered Jews
even when no Einsatzgruppe units were in the vicinity, such as near Tarnopol,
Novgorod-Volinski and by the roadside near Lvov. 76
The first signs of friction between Einsatzgruppe C and the Wehrmacht appeared only
when the SS-men started collecting victims from POW camps controlled by the army, but
even then there were favourable reports, as well.77 It may be that the tension was caused
more by differences of opinion over jurisdiction than disagreement over the fate of the
victims. On 19 October 1941, Field Marshal von Reichenau, commander of the Sixth Army,
issued an order warning his men against mistaken feelings of compassion for the civilian
population. He also called for the extermination of the Bolshevist doctrine of the Red Army.
Two days later, the commander of all the forces on the eastern front, von Rundstedt, had
the communiqué distributed to all his men.⁷⁸ The contents of the communiqué testify to
Wehrmacht approval of the actions of the Einsatzgruppen, while the need to circulate it
shows there must have been some difficulties.
One difficulty not mentioned in the reports occurred on 19 August 1941, in
Belaya-Tserkov, where EK 4a murdered hundreds of Jews, including children. The
younger children and infants were concentrated in a building near the edge of town in
horrible conditions and without food. They remained there for a number of days, and their
crying could be heard from the street. Nearby troops watched both the murder and the
suffering of the children and described the events to two military chaplains of Field Hospital
607/4, Trewes and Wilczek. In an attempt to save the children, the chaplains turned to the
local commander, who referred them to the chief chaplain of Infantry Division 295,
stationed nearby. The issue was bandied from unit to unit, but in the meantime, the army
prevented the murder of the infants, the protests of the EK commander notwithstanding.
On 21 August, a meeting of representatives of the various units concerned authorized the
shooting of the children. There was general agreement that the two chaplains had
overstepped their authority and that the slovenliness of the operation had brought on the
complication. It would have been far better, it was agreed, if the action had been completed
immediately, efficiently and without publicity. The infants and children were murdered. 79
A number of points are apparent from this incident. First, the Einsatzgruppe's report
writers, who never mentioned the case, are not totally reliable when describing relations
with the Wehrmacht. Second, junior Wehrmacht officers could halt the murder actions, at
least temporarily, when they discerned a reason to do SO. The potential power of senior
officers in this regard can only be imagined. However, these officers saw no need to
intervene in the murder operations, making themselves accomplices.
It may be assumed that there were soldiers who witnessed the murders and disagreed
with them, such as the two chaplains and the soldiers who alerted them. Letters or
documents to this effect may yet be uncovered, but they cannot blur the essential fact: their
writers took no action to interfere with the murders.
228
YAACOV LOZOWICK
IV. COMPOSITION OF THE UNITS - OTHER UNITS COOPERATING
WITH THE EINSATZGRUPPEN
In addition to the Einsatzgruppe and the Wehrmacht, there were also other groups
stationed in the area, most conspicuous of these being SS units independent of the
Einsatzgruppe. 80 At the end of June, such a unit was attached to Einsatzgruppe C, its
platoon distributed among the Einsatzkommandos, and their separate identity lost. 81
Einsatzkommando 6 consisted of approximately 130-150 men, including a platoon of
the Waffen-SS, one of Gestapo, criminal police and SD, and a third of the order (regular)
police. The rest of the unit was made up of drivers, translators and staff. 82 The composition
of EK 5 was similar, although it was somewhat larger (ca 200 men). 83
In addition to the Einsatzgruppe, the units under the command of the regional SS
commander (Höhere SS- und Polizei Führer), Friedrich Jeckeln, also participated in the
murder. Among these groups was the First SS Brigade, of the Kommandostab
Reichsführer-SS, which probably could take credit for more murders than even
Einsatzgruppe C.⁸⁴ These forces are mentioned occasionally in the reports: 600 Jews shot
in Zborov in July, all Jews of Ushomir shot in early September and 1300 Jews shot in
Berdichev. 85 A few days earlier, 23,600 Jews had been murdered in Kamenets-Podolsk. 86
A summary report of 25 September 1941 stated that Jeckeln's men had executed 44,125
people, most of them Jews, in August alone. 87 This sum is larger than the total of all
Einsatzgruppe C murders before Babi-Yar, where Jeckeln's men also took part. It is
impossible to trace these units through the Einsatzgruppe's reports, since they are
mentioned infrequently and unsystematically.
A large degree of cooperation existed among the different groups because the Higher
SS and Police Commanders (HSSPF), who were nominated by Himmler to serve as
regional overall commanders of all police and security operations, were in charge of
Einsatzgruppen sections in this area. Jeckeln, the HSSPF in the Ukraine, personally
supervised the first murder action of EK 6 (90 Jews in Dobromil, 30 June 1941). 88 An SS
officer named Maier was Einsatzkommando C's liaison officer in Jeckeln's staff. 89 As part
of Jeckeln's forces, an unidentified unit of the order police assisted EK 4a in the murder of
1160 Jews in Luck on 2 July. 90 At Rovno, an additional, fifth Einsatzgruppe 'for special
tasks' took over for the Einsatzgruppe. 91 At least three units of Waffen-SS and police
participated in the massacre at Babi-Yar, alongside EK 4a.92 This support was so
extensive that the report author felt the need to point out, in early November, that EK 4a
had already shot 51,000 victims 'without any outside assistance' 93 He seemed to be
reassuring his readers that his Einsatzgruppe was capable of doing its job unassisted.
Einsatzgruppe C also had good relations with the Abwehr and military police. 94 In at
least one case, apparently at Fastov, military policemen shot Jews on their own. 95
Following the large mass murders, the Nationalsozialistische Volkswohlfahrt (National
Socialist Welfare Organization) would collect the booty for distribution to Germans. 96
Throughout the region, there were thousands of Volksdeutsche (ethnic Germans),
some of whom assisted the Einsatzgruppe as informers. 97 Others joined the local militia
and carried out their duties to the satisfaction of the SS. Nonetheless, they were not
armed, contrary to their requests. The commander of EK 6 noted: 'Their blood thirst
had us downright scared. ,98 Still, not all the Volksdeutsche were enthusiastic about
the Nazis. There were at least four cases of local Germans being executed for
pro-communist activities. 99 There are no reports of Volksdeutsche assistance to Einsatz-
gruppe victims.
THE EARLY ACTIVITIES OF EINSATZGRUPPE C
229
V. THE LOCAL POLICE
The overall picture, then, is one of support for Einsatzgruppe C from all the German
formations in the area. While the SS units competed with the Einsatzgruppe in murder
actions, the responses of the bystanders ranged from indifference to active assistance. If
there were attempts to help the victims, they left no visible traces.
According to the Nuremberg testimony of the commander of Einsatzgruppe A, Dr.
Walther Stahlecker, his men attempted to incite the populace to enact 'spontaneous'
pogroms. 100 Such a preliminary stage of action also existed in the region of Einsatzgruppe
C. Many hundreds of Jews were murdered in pogroms at Tarnopol, Chortkov, Sambor and
Kremenets. 101 Synagogues in Rudki and Stryj were burned following the Soviet retreat. 102
Yet, by the beginning of August, the reports were forced to admit that the policy had failed
because there had been no other similar cases. The report cited the local population's fear
of Jewish revenge, should the Soviet regime return, as the explanation for this. 103 If not for
the fear, the author implies, the locals would certainly have taken a more active part in the
murders.
Once the Einsatzgruppe understood that the populace was not going to rid itself of the
Jews on its own, they organized their activity accordingly, so much so, that a pogrom
perpetrated by the Ukrainians and the Wehrmacht in Uman in late September interfered
with the plans of EK 5. The Jews fled from the town before they could be shot. 104
The population of Khmelnik held a special thanksgiving church service following the
murder of hundreds of local Jews, 105 which was adduced by the report writer as proof that
they approved of the executions. 106 A large crowd of civilians attended the hanging of the
Soviet judge Kiper, in Zhitomir, and many joined in the beating of 402 Jews whose
maltreatment and murder were part of the ceremony. 107 Many Ukrainians assisted the
Einsatzgruppe by denouncing Jews. They turned in Jews allegedly responsible for
murders perpetrated by the Soviet regime in Luck. 108 In rural areas, representatives of
villages travelled miles in order to request the disposal of their Jews. 109 Villagers often
reported to the SS on the movements of partisans in their locality. 110 When EK 4a
searched the POW camps for Jews, they were also assisted by Ukrainian informers. 111
This phenomenon was widespread, as reflected in the following November report: 'Until
now the units have exterminated approximately 80,000 people, of whom roughly 8,000
were apprehended following denunciations. 112 Even if many of the informers were ethnic
Germans, Ukrainians must still have been responsible for thousands of those deaths.
According to historian Raul Hilberg, a Ukrainian militia operated alongside Einsatz-
gruppen C and D from August 1941. 113 However, the operations reports show that this
militia was already in the field by the third day of Einsatzgruppe C's activities. On 29 June,
this militia contributed to the uncovering of more than 100 NKVD men who were
subsequently shot. On the following day, an additional 200 men, including Jews, were
shot. 114
The militia were organized as police units manned by trustworthy Ukrainians. They
were armed only with truncheons, despite their request for arms. 115 They collected the
Jews who were to be shot, sometimes even before an Einsatzkommando arrived on the
scene. 116 For example, they sealed off the Jewish ghetto in Zhitomir the night before its
destruction. 117 In Kiev, they posted proclamations on the walls calling on the Jews to
present themselves. 118 In some cases they actively participated in the shooting, 119 but
Hilberg's contention that the SS shot adults while the militia shot children cannot be
substantiated. 120 The militia also took part in the anti-partisan operations, 121 while in
230
YAACOV LOZOWICK
Rovno the militia continued the operations alongside other German units after the
departure of the Einsatzgruppe. 122
At the same time, while Jews who hid in caves north of Zhitomir received no
assistance from the local non-Jewish population, they were also not molested. 123 Some of
the village representatives who travelled long distances to request the disposal of their
Jews, changed their minds and tried to retract this information when they realized they
were condemning the Jews to death. 124 Quite a few reports tell of communist Ukrainians or
others apprehended during anti-German activities. 125 In one case, the Germans reported
'the necessity' to burn down several villages from which shots had been fired at German
troops.
126 However, there is no evidence of popular attempts to save Jews. It seems that
the case of the mayor of Kremenchug, shot in January 1942 for attempting to save Jews,
was indeed unusual. 127
The Einsatzgruppe also had a secondary goal, that of supervising the agricultural
labour of the Ukrainian population. Towards the end of July, the reports began to describe
the agricultural conditions in the region. Preparations for the harvest began in early August,
and SS men then went from village to village to ascertain that the labour foremen were
reliable and that harvesting would proceed smoothly. 128 The second half of the month
brought reports on the success of the harvest, a bumper crop by local standards. 129 It is
interesting to note that the reports also tell of the harvests further east, in territory still
controlled by the Soviets. 130 The harvesting continued undisturbed, even in areas which
changed hands at the time. 131
During September, preparations for the next agricultural season were begun with an
attempt to deal with the lack of fuel and equipment. 132 Only then
do
we
hear
of
the
first
rumblings of discontent among the Ukrainian peasants, who were not pleased, for
example, with the continuation of the hated collective farming system. 133
Is it possible to learn anything from all this? It seems that the local population knew
that the Germans with whom they were in contact were the same people responsible for
killing the Jews. Clearly, they were not troubled by this fact, or by the murders themselves.
They also seem never to have considered the possibility that they might suffer the same
fate after the Jews were gone.
VI. MOTIVATION
An important question to be raised regards the Weltanschauung (world-view) of the
members of Einsatzgruppe C which may have helped them murder thousands of people. It
may be assumed that as adult men they gave some thought to their actions, and it may be
asked how their world-view was affected by their activities, if at all.
The SS-men attributed at least four typical characteristics to their Jewish victims. They
were seen as communists, dangerous, spreaders of disease and insolent. It was believed
that the Soviet regime and system were used by the Jews to control society. "During the
Soviet occupation of Poland, civil servants were removed from their posts and new people,
mainly Jews, were brought in from Russia. 134 'Only the Jews benefited from the Soviet
regime. Most of the Jews were Bolsheviks, and they were promoted by the regime even if
they were not party members. 135 'The Jews are the main bearers of Bolshevism,
alongside a small minority of others. They controlled the governmental bureaucracy. 136
'All key posts were in Jewish hands. In the middle and large-sized factories, the managers
and foremen were always Jews, while the workers were Ukrainians. 137
In October, when the report writers began to sum up the first months of action, they
THE EARLY ACTIVITIES OF EINSATZGRUPPE C
231
remained convinced that 'it may be stated with certainty that, without exception, the Jews
worked for Bolshevism. Again and again, especially in the cities, the Jews were Soviet
powerholders; they brutally exploited the population and turned people over to the
NKVD. 138 'The rampaging was the result of a deliberate program to achieve total control
over the lives of the non-Jews in all of the Soviet Union. 139
There are a number of indications in the reports themselves that the decisiveness of
these comments was a reflection of political outlook that had little to do with reality. Dozens
of reports enumerate separately the numbers of Jewish victims and of 'functionaries', an
unnecessary distinction if they are one and the same. One of the men of EK 4a testified in
the 1960s that even at that time, there was no problem in differentiating: 'Generally, the
Jews in Russia had a distinct appearance, including beards. 140
A second characteristic attributed to the Jews was their dangerous nature. 'Jews
participated in all the bestial murders perpetrated by the Russians in Sambor and Dobromil
The locals reported that Jews actively took part in murders of Ukrainians in Luck. 141
Later it was reported that 'not even one Jewish corpse was found in any of the mass graves
left by the Russians'. 142 There is no evidence that such graves were ever opened or
searched by the Einsatzgruppen.
'The region of Khmelnik suffered from Jewish terror until our clean-up operation',
noted
one
report. 143 'The unrest in the streets and the communist propaganda abated only
after the Jews were concentrated in a ghetto. This proved to be no more than a partial
solution, as the ghetto was not sealed and the militiamen managed to determine that the
center of activity was there. 144
As the centre of Kiev was engulfed in fire, the report writer recorded: In town
enormous fires are raging. Explosions and arson are still continuing, and all the efforts of
the fire fighters have failed so far
some of the detonations are set by remote control.
Jewish participation in these actions is obviously great. 145 It is not clear what factual basis
such a statement had or could have had. There are other cases of unsubstantiated
accusations. 'The Jews were active in sabotage and terrorizing the local population in the
region of Korosten', 146 but shortly thereafter unarmed militiamen 'concentrated 283 of the
Jews in a building and handed them over to the Einsatzgruppe'. 147 Similar groups of
unarmed Ukrainians did the same rounding up countless times, and it seems that their fear
of the Jews was considerably smaller than the report writers would have the readers
believe.
At times, the reality was so clear-cut that even the report writers acknowledged that
not only were the Jews neither Bolsheviks nor terrifying, they were wretched. In such
cases, a different danger was attributed to them, that of threatening public health. 'North of
Zhitomir, Jews are hiding in caves and shacks. Their presence increases the danger of
epidemics, and the area must be cleaned. 148 'Many Jewish refugees concentrated at
Radomysl. The overcrowding was so severe that an average of fifteen people shared a
room. The sanitary conditions were appalling and people were dying daily. It was
impossible to treat them, and they were quickly becoming a source of epidemics. In order
to remove the danger, EK 4a and the militia shot more than 1,600 Jews. 149
Finally, the Jews were charged with insolence. 'The Jews continue to be insolent.
Some of them are equipped with false papers stating that they are Ukrainians or even
ethnic Germans. 150 Their impudence seemed so great to the Germans that 'it seems
someone has even been using military seals'. 151 'The Jews of Sibolov were exceptionally
impertinent towards the local population, and therefore 78 of them were executed. 152
These 'insolent' acts can probably also be described as attempts by Jews to save
themselves or their dignity in the face of the tortures.
232
YAACOV LOZOWICK
None of these attributes appeared in the reports coincidentally. In most cases they
were cited as the reason for the executions. Some Jews were shot because of their
Bolshevik or partisan activities, while others were killed for being insolent or spreading
epidemics. As the report author stated in late October, after accusing the Jews of
murdering Ukrainians, 'therefore the need arose for special anti-Jewish activities'. 153 Nazi
thinking attributed the various characteristics to the Jews collectively and then condemned
them to collective death in recompense.
It may be asked why the report authors had to bother with justifications to their
superiors at all. Perhaps there was a defence mechanism operating here. The same
ideology which condemned the Jews to death demanded absolute obedience from the
murderers. Once the murderers convinced themselves that the interpretation of reality
inherent in the ideology was indeed accurate, it may have been easier to act accordingly, to
murder. In other words, reality was reinterpreted to fit preconceived rationalizations to
justify a mass murder that had been decided upon independently of any 'reasons' or
'causes'. 154
The ideology at work in these operations is also reflected in the language used to
describe Germans, Soviets and Jews. The Soviet system represented bad government
with horrendous results. 'Because of the Soviet regime, the Ukrainians are frightened and
lazy. They live in sickening poverty and their only interest is to raise a minimum of crops
which will not be confiscated by the government.' The Soviets were also accused of
kidnapping people and exiling them to distant labour camps. 155 The Jewish-Bolshevik
enemy was held responsible for countless inhuman crimes. They were accused of
perpetrating 'bestial murders' in retreat, of being 'bloodthirsty murderers', and of
committing 'atrocities' (an oft-recurring word). 156 The report authors were convinced that
'all the atrocities are part of a planned program, instigated by the Soviet leadership'. 157
The revulsion felt for Bolshevism was so intense that mythical accusations were
made. 'A mass murder of Ukrainian intelligentsia is attributed to the Russians, although no
corpses have as yet been found. 158 A Soviet judge was accused of condemning people to
death solely because he had been appointed to do so. 'In the context of his post, he
murdered 1,060 people. 159
In describing the Germans, no attempt was made to camouflage their actions. The
descriptions of mass murders are dry and factual. The caption in the reports was often
Exekutionen, but in each case described a different verb was used for literary purposes
('exterminated', 'removed', 'shot', 'finished', 'terminated', 'made harmless', 'uprooted'). 160
The reader of the reports could become so accustomed to their murderous terminology
that other uses of the same words broke the rhythm of reading, as when several soldiers
who found explosives 'made them harmless'. 161 All the terms had the same meaning and
were completely interchangeable. Even when, after some deliberation, it was decided to
execute a local ethnic German, the action was described as an 'extermination'. Once his
guilt was determined, he deserved no better word. The language used reflected Nazi
beliefs and prevented the perpetrators from comparing their actions with those of the
enemy.
Regarding the Jews, the reports' language differs from that of other types of Nazi
literature. The abusive, humiliating language used by Julius Streicher in Der Stürmer was
totally absent from the reports. The Jews' murder was described in the cold and efficient
manner in which it was carried out, in the manner in which one exterminates pests. There
were no emotions or foul language. Occasionally, the victims were referred to as
'people' 162 It may be, in these instances, that the sight of hundreds of corpses daily
THE EARLY ACTIVITIES OF EINSATZGRUPPE C
233
overcame the Weltanschauung to the extent that, in the language of the reports, the
murderers acknowledged the humanity of the victims.
As noted, the report writers tended to adjust reality in their writing in order to fit their
beliefs. Events which strengthened their beliefs were emphasized, others were neglected.
Accordingly, a letter of gratitude written by local Ukrainians on their liberation from Stalin
was quoted at length, and Soviet leaders' mansions were described in detail. 163 The
Jewishness of two factory foremen near Berdichev was emphasized as an illustration of
Jewish control of Soviet industry, but the identity of all other foremen is not mentioned.
Where recognition of unpleasant facts could not be avoided, explanations were
concocted. Jews murdered by the Soviets died because they knew too much. 164 Soviet
propaganda photos of German POWs were presented as fabrications; the Russians
dressed their own men in German uniforms. 165 There were rare cases where the truth
filtered through the language, even though it contradicted the ideology: 'The information
we had concerning Ukrainian nationalism turns out to have been all wrong. 166 Ukrainian
sympathy for the Germans was also not uniform, according to the report. 'When a relative
is discharged from a detention camp, they [Ukrainians] are pro-German. When a German
unit tramples their fields, they are anti-German. 167 There is no way of knowing if the report
writers recognized the import of such statements, but, in any case, they are the exceptions
which prove the rule.
VII. THE EINSATZGRUPPE AND THE FINAL SOLUTION
The significance of the Einsatzgruppen in the evolution of the Final Solution, a
controversial issue in contemporary historiography, 168 remains to be determined. The
source of the problem is the absence of any written order pertaining to the extent of the
anti-Jewish actions. This order was apparently given verbally and never documented.
Heydrich's only explicit written directive in this regard was 2 July 1941 and called, inter alia,
for the shooting of 'party- and state-employed Jews'. 169 This could not have been the only
order received by the Einsatzgruppen, as there is no evidence that any of them acted
accordingly. Other orders must have been issued, but their content is a matter of
speculation.
Those Einsatzgruppe commanders tried after the war, Otto Ohlendorf of EG-D
foremost among them, testified that an order to shoot all Jews was delivered by
Streckenbach, chief of Amt 1 of the RSHA (Reich Main Security Office), prior to the
invasion of the Soviet Union. In 1955, Streckenbach, who had been presumed dead,
returned from Soviet captivity, denied this allegation and succeeded in casting doubt on the
EG commanders' version of events. 170 Contradictory testimonies claiming that such an
order was received only in mid-August also cannot be accepted at face value. Defendants
citing mid-June as the time they received the order may have hoped to benefit themselves
by showing that they had only followed orders, while those ascribing a later date to the
order may have done so to create the impression that when the order arrived they were
already too deeply involved to be able to balk.
The fact that the Einsatzgruppen encouraged the local non-Jewish populations to start
pogroms in the early stages of the operation does not, of itself, solve the problem. The
policy of encouraging pogroms may have been planned as an intermediate stage before
all-encompassing murder, or, alternatively, it may be an indication that no order yet
existed, and the goal was limited to terrorization and murder of some of the Jews.
234
YAACOV LOZOWICK
It would seem that only a study of the actions, their extent and the perpetrators'
perception of these can help clarify the issue.
Helmut Krausnick, a leading proponent of the mid-June thesis, bases his contention
primarily on the actions of Einsatzgruppe A, and to a lesser extent on the other units. 171 He
shows that the units at first refrained from killing women and children, while they shot
Jewish men indiscriminately. It was only a matter of time and adjustment before all Jews
were being killed. It is interesting to note that Krausnick cites no evidence from
Einsatzgruppe C.
Alfred Streim, taking issue with Krausnick, does cite Einsatzgruppe C in his
argument.
172 Indeed, from tracing the operations reports, it becomes clear that the actions
became more all-encompassing with time, and different stages are definable. Neverthe-
less, it seems that at least for the initial stages, there was no order to kill all Jews, and, in
fact, not all were killed.
In the first operations, EK 4a shot only men. As many as 7000 Jews of Lvov (their
gender was not specified) were shot, but 160,000 Jews were still there a month later. 173 In
Zhitomir, not only were not all Jews murdered, but it was EK 4a who initiated the
establishment of a ghetto. 174 In some places, the Einsatzkommando perpetrated many
repeat actions, but always left behind living Jews. 175 In Kirovograd, when food was
distributed to the population, non-Jews received 250 grams, Jews 150 grams. 176 This is
overt discrimination, but hardly an obvious attempt to kill all the Jews at this stage.
In a Nuremberg testimony which is open to question, Schulz, commander of EK 5, said
that 'At the beginning of August, Rasch, commander of Einsatzgruppe C, convened his
officers. He told them of an order from Himmler, transmitted by Jeckeln, whereby all Jews,
including women and children but excluding indispensable craftsmen, must be shot. 177
The reports indicate no change in policy in early August, hence the doubt. However, there
are definitely signs that classified workers were not always shot, as in Lvov in early July. 178
Einsatzkommando 6 found several all-Jewish collective farms, and in order not to disrupt
the harvest, they shot only the foremen. This was probably in September. 179 There is no
evidence that this sparing of Jews resulted from Wehrmacht pressure, as was the case
elsewhere.
The documents take us one step further, pointing to the possibility that the men of the
Einsatzgruppen were not aware they were enacting the Final Solution. The term first
appeared in the reports in mid-August 1941, when the report author suggested employing
the Jews of the Ukraine in draining the Pripet marshes until a future decision on a final
solution for the Jews of Europe. 180 Towards the middle of September, the report writer
proudly noted that as a result of the Einsatzgruppe actions, 70% to 90% of the Jews were
fleeing deep into the Soviet interior. He commented that the effortless removal of hundreds
of thousands of Jews was a significant contribution towards solving the Jewish problem in
Europe. 181 A month later, Himmler forbade any Jewish emigration, and SS officers spoke
differently.
The first marks of change appear as late as the report of 11 September, when, it
seems, all the Jews of Fastov were murdered. 182 Before the end of the month there was a
'special meeting' where the participants decided 'to exterminate the Jews of Zhitomir
finally and radically', 183 and so they did. The terminology - 'special meeting', 'decided',
'radical solution' - indicates that this had not been standard procedure, and also that the
ghetto was not set up, at the time, with the intention of liquidating it a month later. As the
fourth month of action opened, both the extent of the murders and their interpretation by
the men changed. It may be that the following remarkable passage was written when the
report writer learned of the order to kill all Jews:
THE EARLY ACTIVITIES OF EINSATZGRUPPE C
235
Even if the Jewish problem will find an immediate solution, the political one won't. Bolshevism is
based on the Jews, and also on Georgians, Armenians, Poles, Latvians, Ukrainians, etc. Judaism
and Bolshevism are not identical. We would miss the goal of political security if we replaced the
main task of destroying the communist machine with the relatively easier one of eliminating the
Jews. Moreover, solving the communist problem requires the best forces, making the solution of
the Jewish problem all the more difficult. What's more, in the towns of western and central
Ukraine, Jewry and skilled workers and traders are one and the same. If we completely forego
using Jewish labor, it will be nigh-impossible to rebuild Ukrainian industry and urban
administrative centers [italics in original]. There is only one way out
solving the Jewish problem
through Jewish forced labor. This will lead to a gradual liquidation of Jewry, which would suit the
potential of the country. 184
Whoever wrote these lines had no compunction about murdering Jews. He simply felt
no need and saw no technical possibility of exterminating them all immediately, nor did he
think anything would be achieved thereby. Until this point, he had not identified his actions
with the Final Solution, if only because they had not been final for the whole Jewish
community.
At the end of September 1941, there was an attempt to kill all the Jews of Kiev. 185 Only
afterwards do the reports begin to tell of the total annihilation of whole communities, such
as Koschewatoje. 186 The term Judenfrei appeared for the first time only in mid-October,
regarding Borislav. 187 At the beginning of November, the report author seems to have
known he was participating in the Final Solution, but he still disagreed with the plan. 'Even
if about 75,000 Jews have been exterminated by such methods until now, still, it is clear
that it will not be possible to solve the Jewish Problem this way. Granted, in the villages and
towns they have been completely annihilated. However, in the larger towns, the Jews
disappear after every action only to reappear in even greater numbers afterwards. 188
There is no way of knowing if this reflected the general opinion of the units, or was only the
personal view of the writer. It seems likely that reports such as this were among the causes
for the establishment of murder camps, where the inefficient method of killing by shooting
was replaced by gassing, which was both more efficient and less difficult for the murderer's
psyche.
These findings do not concur with those of Krausnick regarding Einsatzgruppe A.
Nevertheless, it seems quite unlikely that the two sister units received significantly different
orders. The discrepancy may perhaps be explained by the thesis formulated by
Christopher Browning: the order to kill Jews, although given early, was unclear and was
interpreted differently in the various units. EG-C reached the radical interpretation only as
late as the end of September 1941. 189 This might also explain the actions Schultz
attributed to Jeckeln, the HSSPF: he seemed to have been pushing towards a more radical
interpretation, but may not have been the bearer of the order.
Did Hitler initiate the Final Solution, or did the idea develop within the Nazi
bureaucracy? The sources cited here give no clear answer. On the one hand, there seems
to be no evidence for a clear pre-meditated plan, whereby the total murder of the Jews was
to coincide with the invasion of the Soviet Union: during the first three months of action, not
all of the Jews were killed, nor did the Einsatzgruppen seem to aspire to do so. If Hitler
planned to kill all of the Jews, who was expected to complete the task?
On the other hand, there is just as little evidence that the murderers in the field were
radicalizing their actions to such an extent that they would soon have been killing all Jews
on their own initiative alone. On the contrary, the two above-quoted citations seem to
indicate that the unit would never have made such a decision if left to itself.
236
YAACOV LOZOWICK
Possibly, the truth lies between the two historiographical positions. The impetus
indeed came from above, but not in the form of clear pre-planned orders. Rather there was
a willingness on the part of the top Nazi echelon to exploit the potentials of the situation to
their utmost. This might also explain the discrepancies between the various Einsatz-
gruppen: with no clear directives, the various commanders reached diverse conclusions as
to the extent of their task. As time passed, and the men grew accustomed to their duties,
the goals became broader.
Early in the operation, Schulz and Jeckeln disagreed over the number of Jews to be
killed, with Schulz, the actual perpetrator, seeking to reduce their number. Elsewhere, the
victims were informed of their fate, and the killers needed encouragement. With the entire
Einsatzgruppe C in Lvov, thousands of Jews were murdered, but tens of thousands were
not. As the weeks passed, such inconsistencies disappeared. Doctors were no longer
needed to determine the deaths of the victims, and the murder method itself became more
gruesome (especially at Babi-Yar). Murder was so routinized that not only was there time
to consider the victims' property and capital, but this became more important than the
human lives. The climax of the period June to October 1941 was indeed at the end. It
seems no accident that the orderly, well-planned murder of 33,000 Jews took place at Kiev
at the end of this period, rather than at Lvov near the beginning. If any Jews remained in
Kiev after Babi-Yar, they were few and in hiding. If the men of the Einsatzgruppe had any
human feelings regarding their victims in June, these had disappeared by October. The
fact is, one can grow accustomed to mass murder.
APPENDIX
In general, the reports tended to be long-winded. Some of them spent dozens of
pages on one EG. As opposed to this abundance of verbiage, the following report, with the
first news of the largest action, at Babi-Yar, stands out in sharp contrast:
Standort Kiew.
Das Sonderkommando 4a hat in Zusammenarbeit mit Gruppenstab und zwei kommandos des
Polizei-Regiments sud an 29. und 30.9.41 in Kiew 33,771 Juden executiert. 190
(Special commando 4a, together with Einsatzgruppe C Headquarters and two commando groups
of the South Police Regiments, executed 33,771 Jews in Kiev on 29 and 30 September 1941.)
This was the complete report.
NOTES
1. From the Nuremberg testimony of Wilhelm Gustav Tempel, a member of Einsatz-
kommando 4a. Nuremberg Documents NO 5123.
2. Helmut Krausnick and Hans Heinrich Wilhelm, Die Truppe des Weltanschauugskrieges
(Stuttgart: DVA, 1981), p. 646.
3. Nuremberg Documents NO 3841; Yad Vashem Archives (YV), TR-10/698, p. 21,
TR-10/610, pp. 134-5.
The two relevant types of historical sources on the Einsatzgruppen are contemporary reports
and post-war legal material.
The reports, or Ereignismeldungen (EM), were sent daily from the eastern front to high-ranking
Nazis. Among the thousands of pages of reports, hundreds of pages dealt with the daily actions of the
Einsatzgruppe.
THE EARLY ACTIVITIES OF EINSATZGRUPPE C
237
It is important to note Hans-Heinrich Wilhelm's observation that the extant reports are those
edited in Berlin and not the originals written in the field. The editors regulated the daily inflow of
material and sometimes added relevant information from other sources. As a result, the dates are not
always accurate, and occasional insignificant contradictions can be found. On the whole, Wilhelm
finds the reports to be generally reliable, which means that any reported event almost certainly did
take place. (See Krausnick and Wilhelm, Die Truppe, pp. 332-47.)
There is little relevant information in the Nuremberg trial documents. More can be found in the
proceedings of trials during the 1960s. Yad Vashem's archives contain the indictment from the trial of
10 officers of EK 4a (TR-10/616), as well as the verdict in the 1969 trial of Dr. Kroeger (TR-10/698)
and the 1961 verdict in the trial of a member of Kroeger's command, EK 6 (TR-10/17).
The nature of the sources dictates an SS perspective on events in the research.
4. EM 19, 11 July 1941, p. 1.
5. EM 24, 16 July 1941, which refers to the chapter 'Einsatzgruppe C' in "Ereignismeldung
UdSSR des Chefs der Sicherheitspolizei und des SD', in YV, 051-DN/67, 68.
6. EM 10, 2 July 1941; EM 11, 3 July 1941; TR-10/17, pp. 3-6.
7. See the reports from this period.
8. See, for example, EM 38, 30 July 1941; EM 60, 22 August 1941.
9. EM 60.
10. TR-10/616, pp. 130, 182, 260; EM 58, 20 August 1941.
11. EM 106, 7 October 1941.
12. EM 88, 19 September 1941.
13. EM 97, 28 September 1941; EM 106.
14. EM 97.
15. EM 101, 2 October 1941.
16. TR-10/616, p. 134.
17. Ibid., pp. 137, 142.
18. Ibid., p. 262. On the significance of Führer-orders, see Helmut Krausnick et al., Anatomy of
the SS-State (London: Collins, 1968).
19. TR-10/17, p. 4.
20. TR-10/698, p. 34.
21. EM 23, 15 July 1941, p. 11; EM 128, 13 November 1941, p. 6.
22. TR-10/698, p. 57.
23. EM 111, 12 October 1941, p. 6.
24. TR-10/616, p. 155.
25. EM 128, p. 5.
26. EM 47, 9 August 1941, p. 9.
27. EM 128, p. 5.
28. EM 47, p. 9; EM 127, p. 3.
29. TR-10/616, pp. 224, 251.
30. EM 119, 20 October 1941, p. 6.
31. TR-10/616, pp. 174, 204.
32. Ibid., pp. 155, 240.
33. Nuremberg Documents NO 3644.
34. TR-10/616, pp. 302, 323.
35. EM 106, pp. 3, 18; TR-10/616, pp. 235, 302.
36. TR-10/616, p. 142.
37. Ibid., pp. 241-3, 324, 326.
38. Ibid., p. 176; TR-10/698, p. 28.
39. TR-10/698, pp. 28-9; TR-10/616, pp. 227-8.
40. Nuremberg Documents NO 3824.
41. Raul Hilberg, The Destruction of the European Jews (Chicago: Quadrangle, 1961), p. 209.
42. TR-10/616, p. 324.
238
YAACOV LOZOWICK
43. Ibid.
44. Hilberg, Destruction, p. 215.
45. TR-10/616, p. 140.
46. Ibid., p. 326.
47. Ibid., p. 154.
48. EM 81, 12 September 1941, p. 14.
49. TR-10/616, pp. 224-5.
50. TR-10/698, pp. 60-1.
51. TR-10/616, p. 237.
52. Hilberg, Destruction, p. 218.
53. TR-10/698, p. 20.
54. EM 106, p. 18; EM 132, 12 November 1941, p. 19.
55. EM 106, pp. 13, 15.
56. EM 63, 25 August 1941, p. 2; EM 94, 25 September 1941, pp. 15-16; EM 111, p. 7.
57. EM 74, 5 September 1941, p. 3; EM 97, pp. 23-4; EM 128, pp. 6-7.
58. Hilberg, Destruction, p. 205.
59. EM 24, pp. 9-12; EM 47, p. 11.
60. Krausnick and Wilhelm, Die Truppe, pp. 129-30.
61. Helmut Krausnick, 'The Persecution of the Jews', in Krausnick et al., Anatomy.
62. Hans Adolf Jacobson, 'The Kommissarbeheft and Mass Executions of Soviet Russian
Prisoners of War', in Krausnick et al., Anatomy, pp. 505-36.
63. Ibid., pp. 519-20.
64. EM 14, 6 July 1941, p. 6.
65. EM 58, p. 12.
66. EM 119, pp. 7-8.
67. Nuremberg Documents NI 4567.
68. EM 8, 30 June 1941, p. 8; Hilberg, Destruction, p. 197.
69. TR-10/616, pp. 183-96.
70. EM 10, p. 2.
71. EM 28, 20 July 1941, p. 5; EM 38, pp. 9-10; EM 58, p. 12.
72. EM 106, p. 7; TR-10/616, p. 318.
73. EM 119, p. 110.
74. Nuremberg Documents NO 3644; TR-10/616, p. 228.
75. TR-10/616, pp. 155, 158, 227, 229; EM 24, pp. 12-14.
76. EM 28, p. 8; EM 119, p. 5; EM 38, pp. 9-10; EM 14, p. 6.
77. EM 128, pp. 7-8; EM 132, p. 16.
78. Nuremberg Documents NOKW 309.
79. TR-10/616, pp. 275-88.
80. See, for example, Yehoshua Büchler, 'Kommandostab Reichsführer-SS: Himmler's
Personal Murder Brigades in 1941', Holocaust and Genocide Studies 1 (1986), 11-25.
81. EM 8; TR-10/616, pp. 202, 215-229; TR-10/698, p. 21.
82. EM 8; TR-10/698.
83. Nuremberg Documents NO 3841.
84. See, for example, Büchler, 'Kommandostab Reichsführer-SS', pp. 11-25.
85. EM 19, p. 5; EM 86, pp. 12-13, 19.
86. EM 80, 11 September 1941, p. 13.
87. EM 94, pp. 14-15.
88. TR-10/698, pp. 24-5.
89. EM 12, 4 July 1941, p. 5.
90. EM 24, pp. 12-14.
91. EM 28, p. 7. See also Büchler, 'Kommandostab Reichsführer-SS', p. 13.
92. TR-10/616, pp. 319, 322.
THE EARLY ACTIVITIES OF EINSATZGRUPPE C
239
93. EM 111, p. 4.
94. EM 128, p. 8.
95. EM 80, p. 13.
96. EM 132, p. 19.
97. EM 28, pp. 5-7.
98. Hilberg, Destruction, p. 106.
99. EM 47, p. 30; EM 80, p. 12; EM 86, 17 September 1941, D. 12.
100. Nuremberg Documents L 180.
101. EM 47, p. 10; EM 24, pp. 7-12.
102. EM 20, 12 July 1941, p. 4; EM 24, pp. 10-11.
103. EM 47, p. 10.
104. EM 119, pp. 5-6.
105. EM 85, 16 September 1941, p. 18.
106. EM 81, p. 21.
107. EM 58, pp. 9-11; TR-10/616, pp. 224-5.
108. EM 24, pp. 13-14.
109. EM 8, p. 111.
110. EM 47, pp. 7-9; EM 74, p. 3.
111. EM 37, 29 July 1941, p. 7; EM 38, pp. 9-10.
112. EM 128, p. 3.
113. Hilberg, Destruction, p. 205.
114. EM 24, pp. 12-13.
115. EM 8, pp. 11-12.
116. TR-10/616, p. 251; EM 80.
117. EM 106, pp. 17-18.
118. Ibid.
119. EM 80, p. 13; EM 88, p. 8. For one of the more graphic descriptions of Ukrainian
participation in murder actions, see the 1945 testimony of German army Lieutenant Erwin Bingel,
'The Extermination of Two Ukrainian Jewish Communities, Testimony of a German Army Officer',
Yad Vashem Studies, Vol. 3 (Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 1959), pp. 303-20. Whereas Bingel testified
regarding the murder of Jews in Uman and Vinnitsa, his details do not match those of the
Einsatzgruppe reports for these cities. Bingel may have described the actions of one of the other SS
units engaged in murdering Jews, perhaps at Kamenets-Podolsk.
120. TR-10/616 (Entire file); Hilberg, Destruction, p. 205.
121. EM 47, p. 12; EM 86, p. 17; EM 94, p. 15.
122. EM 28, p. 7. The other Einsatzgruppen also received active assistance from the local
non-Jewish populations. See, for example, Krausnick and Wilhelm, Die Truppe, pp. 596-8, 629.
123. EM 94, p. 16.
124. EM 86, pp. 11-12.
125. EM 20, p. 4; EM 37, p. 7; EM 42, 3 August 1941, pp. 1-2; EM 47, p. 13; EM.58, p. 7; EM 59,
21 August 1941, p. 11; EM 119, pp. 6-7.
126. EM 28, p. 5.
127. Hilberg, Destruction, p. 201.
128. EM 20, pp. 19-20; EM 47, p. 8.
129. EM 59, p. 3; EM 60, pp. 13-18; EM 74, p. 6.
130. EM 59, p. 3.
131. EM 60, pp. 13-18.
132. EM 85, pp. 8-14.
133. EM 107, 8 October 1941, p. 11.
134. EM 20, pp. 5-6.
135. EM 40, 1 August 1941, pp. 16-19.
136. EM 25, 17 July 1941, pp. 4-11.
240
YAACOV LOZOWICK
137. EM 80, pp. 13-15.
138. EM 127, pp. 4-5.
139. EM 129, 5 November 1941, pp. 6-12.
140. TR-10/616, p. 138.
141. EM 24, pp. 9-14.
142. EM 127, pp. 4-5.
143. EM-86, p. 18.
144. EM 106, p. 17.
145. EM 97, pp. 23-4.
146. EM 60, pp. 25-6.
147. EM 80, p. 13.
148. EM 94, p. 16.
149. EM 88, p. 8.
150. EM 94, pp. 16-17.
151. EM 86, p. 13.
152. EM 119, p. 7.
153. EM 127, pp. 4-5.
154. Helmut Krausnick suggests an interesting theory regarding this point: he believes the
report authors justified their actions because they were ordered to do so. Nebe, commander of EG-B,
did so only at the end of July. Krausnick does not clarify the reason for such an order.
Helmut Krausnick, 'Hitler und die Befehle an die Einsatzgruppen im Sommer 1941', in Eberhard
Jäckel and Jurgen Rohwer, Der Mord an den Juden im zweiten Weltkrieg (Stuttgart: DVA, 1985),
p. 98.
155. EM 45, 7 August 1941, pp. 4-7; EM 81, pp. 11-12; EM 119, p. 6; EM 127, pp. 3-4.
156. EM 9, 1 July 1941, p. 2; EM 20, p. 4; EM 47, p. 13.
157. EM 24, pp. 9-12.
158. EM 28, p. 7.
159. EM 47, p. 30.
160. EM 47, p. 12; EM 58, p. 9; EM 80, p. 13; EM 86, p. 17.
161. EM 119, p. 10.
162. Ibid., p. 8; EM 128, p. 3.
163. EM 23, pp. 16-17; EM 106, p. 10.
164. EM 24, pp. 9-12.
165. EM 94, p. 18.
166. EM 52, 14 August 1941, pp. 4-11.
167. EM 86, pp. 23-4.
168. Helmut Krausnick, 'Hitler und die Befehle an die Einsatzgruppen im Sommer 1941', pp.
88-106, and Alfred Streim, 'Zur Eröffnung des allgemeinen Judenvernichtungsbefehls gegenüber
den Einsatzgruppen', pp. 107-19, in Jäckel and Rohwer, Der Mord an den Juden.
169. Krausnick, 'Hitler und die Befehle', p. 90; Krausnick, 'The Persecution of the Jews', pp.
62-3. See also EM 10, p. 3.
170. Krausnick 'Hitler und die Befehle', pp. 90-1; Streim, 'Zur Eröffnung', pp. 106-9.
171. Krausnick, "Hitler und die Befehle', pp. 94ff.
172. Streim, 'Zur Eröffnung', pp. 107-19.
173. EM 24, p. 212; EM 50, 12 August 1941, p. 3.
174. EM 106, p. 13.
175. EM 59, p. 11; EM 60, p. 28.
176. EM 87, 18 September 1941, pp. 8-9.
177. Nuremberg Documents NO 3644.
178. EM 24, p. 12.
179. EM 81, p. 14.
180. EM 52, pp. 12-13.
THE EARLY ACTIVITIES OF EINSATZGRUPPE C
241
181. EM 81, p. 14.
182. EM 80, p. 13.
183. EM 106, p. 17.
184. EM 86, pp. 21-2.
185. EM 106.
186. EM 119, p. 9.
187. Ibid.
188. EM 128, p. 4.
189. 'Discussion', in Jäckel and Rohwer, Der Mord an den Juden, p. 121.
190. EM 101, p. 2.
VOLUME 4
B
ENCYCLOPAEDIA
JUDAICA
UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST
MEMORIAL MUSEUM
LIBRARY
EJ
ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA JERUSALEM
Copyright © by Keter Publishing House Jerusalem Ltd., Israel
Corrected Edition
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including
photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the Publisher.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 72-90254
Set, printed and bound by Keterpress Enterprises, Jerusalem, Israel
A Clal Project.
27
BABEL, TOWER OF
28
Figure 3. "The Tower of Babel" by Pieter Brueghel the Elder, 1563. Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum.
daily scene, the Tower was of considerable interest to the early
Jews were machine-gunned there, according to an official
Flemish painters. It was generally depicted either as a multistory
German report. The carnage was performed by a special
structure, diminishing in size as it rose or, more often, as a square
*SS unit (Sonderkommando) supported by Ukrainian
or circular building surrounded by a ramp. Some artists illustrated
militia men. At the end of 778 days of Nazi rule in Kiev, the
contemporary building methods, a fine example occurring in the
ravine had become a mass grave for over 100,000 persons,
Book of Hours of the Duke of Bedford (Paris, C. 1423), where the
construction of the Tower proceeds at night under the stars. In
the majority of them being Jews. A note of the Soviet
Pieter Brueghel's Tower of Babel (1563), the building-leaning
government to the Allies about German war crimes, dated
slightly-is shown in a vast landscape near the banks of a river,
Jan. 6, 1942 and signed by V.M. Molotov, gives a vivid
with a king arriving to inspect the progress of the work.
description of the massacre, pointing out that the victims
Although the Babel story might appear to be a temptation to
composers, since the confusion of tongues can be expressed most
effectively in music, very few works have in fact been written on the
theme. These are mainly oratorios including César Franck's La
Tour de Babel (1865) and Anton Rubinstein's markedly
unsuccessful Der Turm zu Babel (1858; revised as an opera, 1872).
Two 20th-century works are La Tour de Babel (1932) by René
BABI YAR by Yevgeny Yevtushenko
Barbier and Igor Stravinsky's Babel, a cantata for narrator, men's
No gravestone stands on Babi Yar;
Now in this moment, am Anna Frank,
chorus, and orchestra (1944, published in 1952).
[ED.]
Only coarse earth heaped roughly on the gash.
Frail and transparent as an April twig.
Such dread comes over me; feel so old,
I love as she; need no ready phrases
Old as the Jews. Today, am Jew
Only to look into each other's eyes!
Now go wandering. an Egyptian slave;
How little we can sense, how little see
Bibliography: IN THE BIBLE: Abraham Ibn Ezra, Commentary to
And now perish, splayed upon the cross,
Leaves are forbidden the sky forbidden
Gen. 11:1-9: M.D. Cassuto, Mi-No'ah ad Avraham (19593),
The marks of nails are still upon my flesh.
Yet how much still remains; how strangely sweet
To hold each other close in the dark room,
And I am Dreyfus whom the gentry hound:
They come? No. do not fear, These are the gales
154-69: S.R. Driver, The Book of Genesis (1904²), 132-7;
am behind the bars, caught in a ring:
Belied, denounced, and spat upon stand,
Of spring: she bursts into this gloom,
Kaufmann Y., Toledot, 2 (1960), 412-5; N. M. Sarna,
Come to me, quickly, let me kiss your lips
While dainty ladies in their tacy fritts,
They break the door? No. no, the ice is breaking.
Squealing. poke parasols into my face.
Understanding Genesis (1967), 63-80 (incl. bibl.); J. Skinner, The
On Babi Yar weeds rustle; the tall trees
am that little boy in Bialystok
Like judges loom and threaten
Book of Genesis (ICC, 1930), 223-31; S. N. Kramer, in: JAOS, 88
Whose blood flows, spreading darkly on the floor,
The rowdy lords of the saloon make sport,
All screams in silence; take off my cap
And feel that am slowly turning gray,
(1968), 108-11. IN THE AGGADAH: Ginzberg, Legends, index; U.
Reeking alike of vodka and of leek,
Booted aside, weak, helpless, I, the child
And too have become a soundless cry
Over the thousands that lie buried here.
Cassuto, Commentary on the Book of Genesis, 2 (1964), 225-49;
Who begs in vain while the pogramchik mob
I am each old man slaughtered, each child shot.
Guffaws and shouts; "Save Russia, beat the Jews!'
None of me will forget
J. Gutmann, in: Oz le-David [Ben Gurion] (1964), 584-94. IN THE
The shopman's blows fall on my mother's back
Let the glad "Internationale" blare forth
ARTS: H. Minkowski, Aus dem Nebel der Vergangenheit steigt der
O my own' people, my own Russian folk,
When earth last anti Semite lies in earth.
Believers in the brotherhood of man!
Turm zu Babel: Bilder aus 1000 Jahren (1960); L. Réau,
But dirty hands too often dare to raise
No drop of Jewish blood flows in my veins,
But anti Semites with dull, gnarled hate
The banner of your pure and lofty name,
Detest me like Jew
Iconographie de l'art chrétien, 2 pt. I (1957), 120-3, incl. bibl.: T.
know the goodness of my native land.
How vile that anti-Semites shamelessly
O know me truly Russian through their hatel
Ehrenstein, Das Alte Testament im Bilde (1923), 125-32; H.
Preen themselves in the words that they debase:
"The Union of the Russian People."
Translated by Marie Syrkin
Gressmann, Tower of Babel (1928), 1-19.
BABI YAR, a ravine on the outskirts of *Kiev which has
come to symbolize Jewish martyrdom at the hands of the
Figure 1. A translation of Yevtushenko's Babi Yar by Marie
Nazis in the Soviet Union. On Sept. 29-30, 1941, 33,771
Syrkin, Hadassah Magazine, March 1967.
29
BABYLON
30
genocide. The architect A.V. Vlasov had designed a
basine S/1
memorial and the artist B. Ovchinnikov had produced the
necessary sketches.
to
6askin
Spin
But since the -*"cosmopolitan" campaign of
namsinumb
Yysa
ket
1948-49, an effort was made to eliminate all references to
orfut
an
line
You
Babi Yar. This policy had as an objective the removal from
citimen
Jewish consciousness of those martyrological elements that
Kin Childry Uu Give is,
might sustain it. Even after the death of Stalin, Babi Yar
like
after
remained lost in the "memory hole" of history. Intellectu-
legis
ENGLIC-
als, however, refused to be silent. On Oct. 10, 1959, the
Am
to
you
uges
ho
a
Jelnessy
Emergy,
novelist Viktor Nekrasov cried out in the pages of
Literaturnaya Gazeta for a memorial at Babi Yar, and
do
your
against the official intention to transform the ravine into a
care
had
M
may
sports stadium. Far more impressive was the poem Babi
will
line
refer,
Yar written by Yevgeni *Yevtushenko published in the
all
alsow
so
Djegye
same journal on Sept. 19, 1961. With its open attack upon
and
and
/
anti-Semitism and its implied denunciation of those who
Liciefines
cyres
rejected Jewish martyrdom, the poem exerted a profound
f
nother
/
Horlys,
impact on Soviet youth as well as upon world public
anulum,
opinion. Dmitri Shostakovich set the lines to music in his
13th Symphony, performed for the first time in December
lasta
wifking
1962.
Thrys.
use
/
Russian ultranationalism struck back almost immediate-
Mm
Myo
legis-
ly. Yevtushenko was sharply criticized by a number of
within
you ruter ho holls
6
бельстом
literary apologists of the regime and then publicly
denounced by Premier Nikita Khrushchev in Pravda on
naxay 7 bofter looks syme
March 8, 1963. The theme of a specific Jewish martyrdom
was condemned. But Babi Yar would not remain
I,
honorer
suppressed. It again surfaced during the summer of 1966 in
am
бесам
a documentary novel written by Anatoly Kuznetsov
Kenjica
published in Yunost (Eng. tr. 1967). Earlier that year the
How
WEST
M.W.W.
be
cricar Poccuse
Ukrainian Architects Club in Kiev held a public exhibit of
Wasser
more than 200 projects and some 30 large-scale detailed
we
not
your
чкослишь
plans for a memorial to Babi Yar. None of the inscriptions
was
ones
Kin
hoses
onfly
June
in the proposed plans mentioned Jewish martyrdom.
Mor
chile
Bibliography: Y. Yevtushenko, A Precocious Autobiography
cirl
NAME 440 befere A JV.
(London, 1963); W. Korey, in: New Republic (Jan. 8, 1962); idem,
in: Saturday Review (Feb. 3, 1968); S.M. Schwarz, Yevrei V
Cown
&
Pycens
upon
Sovetskom Soyuze 1939-1965 (1966), 359-71.
[W.K.]
are
of
wo
u
rysis
surger!
BABOVICH (Bobovitch), SIMHAH BEN SOLOMON
and resuln when u sport ugo
(1790-1855), *Karaite hakham in the Crimea. Babovich
mainly devoted himself to obtaining more rights for the
seall
cigeren
annum
yh
we
Karaites in Russia. In 1827, in conjunction with the Karaite
to
that
univer
and
you
scholar Joseph Solomon *Luzki, he obtained release of the
the
ann
cem cr
Karaites from the law regarding military service for Jews.
in elge,
The Karaites in Eupatoria commemorated this event in an
annual prayer. When in 1837 the Russian government
kevelops Jyccan
granted religious autonomy to the Karaites, Babovich was
appointed their spiritual head, although he was not
distinguished as a scholar. In 1839 Babovich was instructed
by the government to provide exact information on the
origin, nature, and history of the Karaites. Babovich turned
to A. *Firkovich, who then proceeded to produce a series of
documents, some partly falsified.
Bibliography: J.M.Jost, Geschichte des Judentums und seiner
Figure 2. Beginning and end of the manuscript of the poem Babi
Sekten, 2 (1858), 374; Isaac b. Solomon, Pinnat Yikrat, (1834, with
Yar by Yevgeni Yevtushenko, Jerusalem, J.N.U.L. Schwadron
letters from Jost and their Tatar translation); J. Fuerst,
Collection.
Karaeertum, 3 (1869), 137; A. Firkovich, Iggeret Teshu'at Yisrael
were "a great number of Jews, including women and
(1840, with Judeo-Tatar translation); idem, Avnei Zikkaron (1872),
2, 5, 18ff.; A. Harkavy, Altjuedische Denkmaeler aus der Krim
children of all ages." In spite of German efforts in August
(1876), 270ff.; E. Deinard, Massa Krim (1878), 20-40.
1943 to erase all traces of the mass burial through massive
[I.M./ED.]
incineration, the evidence could not be suppressed and after
the war the Soviet public at large learned of the martyrdom
BABYLON (Heb. ancient city located on the eastern
through newspaper accounts, official reports, and belles
bank of the Euphrates River, about 20.4 mi. (34 km.) S. of
lettres. In 1947 I. Ehrenburg in his novel Burya ("The
Baghdad, near the modern village of Hillah. Akkadian
Storm") described dramatically the mass killing of the Jews
scribes derived the name from the words bãb-ili(m) ("gate of
of Kiev in Babi Yar. Preparations were made for a
god"), whereas in Genesis 11:9 the name is explained as a
monument at Babi Yar as a memorial to the victims of Nazi
derivation from the root bll ("to confuse"). Biblical
Ref.
D740
W44
1990
WH
A DICTIONARY
OF THE
SECOND WORLD WAR
Elizabeth-Anne Wheal
Stephen Pope
and
James Taylor
PETER BEDRICK BOOKS
NEW YORK
Badoglio, Marshal Pietro 45
pointment. Stability problems and insur-
Bader, Group Captain Douglas (1910-82)
mountable difficulties with complex
One of the best-known British airmen of
pressurization and remote armament sys-
WW2, he combined considerable skill with
tems seriously delayed development, and
a legendary triumph over disability to re-
the first Dominators were eventually de-
gain entry to the RAF', despite having lost
livered at the beginning of November 1944.
both legs in a flying accident, and then to
Only fifteen of them saw combat in the
lead a fighter squadron in the Battle of
Pacific War'.
Britain from June 1940. Although highly
BRIEF DATA (B-32) Type: 10-14-man
successful in command of 12 Group Wing
heavy bomber; Engine: 4 X 2,300hp
(with over 60 fighters) during the Battle of
Wright Cyclone; Max speed: 365mph;
Britain, Bader was involved in arguments
Ceiling: 35,000'; Range: 800m loaded,
with Fighter Command over his contro-
3,800m clear; Arms: 10 0.5" mg; Bomb
versial 'big wing" fighter formation tech-
load: 20,000lb.
nique, which ignored the defensive
doctrines prevalent in Fighter Command
Babi Yar A ravine near the Ukrainian city
at the time. In August 1941 he was captured
of Kiev', where more than 30,000 Jews
after a mid-air collision with an enemy
were massacred in September 1941 by SS
aircraft. His notoriety assured him respect-
Einsatzgruppen in a two-day-long 'reprisal
ful treatment by the Germans, who even
action'. Allegedly a response to the
consented to an RAF parachute drop to
NKVD's' sabotage bombing of Kiev, the
bring Bader a new set of artificial legs.
action was described in a horrifying account
by a German engineer, Gräbner.
Badoglio, Marshal Pietro (1871-1956)
Italian soldier and premier of the first
Bach-Zelewski, Eric von dem (1899-
post-Fascist government in Italy, he signed
1972) SS* General and specialist in anti-
the Italian treaty of unconditional surren-
partisan operations (see Resistance) who
der to the Allies on 28 September 1943.
served as senior SS and police chief of
Badoglio served as an artillery officer in the
Army Group Centre area on the Eastern
Italian colonial wars and as a colonel dur-
Front* during 1941-2 and later suppressed
ing WW1. An opponent of Mussolini's'
the Warsaw* rising of 1944. Sentenced to
regime from the outset, Badoglio neverthe-
ten years' effective house arrest from which
less accepted an appointment as Field
he was released early in 1958, Bach-
Marshal in 1926 and subsequently went as
Zelewski was rearrested and retried on
Mussolini's Governor to Libya (1928-34).
charges associated with his wartime activi-
He later commanded Italian forces in the
ties, and finally resentenced in 1962 to
war against Abyssinia (Ethiopia) during
life imprisonment for murders committed
1935 and served briefly as its Viceroy in
during the mid-1930s.
1936. His collaboration with Mussolini
ended, however, in 1940 on Italy's entry
Bäck, Leo (1873-1956) Jewish scholar and
into the war. He resigned as Chief of Staff
leader of the Jewish community in Berlin.
four months later, following Italy's disas-
He refused to leave Germany in 1933 and
trous invasion of Greece'.
sat on the Jewish Council set up by the
A conspirator against Mussolini from
Nazis to defend those rights still remaining
1942, Badoglio was called upon by King
to German Jews. In 1943 he was sent to
Victor Emmanuel* to head the new govern-
Theresienstadt concentration camp* where
ment following the Fascist Grand Council's
he became leader of the Jewish elders. In
decision to depose Mussolini in July 1943.
1945 Bäck defended the camp guards
During negotiations with the Allies over
against lynching by prisoners. After the war
Italy's capitulation and the planning of the
he lived in London and New York.
Allied invasion of Italy*, the position of
P8. 112
THE
HOLO AUST
CONSPIRAC
X
+
AN INTERNATIONAL POLICY
OF GENOCIDE
BY WILLIAM R. PERL
Foreword by
SENATOR CLAIBORNE PELL
Chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee
on Foreign Relations
D
804.3
P47
1989
Copyright ©1989 by William R. Perl
All rights reserved under International and Pan American
Copyright Conventions. Published in the U.S.A. by Shapolsky
Publishers, Inc. No parts of this book may be used or reproduced
in any manner whatsoever without written permission from
Shapolsky Publishers, Inc., except in the case of brief quotations
embodied in critical articles or reviews.
For additional information, contact:
Shapolsky Publishers, Inc.
136 W. 22nd St., New York, NY 10011
212/633-2022 FAX 212/633-2123
10987654321
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Perl, William R.
The holocaust conspiracy: an international policy of genocide- 1st ed.
1. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)-Causes.
2. Refugees, Jewish - Government policy.
3. World War, 1939-1945 - - Diplomatic History.
I. Title
940.53'1503924-dc19 D804.3.p47.1988 CIP 88-29526
ISBN 0-944007-24-4
Manufactured in the United States of America
Chapter 5
SOVIET POLICIES THAT SUPPORTED
THE FINAL SOLUTION
In assessing the part that Soviet policies played in the German
Final Solution, we have first of all to recall the often forgotten fact
that during the first two years of World War II, the Soviet Union and
Germany were allies. Together they planned the attack on Poland
which triggered the war. They decided on a mutually agreed under-
taking that once the German forces invading from the West had
reached a certain line, the U.S.S.R. would invade from the East.
Germany and the Soviet Union agreed on how to share the spoils of
their aggression-that is, they agreed to divide up their conquered
neighbor.
The pact between the U.S.S.R. and Germany was formally signed
on August 23, 1938, by Molotov, the Soviet Union's Foreign Minister
and by von Ribbentrop, the German Foreign Minister (the latter was
hanged for crimes against humanity after conviction by the Nurem-
berg war crimes tribunal). For the festive ceremony of the signing,
the hall in the Kremlin was decorated with the swastika banner
flying next to that of the U.S.S.R. Stalin delivered a toast in which he
said he was drinking to the health of the Fuehrer, so beloved by the
German people. If this was not encouragement, what would be?
Toasting that monster, drinking to his health just a few days before
German planes and tanks would start bringing death to thousands
of Poles, and the SS Einsatzgruppen would advance into Poland
ready to begin their task of slaughtering hundreds of thousands of
people.
Clearly, much more was made certain by that pact than the
invasion of Poland. France and Britain had left no doubt about it: if
Poland were attacked, they would live up to their treaty obligations
and enter the war. The limit had been more than reached; it had been
exceeded as Britain and France stood passively by when Germany
committed four major acts of aggression and international lawless-
ness: the military occupation of the Ruhr territory; the march into
105
THE HOLOCAUST CONSPIRACY
and annexation of Austria; the occupation and annexation of the
Sudeten; and, finally, occupation of the rest of Czechoslovakia. Thus
Hitler and Stalin knew what they were starting by guaranteeing
Hitler the security that he need not worry about his major neighbor
to the East when fighting against the French and the British. The
green light had been given to Hitler; his generals no longer had to be
concerned about the Soviet Union while fighting the West. Most
likely Hitler would have started the war anyway, but now, with the
Soviet alliance, war had become an absolute certainty. Only nine
days after the U.S.S.R.-German treaty was signed, on September lst
at dawn, German planes started raining death on the population of
Warsaw and other Polish cities, and German tanks broke through
the border defenses. And with the advancing German military
machine came the SS Einsatzgruppen. The Soviets knew well that by
giving Hitler a free hand to start his war, they also provided him with
the possibility to enact his plans to annihilate the Jews. Besides all the
other proof, there was the formal circular of January 31, 1939 sent to
all German diplomatic stations which followed Hitler's statement
before the Reichstag on January 30, 1939, in which he asserted his
intent to annihilate the Jews of Europe.
To fully understand the support which the Final Solution re-
ceived from the Soviet Union, we have to keep in mind the engulfing
influence which the Soviet information and propaganda system
exercises upon the thinking and, thereby, upon the actions of the
Soviet population. The Government exercises an absolute
monopoly over the distribution of news. Public television did not
exist in the early 1940's, but radio, newspapers, and public speeches
and announcements were not only tightly controlled; they were
used to the fullest extent to form opinions, to keep the thinking
"correct," and to initiate desired action and forestall undesired ones.
Because of the importance which news items in war time exercise
upon the life of the community as well as of the individual, news
reports are eagerly listened to and read. This was particularly true in
the days of the rapid developments of the earlier phases of the
German-Soviet war, and that is where the other major Soviet contri-
bution to the German Final Solution program lay: the functioning of
the Soviet news and propaganda system during the time of war with
Germany.
After two years, the Soviet policy of alignment with Germany
backfired. Its basis had been the hope that Germany, on the one
hand, and France and Britain on the other, would tear each other to
106
SOVIET POLICIES
pieces and that all three parties would then be at the mercy of the
Soviets. The rapid German victories in the West had, however,
strengthened Germany so much that it thought itself now ready to
attack its erstwhile partner. Not to lag behind Germany's expansion-
ism, the Soviet Union, too, had begun to swallow its neighbors. In
addition to invading the Eastern part of Poland, the Soviets invaded
three small Baltic neighbors, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia, and
incorporated them into the Soviet Union as an "integral part." The
U.S.S.R. had also invaded sections of Rumania. The Northern
Bukovina and Bessarabia, too, were occupied and annexed. All these
remain today part of the Soviet Union.
During the two years of the German-Soviet alliance, the U.S.S.R.
suppressed information that was unfavorable to Germany. The
German atrocities committed against the Jews in Poland and else-
where were taboo for the Soviet information machine. The news
media in the West underplayed these happenings, but the Soviet
information system either entirely quashed this news or reported it
in a way and place which minimized the issue to almost nothing.
Due to consistently applied policy, the vast majority of Soviet
citizens were either not, or at best, only vaguely, aware of the mass
murders which the approaching German occupation would bring to
them.
Detailed instructions on how to act and of what to do in case of
falling within the German advance were issued incessantly and
brought up to date almost hourly by the Soviet radio stations. These
instructions were closely observed by the population which, with-
out government instructions, would not know how to act under the
hectic and completely unfamiliar circumstances. Accustomed to
being ordered around, the Soviet people were particularly liable to
do as advised by the media.
The Germans, of course, tried to bring their viewpoint to the
populations of the invaded areas, broadcasting on a wave length
likely to be heard when one tuned in to local stations. In this way,
German propaganda also reached the Soviet population, and it
contained massive anti-Semitic material. While the inhabitants of
these soon-to-be-occupied areas were exposed to that barrage of
hateful anti-Semitic propaganda, there was not one word over their
own stations to combat it, not one hint to counteract the often specific
German charges, cleverly adapted to issues of the locale and holding
the Jews responsible for the war as well as for special local problems.
107
THE HOLOCAUST CONSPIRACY
With so much of the German focus directed against alleged miscon-
duct of the Jews and with their own stations silent on these issues, the
Soviet population was bound to assume that this part of the enemy's
contentions was true. At the very least, people had to assume that,
from the Soviet point of view, what happened to the Jews was of little
interest. Although the Germans were constantly talking and writing
about them, the issue was not worth mentioning by the Soviet
media. Although the Soviet information and propaganda system
vehemently attacked German lies and tried to disprove them, not
even the repeated German claim that General "Yankel" Kreiser, a
Soviet General whose real name was Jacob Kreiser, a Jew, used
Russians willfully as cannon fodder and that his order should be
disobeyed was countered by the Soviet media.
Yet, the issue of Jews was not a minor one in the Soviet Union. At
the start of the war against the Germans, there were about 5,000,000
Jews in the territories under Soviet control. The Soviet census of
January 1939 counted 3,020,171 Jews. The natural increase between
that date and June 1941 is estimated by population experts to have
amounted to at least 100,000. To these roughly 3,100,000 have to be
added the 1,900,000 Jews who lived in the newly "acquired" territo-
ries-Eastern Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and those in
Northern Bukovina and Bessarabia. The inhabitants had all been
given Soviet citizenship with the annexation of their lands. In the
Soviet territory as it then existed, there were thus roughly 5,000,000
Jewish Soviet citizens alive in 1941. This figure does not include ap-
proximately 250,000 Jews from western Poland who had fled into
Poland's eastern part to escape the advancing German forces. Of the
latter-and fortunately for them-a substantial but uncertain
number had been deported by the Soviets as "undesirable" to the
Central Asian area of the U.S.S.R. or to the northern sections of the
Russian Soviet Socialist Republic.
Most of the Soviet Union's 5,000,000 Jewish citizens lived in the
country's western areas, most exposed to the threat of German
occupation. At one time or the other, Jews in the following areas and
numbers fell under German control:
108
SOVIET POLICIES
White Russia
375,000
Ukraine
1,533,000
Occupied areas of the Russian
Soviet Socialist Republic
250,000
Annexed areas
1,900,000
4,058,000
This is a minimal figure.
The number of 4,100,000 would be a realistic, but low estimate.
Of them, approximately two million, one half of all, were killed.
There can be no doubt that these more than 4,000,000 of her
citizens were under very special risks if they fell into German hands.
What special measures were taken by the Soviet Government to
protect that highest risk group of its citizens? The answer is: none.
No special measures whatsoever. To the contrary, there was silence
regarding the murderously anti-Semitic German propaganda while
other claims were vigorously denounced. This made it appear that
the anti-Semitic aspects of the announcements were not disagreed
with. The consequences of this policy were manifested by large
sections of the Soviet populations cooperating with the German
annihilation. This collaboration was responsible for the loss of huge
numbers of Jewish lives.
To counter the German "kill the Jews" propaganda would have
been the more imperative as the old Russian anti-Semitism was still
very much alive in spite of more than 20 years of Soviet Rule. And
anti-Semitism never had a rest in the newly annexed territories,
particularly in the Baltic Republics and in Poland. In the Soviet
Ukraine, Jew-hatred was just as strong as in the newly acquired
Baltic countries and, all in all, the Germans could reasonable expect
a favorable reception for their anti-Jewish broadcasts and leaflets. It
is exactly for that reason that the Soviets avoided countering the anti-
Jewish aspects of German propaganda and that, in deference to the
prevailing anti-Semitic feelings, they decided to keep entirely away
from the issue of the Jews. This policy was quite likely supported by
the anti-Semitic attitudes of the Soviet decision makers, but if one
neglects entirely the moral and humane issue, there was some
realism in that reasoning. Building on the endemic anti-Semitism
especially in the Polish and Ukrainian population, the Germans
claimed that the Soviets were fighting to protect the Jews. For the
Soviets, to have stood up in any way for the Jews would not have
been popular; it would have tended to support the German claim
109
THE HOLOCAUST CONSPIRACY
that communism was a Jewish invention and served Jewish inter-
ests. It would have likely weakened the desire to fight the German
invaders who promised to free the country from the "communist
Jewish yoke."
The Soviet policy of keeping entirely away from this issue
proved catastrophic for the Jews, as the news media censored the
mentioning of Jews as specific targets for murder when they accused
the "fascist monster" of atrocities.
Jews in the Baltic countries had, up to a year prior to the German
invasion, lived under a rule that permitted access to foreign news.
They did not know specifics of what had happened in Poland. Yet
they were frightened enough when the invasion of their homelands
started to try to flee in masses toward the eastern parts of the Soviet
Union. Although they had been Soviet citizens since the annexation
and although it had since then all been one country, they were
stopped by Soviet "border" guards when they reached the line
which had once divided their Baltic states from the U.S.S.R. They
pleaded with the guards to let them pass, explaining to them that
they were Soviet citizens with the same rights and duties as any
other citizens. This was to no avail. No imploring helped. The guards
were under strict orders. Many of those who had reached these
border lines returned to their homes where they were killed by the
Germans.
There is a vivid description by Yankev Rasen, a Jewish scientist
who survived.
We are not permitted to go farther
Regardless of how much we implore
the Soviet border guards, we get one
answer only: "Nobody is allowed to
cross. These are orders. Move back,
twenty steps. We will shoot if you do
not. Get moving! One, two-fire."
For twelve horrible days and nights
we have stayed near the border. Dur-
ing that time crowds of thousands of
more refugees have arrived here.
Most of them are Jews with an occa-
sional non-Jew among them. They lie
in ditches nearby and in the fields and
110
SOVIET POLICIES
woods. They implore the guards to let
them go on so that they can save their
lives. Properly documented members
of the communist party are allowed to
pass
others have no right to be
saved.
Suddenly the frontier guards disap-
peared. The Germans had come
within 10 to 15 km of the dividing
line
But how far can one flee when
the dreadful enemy is so near?¹
Mr. Rasen could have added: "especially when the enemy is motor-
ized." He and those who had waited it out to the last could finally
cross, but they were all too soon overtaken by the Germans. By
ingenuity and luck Rasen survived.
Those who had returned to the cities and those who had stayed
there were the worst off. Particularly in the Baltic countries a very
active Jewish life had existed. There were numerous Jewish organi-
zations, whose lists were obtained by the advancing Germans. Also,
in cities that had been part of the Soviet Union prior to 1939, the
Germans succeeded in lining up almost all the Jews. In Byalistok, a
city in White Russia, of a Jewish population of 50,000, only 900 Jews
survived, as reported by the chairman of the postwar Jewish
Committee for the Province of Byalistok. From the capital of White
Russia, Minsk, government agencies and government personnel
with families were evacuated in haste, but there, as well as in other
cities, no special evacuation of the by far most endangered section of
the population took place. Of the 90,000 Jews who lived in Minsk
before the war, at least 85,000, more likely as many as 88,000, were
murdered. Of course, towns where the Einsatzgruppen had a major
installation were the worst off. Vitebsk housed a headquarters unit
of the Einsatzgruppen. An SS radio station was located there that
reported its daily achievements to the Reichssicherheitsamt in Ber-
lin. Of Vitebsk's 50,000 Jews, only 500, one out of a hundred, sur-
vived.
The name of a ravine on the outskirts of Kiev, Babi Yar, stands
next only to Auschwitz as a symbol of German inhumanity during
the Nazi era, as well as for Jewish martyrdom. It also symbolizes the
support which Soviet policy supplied to the effectiveness of the Final
Solution. Reports on the Babi Yar carnage are both detailed and well
111
THE HOLOCAUST CONSPIRACY
documented. They consist of German documents and other evi-
dence produced in two major war crimes trials, the international one
at Nuremberg and a trial conducted in the later postwar period
before a German court in Darmstadt.
On September 29 and 30, 1941, in a 36-hour period-the Ger-
mans were very exact in their record keeping-33,771 Jews were
machine gunned and those who were still not dead were buried
alive. Not even the assembly line death factory at Auschwitz when
working at full capacity killed that many in such a short period. How
was Babi Yar possible? How could the Germans assemble and kill
that many Jews without known resistance? It is here that Soviet
policy and actions have to carry a heavy burden of guilt.
On September 19-the dates are important-The German Army
Group South had breached the faltering defenses of Kiev, the capital
of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, a city of about 1,500,000.
Attached to Army Group South was the slaughtering Einsatsgrup-
pen unit Commanded by SS Colonel Blobel. He expected consider-
able "difficulties from such a large scale action" as his task-killing
Kiev's Jews-demanded. One of the problems was that Jews lived
not just in certain districts but were distributed all over the city. Yet,
this Kiev mission was to be "carried out exclusively against Jews
with their entire families." Immediately he started rumors that Jews
would soon be evacuated for "resettlement." On September 28, the
rumors seemed to be proven true. Overnight 2,000 announcements
had been posted throughout the city declaring that the next morn-
ing, September 29, all Jews had to assemble at a certain road crossing
located near a railroad station at Kiev's outskirts. The Jews were to
take warm clothing along and also their "documents, money, valu-
ables " Jews found not to have shown up would be shot. The SS
expected at the most 6,000 Jews to fall for the trick. After what they
had done in the more than three months since the invasion of the
Soviet Union and after previous German actions in Poland, the
Germans did not think that so many would be fooled to show
themselves to be Jews and walk into the trap. Next morning to the
surprise of the SS, the streets leading to that road crossing were fast
teeming with large masses of Jews, estimated by the Germans at that
time to amount to 30,000-later proven by the official headcount of
victims to have been 33,771.
Much of the way toward the assigned gathering point led along
Lvovskaya Street, one of the major streets of the city. Along it moved
112
SOVIET POLICIES
on that fateful September 29 an odd mass of desperate people. Most
of them were elderly or women. Almost all of the younger men had,
to their good luck, been drafted into the army. And there were
children of all ages, approximately 6,000 of them, including the
babies. The renowned Soviet writer Ilja Ehrenburg, who inter-
viewed eyewitnesses of that death march writes: "A procession of
the doomed marched along endless Lvovskaya, the mothers carry-
ing their babies, the paralyzed pulled along on carts."
While, in the early afternoon, latecomers, mainly invalids and
very old people were still arriving, the first hundred were already
led toward the ravine. When they were out of sight they had to pass
a line-up. Forming a narrow corridor on each side were SS and
Ukrainian voluntary police equipped with rubber truncheons, brass
knuckles and wooden clubs who beat them severely and shouted
"run." Once through that passage, deadly frightened of more beat-
ings and their spirits broken, the Jews were ordered to undress
completely and, then, naked as they were, to proceed to the edge of
a deep, wide ditch. There they were machin- gunned; the bodies fell
or were kicked into the ditch, covered with a thin layer of dirt-and
the next hundred were brought in for the same procedure. Small
children were thrown alive into the ditch and perished as it became
slowly filled with more bodies and dirt. Later groups had to dig their
own ditches.
Full evidence for that unbelievable massacre was produced in
the two war crimes trials. The Nuremberg International found
Colonel Blobel guilty as charged and had him hanged. By 1967, 11 of
the main participants had been apprehended and were charged
before a German war crimes court. The trial lasted 4 months, 175
witnesses were heard, and a large number of documents was intro-
duced, all of which corroborated the unbelievable facts. One of the
defendants died in prison; the other ten were found guilty as
charged and received prison sentences of varying lengths. Never
charged were those responsible for the Soviet policy that multiplied
the number of the ones whom the Germans would have caught
anyhow. The Babi Yar carnage was committed more than three
months after the Germans had entered Soviet territory. There was
abundant time to warn Soviet Jews and to exhort the population to
try to aid their fellow citizens, to save them by hiding them from the
expected killing. Moreover, contrary to the newly acquired lands—
and the west-there was no active Jewish life in the U.S.S.R.; there
113
THE HOLOCAUST CONSPIRACY
were no lists of Jewish organizations, no Jewish community that
could have been tricked to be halfway helpful in a plan for "resettle-
ment." It was relatively easy for citizens of the old Soviet Union to
disappear among their comrades.
Whatever the Germans did, the Soviets stuck to their policy of
denying existence of the special danger to Jews. After the war, they
resisted the idea of a special memorial at Babi Yar. A sports stadium
was planned for that location. But opposition among non- Jews was
too strong to be wisely neglected. A memorial was finally erected
there. But it commemorates the murder of Soviet citizens only. The
word Jew. does not appear on the memorial, as if this action had not
been conducted according to the German document "exclusively
against Jews and their entire families."
A procedure often followed by the Germans was to have prison-
ers of war lined up and then order those who were Jews to step
ahead. Knowing that worse treatment awaited them than their
fellow prisoners, not all Jews followed the order, but some usually
did. The Germans then addressed the rest of the prisoners, exhorting
them to point out those whom they knew to be Jews. Following up
the line of German propaganda steadily beamed at them they were
told: "Think of all the misery of the war. The Jews are responsible for
the war. Your government knows and cannot and does not deny it."
The exhortation was as a rule followed by one or the other of the
prisoners pointing out Jews among those standing in line, if there
were any and if they were known to him as such. The Jews were then
taken away and, sometimes still in the sight of the others, but always
still in hearing distance, shot.
There were, of course, cases of heartwarming loyalty to each
other among prisoners, but pointing out Jews to the Germans when
exhorted to do so was not at all an unusual incident. Anti-Semitism
was particularly rampant in units that contained large percentages
of military drawn from the recently acquired areas of the Baltic
republics, and from eastern Poland, or the Ukraine. Units with a
relatively larger percentage from these areas were likely also to
contain a larger percentage of Jewish draftees. With the annexation,
many young people from the new areas had been drafted into the
Red Army, and these areas, as most of the western part of the
U.S.S.R., were the main locations of Jews in the Soviet Union.
Anti-Semitism, brought to a pitch by the steady bombardment
by German propaganda, was so unchecked that it heavily afflicted
114
SOVIET POLICIES
even the partisan movement. In some partisan units, comradery
included Jews with no or hardly any discrimination. But there were
other units. A Jew who wanted to join the partisans often found
himself received with suspicion. He was taunted and often had to be
afraid of his own comrades. Some Jewish partisans were even
executed, framed with the absurd charge that they were spying for
the Germans. It even happened that partisans chased Jews out of the
forests which the Jews had entered to join the partisan forces.
According to survivors of attempts to join, partisan leaders shied
away from giving the impression of truth to the German propa-
ganda-not rebuked by Soviet announcements-that the whole
partisan movement was inspired by the Jews and that its main
purpose was to aid the Jews. Acting that way, partisan leaders only
followed the policy of the government to do everything possible not
to appear friendly toward the Jews, as this might cause loss of public
support. While the commanders might have been aware of such
political considerations, the individual translated it into an occa-
sional bullet into the back of one of those "suspect Jewish
infiltrators." It speaks for the basic goodness of human nature that
in spite of such policies there were numerous acts of individual
heroism, non-Jews risking their lives to save a Jewish comrade. Yet
the overall mood was prevailing anti-Semitism.²
Viewing happenings in the partisan units, we must be aware that
while conditions initially allowed much authority to individual
commanders, the partisan forces soon became part of the Red Army
and were under its control. Unlike most armies, the Red Army is
most concerned with the political attitudes in its military, even in
fine nuances and trends, and had a political commissar just for the
control of "correct" thinking assigned to the units. The partisans
were doubtlessly under the political control of these Red Army
commissars, as control over partisan forces was centrally exercised.
The Soviets were quite aware of their failing to evacuate those
who were so much more than anybody else at risk to fall victim to the
enemy's lust for murder. To counter such accusations and to create
good will toward the U.S.S.R. in the West and thus increase pressure
for an early opening of a second front, the Soviets founded a special
committee. They named it the Jewish Antifascist Committee, and
loyal communists who filled the bill of being qualified to promote
propaganda effort abroad were appointed to it. Two men were sent
abroad. One was Itsik Feffer, a Yiddish writer of considerable talent,
115
THE HOLOCAUST CONSPIRACY
the other one was Solomon Mikhoels, a well known Yiddish actor.
Feffer had shown his reliability by ridiculing the Jewish religion and
tradition and by writing about Stalin's "wondrous heart." Mikhoels,
too, throughout his career had proven himself well versed and
anchored in communist ideology.
Early in 1943, they were sent to New York. There, meetings were
called, and each time the number of those attending grew. Most Jews
were captivated by the personalities of the speakers and happy to
see, for the first time after many years of isolation, Jews from the
Soviet Union, the more so as their message indicated a turn in the
attitude of the U.S.S.R. toward Jews and Judaism. They heard of
course of the massacres, but they also were told about the hundreds
of thousands whom the Soviets had allegedly saved by evacuating
them to safety before the advancing German troops could capture
them. Feffer and Mikhoels visited not only the United States but also
Canada, Mexico, and England. In 46 cities, they spread the tale of
how the Soviets had snatched hundreds of thousands of Jews right
from the advancing Germans, and how many more would be saved
if only some relief would come to the heroic Red Army by early
establishment of a second front.
As is often the case with a good lie, the Soviet fable of mass
evacuation of Jews was built upon an element-entirely twisted
though-of a true happening. When in the time of the German-
Soviet alliance, the Soviets annexed the Baltic countries and
marched into other territories and occupied them (Bukovina, etc.),
they found that most Jews belonged to one or the other Jewish
organization, almost all of them "dangerous" and "undesirable"
from the Soviet point of view. One policy the U.S.S.R. took over from
the Czars was: "If you do not like someone's political ideas, to Siberia
he goes." In following this principle, Jews by the tens of thousands-
especially Zionists and also members of the social democratic anti-
Zionist Bund-were deported prior to the war- to Central Asia and
to the cold northeastern regions of the Russian Soviet Socialist
Republic. They did then not know how lucky they were to be
classified as undesirable or even dangerous. These newly acquired
areas being heavily populated with Jews, it is estimated that 250,000
undesirables, maybe even more, were thus deported during that
period in which the Soviet Union attempted, to digest her new
acquisitions.
The fable of mass evacuations in the face of the advancing
Germans was not only spread by the messengers of the Jewish
116
SOVIET POLICIES
Antifascist Committee. It was, almost at the end of the war, contin-
ued by an American, who, with the convenient name of Goldberg,
had been invited to visit the U.S.S.R. He names one person only as
the source of his post factum report, a "Rabbi Shekhter." Mr.
Goldberg's claims were broadly publicized by the American com-
munist press. Not mentioned of course was that the evacuations he
reported had taken place before the war and that no document-not
even a hint of a post invasion evacuation-is to be found in any
Soviet publication, including Izvestya or Pravda. Yet some 3.8 million
people are reported to have been evacuated from the Ukraine alone,
to escape capture by the invading German armies.
By the way, both Feffer and Mikhoels were later shot by their
masters. They were suspected-not without reason-to have been
affected on their trip abroad by feelings of Jewish identification and
were liquidated in the purge which Stalin conducted in 1952 against
Jewish intellectuals.
Of the four million Jews in Soviet-held lands who at one time or
the other were in an area controlled by the Germans, two million
were killed. Even if warnings would have gone out by the Soviets
and instructions on how to try to evade capture; even if the popula-
tion had been exhorted not to cooperate with the Germans but to the
contrary to try to aid Jews in escape or hiding attempts; even if the
flood of German anti-Semitic propaganda had been countered by
the so active and so listened to Soviet propaganda machinery, the
great majority of these two million Jews would have perished
anyhow. But if one takes a very conservative estimate, at least one
out of ten could have been saved.
This leaves us still with a figure of 200,000 humans who could
have been saved if the Soviets had not followed the policies de-
scribed above. And this includes some 33,000 children. This figure
does not take into consideration that the Soviets, whose front was
much nearer to Auschwitz than the Allies and whose medium-
distance bombers were for at least four months close enough to
destroy the death factory, never attacked that murder complex. Yet,
such an act would have saved the lives of many tens maybe even of
hundreds of thousands.
Figures are impersonal; statistics are experienced with relatively
little emotion. If we just think of the 33,000 children as playing in the
street, near or in their homes while inhuman men in faraway Berlin
decided their death, we may be capable of assessing better what
Soviet policies did in support of the Final Solution.
117
THE HOLOCAUST CONSPIRACY
1 Yankev Rasen, Mir Viln Lebn, New York, 1949, pp. 22-25.
2 Moshe Kahanovich, The Fighting of the Jewish Partisans in Eastern
Europe, (Hebrew) Tel Aviv, 1954.
118
JACEK'S TRIP To
BABI YAR
MEMORIAL AT
BABI YAR
W.S.
# 69,042 B
Courtesy: United States Holocaust Memorial
Museum
JACEK'S TRIP To
BABI VAR
MEMORIAL AT
BABI YAR
W.S.
# 69,042 A
1
1
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SIMON WIESENTHAL CENTER
9760 West Pico Bouievard, Los Angeles, CA. 90035 : 44
Phone: 213/553-9036 Telefax: 213/553-8007
Date 7/24
Time
Please Deliver The Following Pages To
500
Name:
Carol Blymine
Firm:
White White House House
City:
Telefax: (202) 456-6218
From:
RA Cooper
Notes:
Carol-a for
tasted
Best all
TOTAL NUMBER OF PAGES INCLUDING COVER 52
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7'01
9760 West Pico Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90035-4792
(213) 553-9036
Face (213) 553-8007
Stmon Wiesenthal Center
Rabbi Marvin Hier
Dean
Rabbi Abraham Cooper
Associate Dean
Dr. Gereld Margolis
Director
Rabbi Meyer May
Executive Director
Susan Burden
Director of Administration
Marlene F, Hier
Director
Membership Development
Avra Shapiro
Director of Communications
Rabbi Daniel Landes
Director
National Education Projects
Richard Trank
July 24, 1991
Director
Media Projecta
TO: Ms. Carol Blymire
FAX: 202-456-6218
Martin Mendelsohn
Legal Counsel
Washington, D.C.
Dear Ms. Blymire:
Regional Offices
Attached to this letter, please find a variety of materials
New York
relative to the Babiy Yar Massacre of September 29, 1941.
Rhonda Barad
Director
They include historical information, personal narrative
Eastern Region
memoirs and poetic selections.
Chicago
Carol Wallace
Director
Community Relations
We found no reference in the RLIN database to a book titled,
Toronto
Sol Littman
Pale of Bygone Years. I am confident, however, that you
Canadian Representative
have adequate material in this package.
Smadar Peretz
Director for Development
Miami
Robert L. Novak
If you have any questions or need further assistance, please
Director for Development
feel free to call me.
Southern Region
Jerusalem
Efraim Zuroff
Director
Sincerely yours,
Paris
Shimon Samuels
European Director
adain Klain
Adaire Klein
Coordinator of Library and Archival Services
AK:sb
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ENCYCLOPEDIA
of the
HOLOCAUST
Israel Gutman, Editor in Chief
Volume 1
Yad Vashem
The Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes'
Remembrance Authority
Jerusalem
Sifriat Poalim Publishing House
Tel Aviv
MACMILLAN PUBLISHING COMPANY
NEW YORK
Collier Macmillan Publishers
LONDON
SIMON WIESENTHAL CENTER
LIBRARY
9760 W. Pico Boulevard
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4
B
BABI YAR, ravine, situated in the northwest-
(Sicherheitsdienst; Security Service) and Si-
ern part of Kiev, where the Jews of the Ukrai-
cherheitspolizei (Security Police; Sipo) men;
nian capital were systematically massacred.
the third company of the Special Duties
At the southern end of the ravine were two
Waffen-SS battalion; and a platoon of the
cemeteries, one of which was Jewish.
No. 9 police battalion. The unit was rein-
Kiev was captured by the Twenty-ninth
forced by police battalions Nos. 45 and 305
Corps and the Sixth German Army on Sep-
and by units of the Ukrainian auxiliary po-
tember 19, 1941. Of its Jewish population of
lice.
160,000, some 100,000 had managed to flee
On September 28, notices were posted in
before the Germans took the city. Shortly af-
the city ordering the Jews to appear the fol-
ter the German takeover, from September 24
lowing morning, September 29, at 8:00 a.m.
to 28, a considerable number of buildings
at the corner of Melnik and Dekhtyarev
in the city center, which were being used by
streets; they were being assembled there, so
the German military administration and the
the notice said, for their resettlement in new
army, were blown up; many Germans (as
locations. (The text had been prepared by
well as local inhabitants) were killed in the
Propaganda Company No. 637 and the no-
explosions. After the war, it was learned that
tices had been printed by the Sixth Army
the sabotage operation had been the work of
printing press.)
an NKVD (Soviet security police) detach-
The next morning, masses of Jews reported
ment that had been left behind in the city for
at the appointed spot. They were directed to
that purpose.
proceed along Melnik Street toward the Jew-
On September 26, the Germans held a
ish cemetery and into an area comprising the
meeting at which it was decided that in re-
cemetery itself and a part of the Babi Yar
taliation for the attacks on the German-held
ravine. The area was cordoned off by a
installations, the Jews of Kiev would all be
barbed-wire fence and guarded by Sonder-
put to death. Participating in the meeting
kommando police and Waffen-SS men, as
were the military governor, Maj. Gen. Frie-
well as by Ukrainian policemen. As the Jews
drich Georg Eberhardt; the Higher SS and
approached the ravine, they were forced to
Police Leader at Rear Headquarters Army
hand over all the valuables in their posses-
Group South, SS-Obergruppenführer Frie-
sion, to take off all their clothes, and to ad-
drich JECKELN; the officer commanding Ein-
vance toward the ravine edge, in groups of
satzgruppe C, SS-Brigadeführer Dr. Otto
ten. When they reached the edge, they were
RASCH; and the officer commanding Sonder-
gunned down by automatic fire. The shooting
kommando 4a, SS-Standartenführer Paul
was done by several squads of SD and Sipo
BLOBEL. The implementation of the decision
personnel, police, and Waffen-SS men of the
to kill the Jews of Kiev was entrusted to Son-
Sonderkommando unit, the squads relieving
derkommando 4a. This unit consisted of SD
one another every few hours. When the day
133
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134
BABI YAR
Babi Yar, where Sonderkommando 4a of Einsatzgruppe C carried out the mass
slaughter of 33,771 Kiev Jews on September 29 and 30, 1941.
ended, the bodies were covered with a thin
coordination with SS-Gruppenführer Dr.
layer of soil. According to official reports of
Max Thomas, the officer commanding the SD
the Einsatzgruppe, in two days of shooting
and Sipo in the Ukraine: that of erasing all
(September 29 and 30), 33,771 Jews were
evidence of the mass carnage that the Nazis
murdered.
had perpetrated. For this purpose, Blobel
In the months that followed, many more
formed two special groups, identified by the
thousands of Jews were seized, taken to Babi
code number 1005. Unit 1005-A was made
Yar, and shot. Among the general population
up of eight to ten SD men and thirty Ger-
there were some who helped Jews go into
man policemen, and was under the command
hiding, but there were also a significant num-
of an SS-Obersturmbannführer named Bau-
ber who informed on them to the Germans
mann. In mid-August the unit embarked on
and gave them up. After the war, the officer
its task of exhuming the corpses in Babi Yar
in charge of the Sipo and SD bureau testified
and cremating them. The ghastly job itself
that his Klev office received so many letters
was carried out by inmates of a nearby con-
from the Ukrainian population informing
centration camp (Syretsk), from which the
on Jews-"by the bushel" - that the office
Germans brought in 327 men, of whom 100
could not deal with them all, for lack of
were Jews. The prisoners were housed in a
manpower. Evidence of betrayal of Jews by
bunker carved out from the ravine wall; it
the Kiev population was also given by Jewish
had an iron gate that was locked during the
survivors and by the Soviet writer Anatoly
night and was watched by a guard with a
Kuznetsov.
machine gun. They had chains bolted to their
Babi Yar served as a slaughterhouse for
legs, and those who fell ill or lagged behind
non-Jews as well, such as GYPSIES and Soviet
were shot on the spot. The mass graves were
prisoners of war. According to the estimate
opened up by bulldozers, and it was the pris-
given by the Soviet research commission on
oners' job to drag the corpses to cremation
Nazi crimes, 100,000 persons were murdered
pyres, which consisted of wooden logs doused
at Babi Yar.
in gasoline on a base of railroad ties. The
In July 1943, by which time the Red Army
bones that did not respond to incineration
was on the advance, Paul Blobel came back
were crushed, for which purpose the Nazis
to Kiev. He was now on a new assignment, in
brought in tombstones from the Jewish cem-
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BABI YAR
135
geni Yevtushenko published a poem, "Babi
2
Yar," which begins with the lines:
USSR
No gravestone stands on Babi Yar;
Only coarse earth heaped roughly on the gash:
Such dread comes over me.
Kharkov
A year later, Dmitri Shostakovich set the
Chernigov
poem to music, incorporating it into his Thir-
teenth Symphony. (Under pressure from the
authorities, changes were made in the origi-
Poltava
nal text, and it is the amended text that is
BABI YAR
used today when the symphony is performed
Kiev
in the Soviet Union.) Both the poem and the
musical setting had a tremendous impact in
Kramenchug
Dnepropetrovsk
the Soviet Union, as well as beyond its bor-
ders. Demands increased for a memorial to
be built at Babi Yar, but it was not until 1966
that architects and artists were invited to
1
2
3
BABI YAR
submit proposals, and it. took eight more
UKRAINE
N
years for the memorial to be built. Since
4
5
6
0
96 miles
11n
1974 a monument stands in Babi Yar, but the
inscription does not mention that Jews were
O
120 km.
2cm.
among the victims there.
etery. The ashes were sifted to retrieve any
gold or silver they might have contained.
Cremation of the corpses began on August 18
and went on for six weeks, ending on Sep-
tember 19, 1943. The Nazis did their job
thoroughly, and when they were through no
trace was left of the mass graves.
On the morning of September 29, the pris-
oners learned that they were about to be put
to death. They already had a plan for escape,
and resolved to put it into effect the same
night. Shortly after midnight, under cover of
darkness and the fog that enveloped the ra-
vine, twenty-five prisoners broke out. Fifteen
succeeded in making their escape; the others
were shot during the attempt or on the fol-
Monument erected in 1966 at Babi Yar. The Ukrai-
lowing morning.
nian text reads: "On this site there will be a mon-
It took a long time after the war for a me-
ument for the victims of fascism during the Ger-
morial to be erected at Babi Yar. The de-
man occupation of Klev, 1941-1943."
mand for a memorial was first voiced during
the "thaw" that set in during the Khrushchev
BIBLIOGRAPHY
regime, by which time Babi Yar had become
Ehrenburg, I., and V. Grossman, eds. The Black
a place of pilgrimage. Among those who
Book of Soviet Jewry. New York, 1981. See pages
made this demand were the writers Ilya
3-12.
EHRENBURG and Viktor Nekrasov, but their
Korey, W. "Babi Yar Remembered." Midstream
call was not heeded. In 1961, the poet Yev-
15/3 (1969): 24-39.
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136
BACH-ZELEWSKI, ERICH VON DEM
Kuznetsov, A. Babi Yar. New York, 1967.
Munich, but was released after serving five
St. George, J. The Road to Babi Yar. London, 1967.
years of his sentence. Re-arrested in 1958, he
SHMUEL SPECTOR
was sentenced at Nuremberg in 1961 to a
further four and one-half years.
BACH-ZELEWSKI, ERICH VON DEM
BIBLIOGRAPHY
(1899-1972), SS commander. Born in Lauen-
Bartoszewski, W. Prawda 0 von dem Bachu. War-
burg in Pomerania, Bach-Zelewski served as
saw, 1961.
a private during World War I and then joined
Reitlinger, G, The SS: Alibi of a Nation. New York,
the police. He became a member of the Nazi
1956.
party in 1930 and the following year enrolled
Zawodny, J. K. Nothing but Honor: The Story of the
in the SS.
Warsaw Uprising, 1944. Stanford, 1978.
After the Nazis' rise to power, Bach-
SHMUEL SPECTOR
Zelewski's career progressed rapidly, and in
1938 he was appointed SS commander in
Silesia, with headquarters in Breslau (now
Wroclaw). After September 1939, the Polish
BACKA, district in YUGOSLAVIA that now forms
part of Silesia was incorporated into his dis-
the western part of the autonomous province
trict of command and he was responsible for
of Vojvodina. Jews lived in Backa in ancient
the expulsion of tens of thousands of Jews
times, but the first known organized Jewish
from the area. When the Germans invaded
communities were established there at the
the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, Bach-
end of the eighteenth century.
Zelewski became the Higher SS and Police
Prior to the German invasion of Yugoslavia
Leader in central Russia, attached to the
in April 1941, Backa had a Jewish population
Central Army Group; in November of that
of some sixteen thousand, representing 20
year he was promoted to the rank of SS-
percent of Yugoslav Jewry and 2 percent of
Obergruppenführer and general of police. His
the district's population. There were seven-
duties also included command of Einsatz-
teen Neolog communities, following a Con-
gruppe B, which mass-murdered Jews in Be-
servative rite, and nine Orthodox commu-
lorussia. In 1942, Bach-Zelewski was ap-
nities. One-third of the Jews were engaged in
pointed Heinrich HIMMLER's representative in
trade and commerce, 20 percent were office
the fight against the partisans, and from Jan-
workers, 10 percent were professionals (doc-
uary 1943 he was the commanding officer of
tors, lawyers, and so on), and a similar num-
all the forces fighting the partisans in eastern
ber were skilled craftsmen and industrial
Europe. Between August and October 1944
workers. The Jewish community had a consid-
he commanded the forces that suppressed
erable impact on Backa's cultural and educa-
the WARSAW POLISH UPRISING, Bach-Zelew-
tional life and on charitable activities. In the
ski's units taking part in these operations be-
1930s the Zionist movement gained the ma-
came infamous for the mass murder of civil-
jority within most of the Jewish communities,
ians and for the destruction of numerous vil-
and Zionist youth movements-Ha-Shomer
lages and towns and of large parts of War-
ha-Tsa'ir (with twelve hundred members),
saw. From the end of 1944 he was in com-
Tekhelet Lavan (Blau-Weiss, with seven hun-
mand of various army corps.
dred), and Betar (with four hundred)-played
After the war Bach-Zelewski appeared as a
an important role by running summer camps
prosecution witness at the NUREMBERG TRIAL,
and hakhsharot (training schools for agricul-
before the American military tribunal there;
ture) and issuing their own regular publica-
at the Einsatzgruppen trial; at the trials of
tions. The clandestine Communist youth
senior SS and army officers; and at the War-
movement also had a substantial number of
saw trial of Ludwig FISCHER, who had been
adherents among Bačka Jews. Some three
governor of the Warsaw district. Bach-
hundred Backa Jews had moved to Palestine,
Zelewski was held in prison; in 1951 he was
and Backa communities helped tens of thou-
given a ten-year sentence in a trial held in
sands of legal and "illegal" immigrants from
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8
BABI YAR by Yevgeny Yevtushenko
No gravestone stands on Babi Yar,
Now. in this moment, 1 am Anna Frank,
Only coarse earth heaped roughly on the gash.
Frail and transparent as an April twig.
Such dread comes over me; I feel so old,
I love as she: 1 need no ready phrases
Old as the Jews. Today. 1 sm a Jew
Only to look into each other's eyes!
Now I go wandering. an Egyptian slave;
How little we can sense, how little see
And now 1 perish, splayed upon the cross.
Leaves are forbidden us, the sky forbidden
The marks of nails are still upon my flesh.
Yet how much still remains; how strangely sweet
And 1 am Dreyfus whom the gentry hound:
To hold each other close in the dark room.
I am behind the bars, caught in a ring:
They come? No. do not fear. These are the gales
Belied. denounced, and snat upon 1 stand,
Of spring; she bursts into this gloom.
While dainty ladies in their lucy fritts,
Come to me; quickly; let me kiss your lips
Squealing, pake parasols into my face.
They break the door? No, no. the ice is breaking.
I am that little boy in Bialystok
On Babi Yar weeds rustle; the tall trees
Whose blood flows. spreading darkly on the floor.
Like judges 100m and threaten
The rowdy lords of the saloon make sport,
All screams in silence: 1 take off my cap
Reeking alike of vodke and of leek,
And fast that I am slowly turning gray.
Booted aside, weak, helpless, 1, the child
And I too have become 3 soundless cry
Who begs in vain while the pogramchik mob
Over the thousands that sie buried here.
Guffaws and shouts: "Save Russia, beat the Jews!"
1 am each old man slaughtered, each child shot.
The shopman's blows fall on my mother's back.
None of me will forget.
0 my own' people, my own Russian folk
Let the glad "Internationale" blare forth
Believers in the brotherhood of man!
When earth's last anti-Semite Hes in earth.
But dirty hands too often dare to raise
No drop of Jewish blood flows in my veins,
The banner of your pure and lofty name.
But anti Semites with a dull, gnarled hate
I know the goodness of my native land.
Detest me like a Jew.
How vite that anti-Semites shamelessly
o know me truly Russian through their hatel
Preen themselves in the words that they debaset
"The Union of the Russian People."
Translated by Maria Syrkin
9
Kiev, Babi Yar
German troops entered Kiev on the nineteenth of September,
1941. On that same day the Hitlerites began to loot stores on
Bessarabka Street. Jews were detained, beaten, and hauled away in
trucks.
Residents of Kiev watched Germans on Lenin Street beat male
Jews on the legs with rifle butts, forcing them to dance. These
THE BLACK BOOK
cruelly beaten people were then forced to load heavy crates onto
trucks. When people collapsed from the unbearable loads, they
were again beaten with rubber truncheons.
The Ruthless Murder of Jews
On September 22 an enormously powerful explosion awakened
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Kievans. Smoke and a smell of burning were coming from the
by German-Fascist Invaders
direction of Kreshchatik Street. People on the streets abutting
Throughout the Temporarily-Occupied
Kreshchatik Street were driven by the Germans to move straight
Regions of The Soviet Union
into the fire.
1
and in the Death Camps of Poland
On that same day a newspaper in Ukrainian was affixed to the
During the War of 1941-1945
walls of city buildings. It stated that Jews, communists, commissars,
and partisans would be destroyed. A reward of two hundred rubles
was promised for each partisan or communist. Such papers were to
be seen on Saksagansky Street, Red Army Street, and many other
streets in the city.
Prepared under the editorship of
Life in Kiev became increasingly unbearable. Germans barged
Ilya Ehrenburg & Vasily Grossman
into homes and abducted the inhabitants. These people never
returned home.
On September 22 a mass beating of Jews took place on the
Translated from the Russian by
streets, near the water towers, and in the parks.
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John Glad and James S. Levine
Gestapo men checked the documents of people on the streets,
beat Jews, and took them away to the police station or to the
Gestapo. These people were shot at night.
Many residents of Kiev, particularly of the Podd and Slobodka
districts, saw the bloated corpses of tortured old people and chil-
dren float down the Dnieper River as early as the second or third
day of German occupation. On September 26-27 (Friday-
Saturday), Jews who had gone to the synagogue disappeared.
Yevgenia Litoshchenko, a resident of Kiev, testified that her neigh-
bors- an elderly man named Schneider and a couple by the name
of Rosenblat - did not return from the synagogue. Later she saw
their corpses in the Dnieper. Her testimony was supported by T.
Mikhasev. German machine gunners and policemen surrounded
HOLOCAUST LIBRARY
the synagogues and took away those who had been praying there.
New York
SIMON WIESENTHAL CENTER
3
UBRARY
9760 W. Pico Boulevard
Los Angeles, Celif. 90035
1#10
In several spots near Kiev the river current washed ashore bags
the sky. Put to the torch, Kreshchatik Street blazed for six days.
containing articles of worship.
On September 27-28, 1941, a week after the Germans had ar-
On the fifth day after the arrival of the Germans in Kiev, V.
rived in Kiev, announcements in bold Ukrainian and Russian script
Liberman left his house, walked down Korolenko Street, and
on a crude dark-blue paper were displayed around town:
turned onto Tolstoy Square. He was stopped by a tall man in a cap
"Kikes of the city of Kiev and surroundings! On Monday, Sep-
and black overcoat who ordered him to show his passport. Liber-
tember 29, you are to appear by 7:00 A.M. with your possessions,
man did not have his passport with him, and the police agent
money, documents, valuables, and warm clothing at
ordered Liberman to follow him. Walking down Kreshchatik
Dorogozhitskaya Street, next to the Jewish cemetery. Failure to
Street, Liberman saw a car making frequent stops along the street.
appear is punishable by death. Hiding kikes is punishable by death.
From it, someone with an enormous megaphone was shouting in a
Occupying kike apartments is punishable by death."
thunderous voice: "Inform the Gestapo and the police of the
There was no signature on this terrible order, which condemned
whereabouts of Communists, partisans, and Jews. Report them."
seventy thousand people to death.* These Gestapo excesses con-
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The agent took Liberman to a movie theater on Kreshchatik, not
tinued on the streets and in apartments until September 29.
far from Proreznaya Street. The Gestapo man struck him on the
The head of a large and distinguished family which counted
back and shoved him into the theater foyer. Liberman passed
among its members many engineers, doctors, pharmacists, and
through the foyer into the theater itself, where more than three
teachers, the seventy-five-year-old Gersh Abovich Grinberg (22
hundred Jews were sitting. Most of them were gray-bearded old
Volodarskaya Street) was detained by the Germans at the Galitsky
men. They were all absolutely silent. Liberman sat down next to a
Market on September 28. He was robbed, stripped, and tortured to
young Jew who whispered to him: "We're to be taken to Syrets,
death in animal fashion. Grinberg's wife, an elderly woman, Telya
where we'll be shot at night."
Osipovna, never saw her husband again and herself perished in
Liberman walked up to an open window in the theater foyer and
Babi Yar the next day, September 29.
watched the passers-by as they hurried back and forth along
The engineer I. L. Edelman, brother of the famous pianist and
Kreshchatik Street. Suddenly he caught sight of a man who lived in
professor of the Kiev Conservatory, A. L. Edelman, was seized by
his building and called to him. When the man approached the
the Germans on Zhelyanskaya Street. He was drowned in a barrel
window, Liberman asked him to tell his wife that he had been
which stood beside a drain pipe.
detained and that he was in the theater.
B. A. Libman told of one Jewish family which hid for several days
Soon Liberman's wife Valentina Berezlev arrived at the theater.
in a basement. The mother decided to take her two children and
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She approached the Gestapo men and implored them to release
leave for the countryside. Drunken Germans stopped them at
her husband, but one of them pushed her as hard as he could. The
Galitsky Market and murdered them all cruelly. Before the moth-
unfortunate woman fell down the steps of the theater and hit her
er's eyes, they decapitated one child and then killed the second.
head against the sidewalk.
Insane with grief, the woman clasped the two dead children to her
It was clear that all those being held in the theater were to be
body and began to dance. When they had sated themselves with
murdered, but chance saved them. At two o'clock in the afternoon
this spectacle, the Germans killed her as well. At this point the
there occurred a powerful explosion near the theater. Panic-
father of the family arrived on the spot where his family had just
stricken people, among them a woman smeared with blood, ran
perished. He shared their fate.
madly down Kreshchatik Street. Thick yellow clouds of smoke
Many Kievans knew the lawyer Tsiperovich, who lived at 41
billowed down the street, and a second explosion soon followed the
Pushkin Street. He and his wife were shot.
first. Shouting "Feuer!" (Fire!), the Gestapo men abandoned their
The young writer Mark Chudnovsky was not able to leave Kiev,
posts. At that point the prisoners fled to freedom.
"More than 100,000 people, mainly Jews, were killed in Babi Yar during the
In the evenings the crimson reflection of an enormous fire tinted
German occupation.
4
5
because he was ill. His wife, a Russian, would not permit her
cases, boxes. Children were at their parents' side. Young people
husband to go alone to the cemetery, since she knew what fate
took nothing along, but elderly people tried to take as much with
awaited him there. "We were together in days of joy, and I won't
them from home as possible. Pale sighing old women were led by
abandon you now," she said. They left for the cemetery together
their grandchildren. The paralyzed and ill were borne on stretch-
and perished together.
ers, blankets, and sheets.
S. U. Satanovsky, a professor of the Kiev Conservatory, was shot
Streams of people flowed into the endless human current on
together with his family by the Germans.
Lvov Street, while German patrols stood on the sidewalks. So
The Germans dragged Sophia Goldovsky, a paralyzed old wo-
enormous was the mass of people moving along the pavement from
man, from her apartment at 27 Saksagansky Street and killed her.
early morning until late at night that it was difficult to cross from
She was the mother of ten children.
one side of the street to the other. This procession of death contin-
An old woman, Sarra Maksimovna Evenson, had been - in the
ued for three days and three nights. People walked, stopping once
pre-revolutionary period - a political activist, organized discussion
in a while, embraced each other without words, said good-bye, and
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groups, and edited the newspaper "Volyn" in Zhitomir. An author
prayed. The town fell silent. Crowds of people flowed from Pav-
of numerous articles (under the pen name "S. Maksimov"), she was
lovskaya Street, Dmitrievskaya Street, Volodarskaya and Nek-
also the first Russian translator of Feuchtwanger and a number of
rasovskaya Streets into Lvov Street, like streams into a river. Lvov
other contemporary foreign writers. She had an excellent com-
Street led to Melnik Street, which led to a barren road through
mand of foreign languages and maintained a correspondence with
naked hills to the sheer ravines of Babi Yar. As the people ap-
prominent figures in the world of art and literature.
proached Babi Yar the din of angry voices, groans and sobs grew
Sarra Evenson's advanced age and bad health did not permit her
louder.
to be evacuated from Kiev. She had not left the house for two years.
Dmitry Orlov, an old resident of Kiev, watched the execution
This great-grandmother was thrown from a third-floor window at
from the area of the Cable Factory. He was unable to look at the
14 Gorky Street.
terrible picture more than for a few minutes and fled, overcome by
Regina Lazarevna Magat (10 Gorky Street), the mother of a
dizziness.
professor of medicine and biology who had died at the front, was
An entire office operation with desks had been set up in an open
murdered by the Germans. The well-known lawyer Hya Lvovich
area. The crowd waiting at the barriers erected by the Germans at
Bagat died from a German bullet along with his two grand-
the end of the street could not see the desks. Thirty to forty persons
at a time were separated from the crowd and led under armed
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daughters, Polina and Malvina. Moisey Grigorievich Benyash, a
professor of bacteriology known throughout the Soviet Union and
guard for "registration." Documents and valuables were taken
Europe, also perished in those days together with his sister and
away. The documents were immediately thrown to the ground, and
niece.
witnesses have testified that the square was covered with a thick
But all this was merely a prelude to later events which unfolded
layer of discarded papers, tern passports, and union identification
in the cruelest and most treacherous fashion in Babi Var.
cards. Then the Germans forced everyone to strip naked: girls,
At dawn of September 29 Kiev's Jews were moving slowly along
women, children, old men. No exceptions were made. Their cloth-
the streets in the direction of the Jewish Cemetery on Lukyanovka
ing was gathered up and carefully folded. Rings were ripped
from various parts of the city. Many of them thought they were to
from the fingers of the naked men and women, and these doomed
be sent to provincial towns, but others realized that Babi Yar meant
people were forced to stand at the edge of a deep ravine, where the
death. There were many suicides on that day.
executioners shot them at pointblank range. The bodies fell over
Families baked bread for the journey, sewed knapsacks, rented
the cliff, and small children were thrown in alive. Many went insane
wagons and two-wheeled carts. Old men and women supported
when they reached the place of execution.
each other while mothers carried their babies in their arms or
Many Kievans did not know until the last minute what the Ger-
pushed baby carriages. People were carrying sacks, packages, suit-
mans were doing in Babi Yar. Some said that this was a labor
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mobilization. Others believed that it was a resettlement. Still others
by an instinct for self-preservation. That evening I found myself in
claimed that the German High Command had arranged an ex-
the Podol district with my son Ilya beside me. Truly, 1 cannot
change with a Soviet commission: one Jewish family for each cap-
understand what miracle saved my son. It was as if he became part
tured German.
of me and didn't leave me for one second. 1 was taken in for the
Tamara Mikhasev, a young Russian woman whose Jewish hus-
night by a Russian woman in Podol. I don't remember her sur-
band was a commander in the Red Army, also went to Babi Yar,
name, but her first name and patronymic was Marya Grigorievna.
planning to pass herself off as Jewish. She hoped to be exchanged
She helped me reach Saksagansky Street in the morning."
and find her husband on free Soviet territory.
Another woman who was saved from death in Babi Yar was
Tamara came to her senses only after she had passed through
Yelena Yefimovna Borodyansky-Knysh. She arrived at Babi Yar
the fence. First she got into line to hand in her belongings and then
carrying her child in her arms. It was already dark: "Along the way
in another line to be registered. Next to her stood a call woman with
they added about one hundred and fifty people to our group -
an ostrich plume in her hat, a young woman with a boy, and a tall-
maybe more. I'll never forget one girl, Sara; she was about fifteen
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broad-shouldered man.
years old. I can't describe how beautiful she was. Her mother was
The man picked up the boy.
pulling her own hair and screaming in a heart-rending voice: "Kill
Mikhasev walked up to them, and the man looked at her and
us
together.
The mother was killed with a rifle butt, but they
asked:
weren't in any hurry with the girl. Five or six Germans stripped her
"Are you a Jew?"
naked, but I didn't see what happened after that. I didn't see.
"My husband is Jewish."
"They took our clothing, confiscating all our possessions, and led
"You should leave if you're not Jewish," he said. "Wait here and
us about fifty meters away, where they took our documents,
we'll leave together."
money, rings, earrings. They wanted to remove the gold teeth of
He picked up the boy again, kissed his eyes, and said farewell to
one old man, and he tried to resist. Then one of the Germans
his wife and mother-in-law. Then he said something abrupt and
grabbed him by the beard and threw him on the ground. There
commanding in German, and the guard moved aside the board.
were tufts of beard in the German's hand, and the old man was
The man was a Russified German and had accompanied his wife,
covered with blood. When my child saw that, she started to cry.
son, and mother-in-law to Babi Yar. Mrs. Mikhasev left with him.
"Don't take me there, Mama. Look, they're killing the old man.'
From the direction of Babi Yar could be heard the barking of
"Don't shout, sweety, because if you shout, we won't be able to
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many dogs, the crackle of automatic-rifle fire, and the cries of the
run away, and the Germans will kill us.'
dying. The crowd moved toward them, and the road was packed.
"She was a patient child, so she kept quiet, but she was shaking all
Loud speakers bellowed dance melodies which drowned out the
over. She was four years old then. Everyone was stripped naked,
screams of the victims.
but since 1 wore only old underwear, I didn't have to take it off.
The following is the testimony of those who miraculously es-
"At about midnight the command was given in German for us to
caped: Nesya Elgort (40 Saksagansky Street) was moving toward
line up. I didn't wait for the next command, but threw my girl into
the ravine pressing her trembling son Ilya to her naked body.
the ditch and fell on top of her. A second later bodies started falling
Carrying her son in her arms, she walked up to the edge of the
on me. Then everything fell silent. There were more shots, and
ravine. In only partial control of her senses, she heard the shooting
again bloody dying and dead people began falling into the pit.
and the death cries, and she fell. Untouched by the bullets, she lay
"I sensed that my daughter wasn't moving. I leaned up against
under a heap of warm bloody bodies. All around hundreds and
her, covering her with my body. To keep her from suffocating, I
thousands of bodies lay piled on top of each other. The bodies of
made fists out of my hands and put them under her chin. She
old men rested on the bodies of children who lay on the bodies of
stirred. 1 tried to raise my body to keep from crushing her. The
their dead mothers.
execution had been going on since 9:00 A.M. and there was blood
"It is now difficult for me to understand how 1 got out of that
all over the place. We were sandwiched between bodies.
ravine of death," Nesya Elgort recalled, "but I crawled out, driven
"I felt someone walk across the bodies and swear in German. A
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German soldier was checking with a bayonet to make sure no one
wife to live in the rectory until August of 1942, and then he took
was still alive. By chance he was standing on me, so the bayonet
her to Kamenets-Podolsk. Father Glagolev also saved many other
blow passed me.
Jews who turned to him for help.
"When he left, I raised my head. The Germans were quarrelling
The Germans and their (Ukrainian) policemen combed the
over the booty.
countryside for new victims. Hundreds of Jews who had succeeded
"I freed myself, got up, and took my unconscious daughter in my
in avoiding execution in Babi Yar perished in their apartments, in
arms. I walked along the ravine. When I had put a kilometer
the waters of the Dnieper, in the ravines of Pechersk and De-
between us and the execution spot, I sensed that my daughter was
mievka, on the city streets. The Germans were suspicious of anyone
barely breathing. There was no water anywhere, so I wet her lips
who looked like a Jew, and the documents of such persons were
with my own saliva. I walked another kilometer and began to
carefully checked. A single denunciation was sufficient to have
gather dew from the grass to moisten the child's mouth. Little by
anyone under suspicion shot. The Germans not only searched
little she started to regain consciousness.
apartments, but also inspected cellars and caves, and even used
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"I rested and moved on. Crawling my way over the ravines, I
explosives to blast open floors, suspicious walls, attics, and chim-
made my way to the village of Babi Yar. I entered the yard of the
neys.
brick factory and hid in the basement. I remained there four days
A handful of Kiev's Jews survived Babi Yar and have been
without any food or clothing. 1 would come out into the yard only
preserved by fate so that mankind could hear the truth from the
at night to forage in the garbage can.
lips of the victims and witnesses.
"My child and I both started to swell. I was no longer able to
Two years later, when the Red Army was approaching the
understand what was happening. Machine guns were firing some-
Dnieper, an order came from Berlin to destroy the bodies of the
where. On the night of the fifth day I crept into an attic where I
Jews buried in Babi Yar.
found a very worn knit skirt and two old blouses. I used one of the
Vladimir Davydov, a prisoner in the Syrets Camp, related how
blouses as a dress for my little girl. I went then to Litoshenko, an
the Germans realized they would have to give up Kiev and how, in
acquaintance of mine. She was petrified when she saw me. She gave
fall of 1943, they frantically covered up the evidence of the mass
me a skirt and a dress and hid both me and my girl. I spent a week
executions in Babi Yar.
locked up in her house. She gave me some money to take with me,
On August 18, 1943, the Germans took three hundred prisoners
and I went to another acquaintance, Fenya Pliuyko, who also
from the Syrets Camp and shackled them in leg irons. Everyone in
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helped me a lot. Her husband had died at the front. I spent a
camp realized that some particularly important job lay ahead. This
month at her apartment. Her neighbors didn't know me, and when
group of prisoners was accompanied only by regular officers and
they asked about me, Fenya said I was her sister-in-law from the
non-commissioned officers of the SS. The prisoners were taken
village. After that I moved in with Shkuropadsky and I spent two
from camp and transported to dark earthen bunkers surrounded
weeks with her. But since everyone in the Podo! district knew me, I
by barbed wire. Germans stood duty day and night in madhine-gun
couldn't go out in the daytime."
towers next to the bunkers. On August 19 the prisoners were led
Dmitry Pasichey hid behind a gravestone at the Jewish Cemetery
from the bunkers and taken under heavy guard to Babi Yar. There
and saw the Germans shoot the Jews.
they were issued shovels. It was only then that the prisoners
Pasichny's wife, Polina, and her mother, Yevgeniya Abramovna
realized that they had been assigned the terrible job of digging up
Shevelev, were Jewish. He hid both of them in a closet and spread
the bodies of the Jews shot by the Germans at the end of Septem-
the rumor that they had gone to the cemetery. Then both women
ber, 1941.
were taken into the priest's house of the Pokrovskaya Church in
When the prisoners stripped off the upper layer of earth, they
Podol. The priest of that church, Glagolev, was the son of the priest
saw tens of thousands of bodies. The prisoner Gayevsky went mad.
who testified in the Beylis Trial.* Glagolev permitted Pasichny's
Since the bodies had been lying in the ground for a long time, they
*Mendel Beylis was a Kievan Jew who was falsely accused of having murdered a
had fused together and had' to be separated with poles. From 4:00
Russian boy in 1913 for a religious ritual. He was acquired. (J.G.)
A.M. till late at night Vladimir Davydov and his comrades labored
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in Babi Yar. The Germans forced the prisoners to burn what was
left of the bodies. Thousands of bodies were heaped on stacks of
firewood and soaked with petrol. Enormous fires burned day and
night. More than seventy thousand bodies were fed to the fire. The
Germans forced the prisoners to grind up the remaining bones
with large rollers, mix them with sand, and scatter them in the
surrounding areas, During this terrible labor Himmler, the head of
the Gestapo, came to inspect the quality of the work.
On September 28, 1943, when the destruction of the evidence
was almost completed, the Germans ordered the prisoners to heat
up the ovens again. The prisoners realized that they themselves
were to be murdered. The Germans wanted to kill and then burn
up the last living witnesses. Davydov had found a pair of rusty
scissors in the pocket of a dead woman, and he used them to unlock
his leg irons. The other prisoners followed suit. At dawn on Sep-
tember 29, 1943 - exactly two years after the mass murder of
Kiev's Jews - Germany's new victims rushed from their earthen
bunkers toward the cemetery wall with a shout of "Hurrah!"
Caught totally by surprise by the sudden escape, the SS men failed
to open fire immediately with their machine guns. They did kill
280 persons. Vladimir Davydov and eleven other persons managed
to climb the wall and escape. They were harbored by residents of
Kiev's suburbs. Later Davydov was able to leave Kiev and lived in
the village of Varovichi.
Not all the bodies were burned, and not all the bones were
ground up; there were too many of them. Anyone who comes to
Babi Yar - even now - will see fragments of skulls, bones mixed
with coals. He might find a shoe with a decayed human foot,
slippers, galoshes, rags, scarves, children's toys. And he will see the
castiron grates ripped from the cemetery fence. It was this fence
that provided the grates on which the exhumed bodies of the
murdered were heaped for burning in those terrible September
days of 1941.
This article is based on documental materials and testimony of Kievans.
Prepared for publication by Lev Ozerov.
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promising to get full revenge.
On September 27 and 28, new posters appeared on the
houses in Kiev in two languages, in Russian and Ukrainian:
WE MUST NOT FORGET
"Jews of Kiev and suburbs: on Monday, September 28th at
9 a.m., you have to appear with all your belongings, money,
documents, jewelry and warm clothes at Dorogoshotskoy
Street near the Jewish cemetery. For failure to appear - death.
For hiding the jews - death. For occupying Jewish homes -
The German army entered Kiev on September 19, 1941.
death."
There was no signature on the poster condemning 70,000
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The same day they started to rob stores and arrest people at
random, putting them in large, heavy trucks and taking them
people to death. This was how the mass executions at Babi Yar
out of town somewhere; nobody from those arrested returned
started. This was the beginning of the slaughter of six million
home. The Jews lived in anguish all the time, day and night. The
Jews.
Germans jeered and bullied Jews, ordering them to dance in the
At dawn September 29th, the Jews of Kiev from all com-
middle of the street, beating them severely and finally forcing
ers of the city started to move slowly, in the direction of the
them to load heavy chests on the trucks. Those unable to work
Jewish cemetery, at Lukyanovka, in the vicinity of Babi Yar.
fast were again beaten with rubber clubs.
Many believed that this was only an evacuation to small pro-
Life in Kiev became intolerable. The Nazis seized homes
vincial towns, but others believed that Babi Yar meant death.
and property, plundered whatever they liked and took the
Many preferred to commit suicide. Many families baked bread
residents away to unknown places. On September 22, 1941,
for the journey and sewed special traveling sacks. Supporting
the Germans intensified the beating of the Jews on the city
each other, old men and women rented small two-wheeled cars.
streets, in open markets and anywhere they could find Jews.
Mothers held youngsters in their arms or pulled little strollers.
The Gestapo arrested Jews in masses, and after checking their
People walked loaded with bags, suit cases, and boxes with
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passports they took them to the police station or the Gestapo
children alongside their parents. Teenagers left everything
headquarters, killing them on the spot. The same day, on each
at home. Elderly people took as much as they could. Many were
street corner, posters in Ukrainian announced that communists,
supported by their grandchildren. The paralyzed and sick were
commisars and partisans would be exterminated. For each com-
carried on stretchers, on blankets and linen sheets.
munist or partisan, an award of 200 rubles was offered, but the
Thousands of people marched in one big stream from early
Germans were killing not only communists and partisans On
in the morning till late at night. On the sidewalks stood police-
the third day of the German occupation, the Dniepr River was
men and soldiers. The procession of death went on for three
full of men's, women's and children's bodies.
days. People were walking, stopping, embracing each other si-
On Friday evening, September 26th, and Saturday the
lently, parting, praying The city became silent. To Lvov
27th, Jews who went to synagogue never returned home. The
street, like rivers to the sea, poured crowds from Pavlova Street,
Nazis with the help of the Ukrainian police surrounded the
from Dimitrevski, Nekrasovski After Lvov Street began Mel-
synagogues and took the Jews away. A few days later more
nus Street, then an open deserted road and a ravine with steep
bodies were thrown into the river together with the Jewish
slopes.
prayer books and little sacks with religious objects. For six
This was Babi Yar. We heard a swelling murmur mixed
evenings the sky was illuminated by gigantic fires. Kreschatik
with moans and sobs. Under open skies there was set an official
was burning. The Nazis accused the Jews of setting the fires,
area with long tables. In front of them were long lines of the
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103
doomed. Those at the gate, at the end of the street, could not
were placed machine guns. The Nazis watched the P.O.W.'s
see the tables. From time to time a group of 30-40 people,
all the time, day and night.
accompanied by armed soldiers, were "registering"; all docu-
On September 19, 1943, the prisoners of war, under
ments and jewelry were removed. Documents were left on the
armed escort, went to Babi Yar. Only then they understood
ground. In a short time the whole area was full of piles of pass-
their job: to dig up the bodies of the Jews shot in September
ports, union cards, papers.
1941. Removing the earth, they found thousands of bodies.
The Nazis ordered people to undress completely: men,
This dreadful picture made some of the prisoners of war insane.
women, children, old folks; there were no exceptions. Clothes
The corpses entwined together had to be separated with forks.
were sorted and put neatly in place. From naked people, men
From 4 o'clock in the morning till late at night, 300 prisoners
and women, rings were forcibly removed. In groups of 30-40
of war worked at Babi Yar without stop, burning the bodies.
people, the executioners placed them on the edge of a deep
On each row of wood they put two thousand corpses and
ravine and shot point blank. Bodies fell. Little children were
poured on gasoline. Gigantic bonfires burned day and night,
pushed down alive. Many, approaching the place of execution,
burning 70,000 corpses. This hellish work lasted ten days. The
lost their minds. This went on for three days, three terrible
Nazis then forced the prisoners to smash the remaining bones,
days.
to mix them with sand and spread the ashes around. To inspect
The Nazis and police, after the first killings in Babi Yar,
the results, Heinrich Himmler, SS chief, came from Berlin.
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began looking for new victims. Hundreds of Jews, who escaped
On September 28, 1943, when the work was finished, the
the Babi Yar killing, met death in their own apartments, in the
Nazis ordered new bonfires to be started. The prisoners of war
river Dniepr, in the ravines of Pecherska and Demiovka or were
understood that this was their last day. The Nazis now planned
shot on the street. The Germans thoroughly searched the docu-
to kill and burn the witnesses of their bestiality. But the pri-
ments of all remaining people, especially these who looked like
soners were aware of their destiny from the beginning and
Jews. Suspects were killed arbitrarily. The police ripped floors,
prepared to run away. They accumulated a lot of iron, scissors
checking basements and caves; suspected places such as garrets,
and knives, and, helping each other, they removed their chains.
attics and flues, were blocked with cement.
At dawn, on September 29, 1943, exactly two years after the
Yet. a few Jews saved their lives by running away from
mass execution of the Jews from Kiev, they ran away from their
Babi Yar. Fate saved their lives to give humanity testimony
huts in different directions. At first, the SS were confused and
of witnesses, the truth of people returning from hell. One of
bewildered by the sudden escape, but soon began using machine
these was Dina Mironovna Pronicheva, whose testimony ap-
guns and killed 280 men. These were the last victims of Babi
pears in this Memorial Book.
Yar. Only 12 prisoners survived, 12 witnesses of the last Babi
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When the Red Army was approaching Dniepr River two
Yar tragedy. But. not exactly 50.
years later, an order came from Berlin to the Nazi command:
When the war ended, the Jews from Kiev started return-
"Destroy the bodies of the Jews killed at Babi Yar. Cover
ing from the front and from evacuation. With their heads down,
all traces of this action." In the autumn of 1943, the Nazis
they came to Babi Yar to pay tribute to their relatives and
foresaw the retreat from the USSR and tried to destroy all
friends who had lost their lives because of Hitler's monsters. At
traces of the mass killing at Babi Yar. On August 18, 1943,
that time, in the first days of liberation of the city of Kiev,
the Nazis selected from the camp in Syretzk 300 prisoners
they could see skulls and bones mixed with earth, a shoe with
of war, fettered them in chains, and sent them under strict
rotted human fiesh, children's sandals, galoshes, toys. They
convoy of SS officers to Babi Yar. They were housed in spe-
also saw iron bars, dug out of the nearby Jewish cemetery,
cial previously prepared huts near Babi Yar. Around the huts
used for ovens to burn the corpses. Here you could see people
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who lost their minds, crying constantly and calling somebody
Yiddish or Hebrew inscription, there immediately appeared
Others silently prayed Kaddish Many fell to the ground
some youngsters who confiscated the wreaths. Those who tried
saturated with blood of their dear relatives and friends, and
to put a Jewish inscription on the stone were arrested and on
cried, cried, cried.
the same day sentenced to 10-15 days in prison for "hooliga-
Every year on the 29th of September, hundreds and thou-
nism." The author of this account was sent to jail in Lukyanov
sands of people come here, regardless of weather, to pay tribute
to a dark stingy cell together with drunkards and ruffians.
to the dead. They come in deep silence, afraid to talk. All of
Once,a few men tried at one of these meetings to put
them want a monument erected for the Jewish victims of Babi
candles over the wreaths. Quickly official helpers grabbed the
Var. Some of them have tried to collect signatures on petition
candles and trampled them on the floor. And,again, ews were
to the proper authorities to get permission to do this at their
jailed for "disturbing the peace."
own cost. But many visits and interventions with various of-
The official stone remained for twenty years, when finally,
fices have been fruitless. "We will erect such a monument of
under the pressure of foreign public opinion, the authorities
our own," they decided
were forced to erect a monument. But somehow from many
Once, when there was a great crowd, a spontaneous meet-
outstanding expressive phrases only the following words were
ing was organized. There were angry speeches by the well-
chosen: "Here about 100 thousand Soviet citizens were killed
known Russian writer Victor Nekrasov, the Ukrainian jour-
at the hands of German occupiers in 1941."
Again, not a word about Jews. The word "Jew" frightens
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malist Ivan Dziura, and the Jewish journalist Yehil Hirman.
Everyone spoke in his native language. This was the first and
and irritates Soviet leaders. Yet this place where the monument
the last meeting in Babi Yar where people said exactly what
stands. became a holy place visited all year around by thousands
they thought.
of visitors to honor the memory of innocent old and young,
The next day the speakers were called to the headquar-
men and women, killed only because they were Jews. And this
ters of the Communist Party and warned stemly about such
place will remain sacred forever.
activities in the future. The government had decided to convert
Babi Yar into an amusement park with a platform for dances
A. MYASTKIVKER
and a playground for children. This was the greatest blasphermy.
But thousands of strong protests compelled the authorities to
abandon this crazy idea. Finally, after twenty years, on the pla-
ce where the mass shooting took place, a huge stone was instal-
led with the following inscription: 'Here will be erected a monu-
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ment for Soviet citizens who perished during the occupation of
the German army in the years 1941-1943." There was not a
word that 70,000 Jews also were killed. To avoid spontaneous
meetings, the government decided to call a meeting every Sep-
tember 29 and, of course, all speeches were written and ap-
proved in advance. Among the orators there was also a Jew,who
denounced the Israeli "aggressors" and their American helpers
in Russian. And, again, not a word about 70,000 Jews killed in
Babi Yar. The authorities permitted visitors to place flowers and
wreaths on the stone, but if somebody wanted to attach a
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holding the woman's dress, trying with his little feet to keep up.
Old and sick women were loaded in farmers' wagons filled up
to the top with sacks and suit-cases. Little children cried;
elderly people, who could hardly follow the crowd, cried
GREETINGS FROM HELL
silently. Russian husbands escorted their Jewish wives, and
Russian wives escorted their Jewish husbands. We marched
from the early morning till late in the evening - three days
in a row...
They call me Dina, Dina Mironovna Wasserman. I was
Appreaching Babi Yar we heard machine guns and terribly
raised in a poor Jewish family, but my upbringing was in the
inhuman cries. ! did not want to tell my mother what was
spirit of the Soviet ideology based on internationalism rather
going on. She was marching silently all the time, but I believe
than nationalism, which could not have any place for any
she realized what was happening. My mother, a medical doctor,
prejudices. So I fell in love with a Russian youth, Nikolai
a pediatrician, was a very intelligent and wise person. When we
Pronichev, whom a married, becoming Dina Mironovna Pro-
entered the gate of the camp, we were ordered to give up all
nicheva, giving my nationality in my passport as Russian. We
our documents and leave all our baggage, especially our jewelry.
lived in love and happiness for some time and 1 gave birth
A German approached my mother and with all his force pulled
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to two children, a boy and a girl. Before the war 1 was an
off the golden ring from her finger. Only then did my mother
artist in the special theatre for the teenagers in Kiev.
speak: Denochka, you are Pronicheva, you are Russian, go back
On the second day of the war, my husband was sent to the
to your little children. Your life is with them." But I could
front line and I remained with my two little children and with
not run away. We were surrounded by German soldiers with
my old, sick mother. On September 19, 1941, Hitler's army
machine guns, by Ukrainian policemen with wild dogs, ready
occupied Kiev and from the very first days started to annihilate
to bite anyone trying to escape. I embraced my mother and
the entire Jewish population. Rumors, passed from one to
with tears in my eyes said:"t cannot leave you alone. I will
another telling us terrible stories of persecution and killings of
stay with you." But she shoved me away, ordering with a
the Jews were confirmed officially a few days later by posters
strong voice, "Go away immediately." 1 went to a table at
placed on each corner:"All Jews from Kiev should come with
which a heavy-set German was checking all documents and I
all their belongings to Babi Yar immediately. Whoever will
said softly:"I am a Russian." He carefully examined my
not obey the order will be killed in the spot."
passport when one of the Ukrainian policemen said:' Do not
We did not have the slightest idea where Babi Yar was,
believe her. We know her well. She is Jewish." The German
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but we understood that nothing good would come of it. I
asked me to wait on one side.
dressed my children, the girl, three years of age, and my boy,
I was shocked to see how every few minutes a group of
five, and took them to my Russian mother-in-law. Then I,with
men, women and children were ordered to disrobe and to stand
my old, sick mother went to the road to Babi Yar following the
on the edge of a long ravine and then were killed by machine
Germans' last order. The Jews by the thousands were on the
guns. 1 saw it with my own eyes, and although I was standing
way to Babi Yar. Alongside us marched an old Jew with a snow
far away from the ravine, I heard terrible cries and children's
white beard, with his tallit and tfilin, praying constantly and
soft voices: Mama, mama." I stood there paralyzed, thinking
reminding me of my beloved father, who used to pray the same
how could people be treated worse than animals and brutally
way. In front of me was marching a young woman with two
killed for the only crime that they were Jewish. Suddenly I
children in both her arms. A third child, a little older, was
fully realized that the fascists were not human beings but wild
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animals. I saw a young naked woman feeding a naked baby
the air coming. When it became absolutely silent, dead silent,
with her breast, when a Ukrainian policeman grabbed the
I brushed away the sand from my eyes and my body and with
infant and threw it into the ravine. The woman tried to save
all my force started to climb from the huge hole.
her baby, running toward the child, but she was killed instant-
I was among thousands and thousands of inert corpses
ly. This I saw with my own two eyes." would never believe
and I became terribly frightened. Here and there the earth was
that this could happen. How can anyone believe it?
moving some of the buried were still alive. I was looking
The German who ordered me to wait guided me to a high
at myself and 1 was terrified. My thin nightgown, which covered
ranking officer and showing him my passport said: 'This woman
my naked body, was red from blood. I tried to get up. but I
claims to be Russian, but one of the Ukrainian policemen
was very weak. I started talking to myself:" Dina, gel up, run
knows her to be a Jewish woman." The officer examined my
away, run to your children", and with all my might I started
passport for a long while and in a harsh tone said:" Dina is
to run when suddenly I heard shots. I fell down pretending
not a Russian name. You are Jewish. Take her away." The
to be killed. After a long while I started to run again in the
policeman ordered me to undress and pushed me towards
direction of a huge mountain surrounding the huge ravine.
a hole where a new group was awaiting their destiny. But before
Suddenly I felt some movement behind me and was frightened,
the shots were fired, probably from great fear, I jumped into
but after a while I turned around and heard: "Tetenka. Do not
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the hole on top of dead bodies.
be afraid. They call me Fema. My family name is Shneiderman.
In the beginning, B could not realize what was going on.
I am eleven years old. Take me with you. 1 am very much afraid
Who I am? How did I reach the hole? I thought that I lost
of darkness." I came nearer to the boy. I embraced him whole-
my senses, but when a new wave of human bodies started
heartedly and I cried softly and the boy pleaded:* Do not
to fall down into the hole 1 suddenly understood the whole
cry, tetenka."
situation with sharp clarity. I started to examine my arms,
We started to move in deep silence, trying to reach the
legs and my entire body just to make sure that I was not woun-
end of the ravine, helping each other, finally reaching the very
ded at all, and I remained motionless, like a dead person.
top of the huge hole. But when we started to run we heard
I was surrounded by dead and gravely wounded people, when
shots again and we fell down to the ground, afraid to say a
I suddenly heard a baby's cries:' "Mamochka." It sounded like
word. After a long while I embraced the boy asking him how
my own little daughter and I cried bitterly, not able to move.
he felt, but he did not answer. In the deep darkness I started
I still heard, from time to time, machine guns and bodies
to check his arms, legs, his head. He was motionless - there was
falling one on top of the other. I tried with all my force to
no sign of life. I lifted myself to look into his face. He was
push aside the falling corpses to have enough air to breathe, but
lying with his eyes closed. I tried a few times to open his eyes,
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doing this at long intervals, not to be noticed by the policemen
then I understood that the boy was dead. Most probably the
standing outside the huge hole.
shot I heard a few minutes earlier had finished his life forever.
Then, in time, everything stopped and there was absolute
I kissed the cold little body, lifted myself with all my strength
silence. The Germans were checking the big hole, shooting
and started to run as fast as 1 could, leaving behind me this
from time to time, when they noticed some movement, killing
horrible place called Babi Yar. I permitted myself to stand
the badly wounded but still-alive victims. On top of me was a
straight to my full height and suddenly I noticed in the darkness
body of a man, and although he was very heavy, I somehow
a little house. A cold chill penetrated my whole body but I
supported him till the Germans passed this part of the big hole.
overcame my fear and I silently approached the window,
Then suddenly I saw the earth falling down around me. I will
knocking delicately. A half sleepy voice of a woman asked:
be buried alive! I closed my eyes holding my arms high to keep
"Who is there? What do you want?" 1 answered:"I just ran
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110
away from Babi Yar," and 1 heard an angry voice: Go away
I said good-bye to my savior and walked to Darnitza
immediately. I do not want to know you." And I went running
where I reached one of my best friends, Natalya, with whom 1
as fast as I could.
worked in the theater. It took quite a while till Natasha recog-
As it was getting lighter, I was afraid to be caught by the
nized me. She asked me to take off my clothes and take a
Germans. I approached another house, knocking at the door
good rest, but I felt from the beginning some coolness and
softly. An old woman opened the door and seeing me in my
strangeness. As soon as we finished our meal, she said:" Dina,
bloody nightgown, she became panicky and shouted: Who are
I have to be very frank with you and to warn you that you
you? Where are you from?" I answered:' Do not be afraid, I am
cannot stay here long. My husband, Andrey, has deserted from
not a devil. I am a human being." And here for the first time
the Russian army, and is full of hatred toward the Soviet go-
in my life I lied, saying:"I am a Ukrainian who went with my
vernment and the Jews, who created this form of government.
best friend to Babi Yar. 1 ran away to save my life." The old
I am afraid that he will denounce you; you better go away."
woman took me inside, helped me to wash my dirty body,
And so 1 went
gave me a clean nightgown, a skirt, blouse and an old pair
Outside it started to rain; and standing under a tree, 1
of shoes. 1 looked at myself, wondering: 'This is a real Ukrai-
began to think of what to do next. Where to go? All my Ukrain-
nian." The old woman also gave me a glass of hot milk, a large
ian and Russian friends lived far away, in center city, and I
piece of homebaked black bread and told me to rest. After I
would not have enough time to reach them before curfew.
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finished my simple meal, ! embraced her tightly and we both
The rain came down harder and harder. On the other side of
cried bitterly After drying her eyes with her apron, she said:
the street, I noticed a large poster with huge letters: "Whoever
"Daughter mine, I know exactly who you are, but we all are
gives shelter to the communists and the Jews will be shot on
God's children. I hope that my good deed will bring back
the spot." I crossed the street and noticed alongside the official
my son who is now at the front. But you cannot stay here
poster a small piece of gray paper with an ad:"An elderly
because the policemen and their wild dogs are searching our
person will give shelter and free meals for helping to run the
houses every day. They are looking for Jews because they are
household." 1 grabbed the paper with the address on it and after
being paid to turn them in. Rest a little and then try to reach
two hours of wandering I finally found a little old hut, far from
our lines. God shall guide you and be with you always."
human eyes. This was what I was looking for. I knocked at the
I felt very relaxed and realized that there are people
door a few times and finally decided to open it. In the corner
ready to help others. The old woman prepared a sofa-bed for
of the room I noticed an old man in bed, covered with few
me and covered me with a blanket. She left the house and I
blankets. It was dark, rough and cold
fell asleep. But I could not sleep long, having terrible night-
"Who came in?" asked the old man.
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mares, seeing vividly all of yesterday's madness. I could still
"I read your note."
hear shots and from far away soft cries of little children. Who
"All right, but where do you come from?"
knows where my children are? Did my mother-in-law save
Now I lied again. "I am from a nearby village called
them? But there was no time to think about that. I began
Andeyevka. The Germans destroyed our house and killed my
thinking about the old, honest woman, who could be an inno-
family. I came to the city and here I read your announcement
cent victim for helping me. I decided to move again. Looking
and came."
in a mirror I saw the face of an old woman, with completely
"What do they call you?" asked the old man more loudly.
gray hair. I put soot on my face to look older and covered
"They call me Maria, Marinka."
my head with a scarf exactly as it is done by old Ukrainian
"So take the matches from the table and light the lamp,
women.
and then we will drink tea. Be a housekeeper. We have enough
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food till the next harvest. Go down to the basement and you
his arms. I let him in as quickly as possible, explaining to the
will find potatoes, cabbage, carrots, groats. In the hallway you
old man that these were the children of my younger sister,
will find a goat. Take good care of her and we will have fresh
who was killed during the bombardment.
milk every day. I am old and sick and have no family. Every-
"Nu, nu," said the old man, "Let them stay with us.
thing will be yours when I pass away."
They will eat what we eat, they will not disturb us." After
I thought that the same God mentioned by the old woman
feeding my children, I put them to bed and walked out from
who saved my life brought me to this house and to this old
the hut with my husband. Standing at the porch he told me that
man. First of all, I completely covered the only window in the
he had run away from a German concentration camp and
little hut, lighted the lamp and started to heat a tea-pot full
that that morning two policemen accompanied by two German
of water. Then I served the old man a glass of hot, sweet tea.
soldiers had searched their house. They knew that the chil-
I sipped slowly my glass of tea, enjoying it enormously. The
dren were Jewish because of their Jewish mother, and they
tea had the taste of a strong and sweet wine.
even knew about my recent visit with the children. They
Thus I became the housekeeper of this little hut. My fluent
wanted to take the children away, but he asked them to wait
Ukrainian and my behavior convinced all our neighbors that I
another day, when their mother was expected to visit the
was a farmgirl. On the third day of my new role as a house-
children again, so they would then have both: the mother and
keeper I asked the old man for permission to go to town, hop-
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the children. "As soon as they left," continued Nikolay, "I
ing to find some relatives from my village and basically to find
grabbed some clothes for the children and brought them to
out what had happened to my two small children. With the
you." Nikolay and I both wept. Then he tried to calm me
greatest caution I left the hut, trying to avoid my neighbors,
down. When it got darker we parted and Nikolay went back to
and after reaching the town, I went straight to my mother-in-
his mother. ! cried through whole night long, thinking only how
law's house. She was not at home. I found my children and
to save the children.
crushed them to me. Tears flowed profusely. When my mother-
Three days passed by and my mother-in-law came to us
in-law returned home she was astonished to see me alive. She
again. This time she told me that when Nikolay returned home
was sure I had been killed together with my mother at Babi
he had to face two policemen and a German soldier who deman-
Yar. She called me to the kitchen and said:"Get out of here
ded to know where the children were hiding. When he refused
immediately. The police were here already twice, but 1 convin-
to disclose the place, they took him out to the street, called all
ced them that these children belonged to my younger sister,
the neighbors and killed him instantly. One policeman said:
who was killed during the last bombardment." I kissed my
"This is nothing. We will find the Zhidovka with her offshoots
little children and returned to the old man, leaving my address
and we will kill them like dogs.". This was how my husband,
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and asking my mother-in-law to bring the children to me in
Nikolay Pronichev, an honest Russian, the father of my child-
case of an emergency.
ren, was killed.
After a few days my mother-in-law came to me and said:
A few days later, the old man passed away. The supply of
"Do not come to us anymore. One of our neighbors saw you
food, which was supposed to last to the new harvest, was almost
coming out from our house and recognized you."
gone, and I started to think about any kind of work to save
Two weeks passed, and I was afraid to find out what was
the children. I was lucky enough to get a dishwasher's job in
going on and how my children were. One more week passed
one of the restaurants. Every day after work I brought two
by, then on a rainy Sunday afternoon somebody knocked at the
plates of hot soup to keep the children alive. A few days passed
window. When I pulled aside the curtain, I almost fainted.
by when the restaurant manager called me to his office. He told
There was my husband Nikolay, holding our two children in
me that he knew of my work in the theater for teenagers and
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knew that I was a Jew. "It will be better for you," finished the
up together with your children, and this means kaput . I will
manager, "if you stop coming to us." His voice was rather
take you in my car wherever you want to go. The time is
sympathetic, but I lost the soup and bread, which the child-
short. Let's go!"
ren expected to receive every evening. I was in despair. I did
Where to go? Who will accept me with two small child-
not think so much of myself, but what will happen to the child-
ren? But Albert would not let me think too long. He put me
ren? To look for another job was almost impossible facing all
and the children in the car and also some food, and we started
these questions: Who are you? Where de you come from?"
on the road to Belaya Tserkov, where a close friend, also an
And I did not have a passport The only official document in
artist from the theater for teenagers, lived. When we arrived
my possession was my union card, which I had found some
there she was not home and nobody knew how to reach her.
time ago in my mother-in-law's house.
Albert took us to a Volksdeutsch and told him that we were
But God to whom the old woman prayed, when I ran
his very good friends and that every Sunday he would visit
away from Babi Yar, was extremely good to me. It is impos-
us, bringing with him a lot of food. Albert then said good-bye
sible to explain how, within the next two days, I got a job as
to us and left.
a dishwasher in an exclusive cafe for Germans only. And we
This ends the story, which I heard from Dina Mironovna
lived again. ! collected all the food from the tables left by
Pronicheva, who ran away from Babi Yar on September 29,
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the Germans in a large saucepan, which was very handy, and
1941, and remained alive by a miracle. Actually this was not
the children were satisfied. And then, something happened to
the end of her story. For two days in a row, she told me what
me, which is very hard to describe. A high ranking German
she went through during the German occupation. On the third
officer, a very nice fellow, started to court me. In spite of my
day of this terrible story of a woman-hero, who succeeded in
many efforts to stay away from him, I was more afraid of
saving her two youngsters, she collapsed and was taken to a
him than of my death. He started to accompany me on my way
hospital, from which she never returned. In a casket she looked
home, and I was terribly afraid to be seen with him on the
like a young, beautiful girl - the skillful work of the make-up
street. Once he came to me late in the evening, bringing with
man from the theater for teenagers in Kiev. Hundreds of friends)
him bread, canned food and a huge piece of pork. He started
paid tribute to this wonderful woman, among them her daugh-
to visit us very often, always bringing something to eat. The
ter and son with their children. Dina was the last victim of Babi
children loved him very much, because he played with them
Yar. She was buried according to her wishes, in a Jewish ceme-
and amused them. But 1 was very much afraid of him, and
tery.
he felt my resistance. In time I found out that he was called
Dina Mironovna could not tell me all the details hound-
Albert and once he said: Do not be afraid of me. I am not like
ed not only by the Germans but Ukrainians, to the point
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the other Germans. I am entirely different. You may believe
of madness. Throughout the German occupation she felt like
me." And I did believe him. He continued his frequent visits
a hunted animal, facing threats all the time.
and gifts of food, even sweets for the children. I never asked
She did not have enough time to tell us how she was a
him where he got all this food. He became a friend of the fami-
witness in court at a trial of German officers involved in the
ly and a very dear friend to the children.
Babi Yar slaughter. She recognized the Nazi general who had
But this idyllic life soon came to an end. Once Albert ar-
carefully examined her passport and said:" Dina is a Jewish
rived in his old car and said: Marinka, collect the children as
name. Take her away!"
quickly as possible and go with me. Somebody denounced you
In spite of him she remained alive. In spite of him she
to our headquaters saying that you are not a Ukrainian but
was standing with her two rescued children in a cold autumn
a Jew. I did not know this. Tonight they will come to pick you
day in 1944 on the Kalinin Plaza in Kiev where German murde-
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rers, who shot 70,000 Jews, were hanged. Among the hanged
Germans was the general who gave the order to kill Dina Pro-
nicheva for the crime of being a Jew.
Dena Pronicheva's story is a living account from the
FLOWERS AND TEARS
hell that she lived through.
Shimon KIPNIS
It happened that on April 11, 1972, in Kiev, we learned
through a foreign broadcast that a day had been set aside to
memorialize the murder of six million Jews who had been
killed by the fascist monsters. We reflected: how shall we, the
Jews of Kiev, participate in this commemoration? Where shall
we go, where assemble, when, in 2 city of 300,000 Jews, there
is no Yiddish cultural center or Jewish club? The best place, we
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finally decided, to pay tribute to the Jewish victims would be
the very place of their annihilation: Babi Yar.
One day, later that month, from all corners of the city,
people came in family groups and pairs, silently, with their
heads lowered, fresh flowers in their hands. At the ravine of
Babi Yar, they placed their flowers and wreaths on the earth
drenched with the blood of families and friends. Silently they
wept. No one spoke. Each knew what the others were suffering.
And people kept coming to Babi Yar, like an endless stream.
Caught by surprise, the authorities were apprehensive
and sent police to the area. Quickly they began to disperse the
mourners. Nor did the "guardians of order" hesitate to use
force. Ten couples were picked at random and pushed into
police cars. The others dispersed. But on the empty ground at
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Babi Yar rose a mountain of flowers, washed by human tears -
a presence the police could not destroy.
Among the arrested, in addition to my wife and myself,
were the electrical engineer Lazar Slucky and his wife and sis-
ter, the geo-physicist Samuel Nurenberg, the military engineer
(Reserve Major) Michael Nayshtil, printer Isaak Kaplun, and
a young tool-maker from the Artema factory, Igor Ingerman.
They brought us to the police station, threw us into a cell, and,
as usual, started the questioning late at night. We were accused
of "trampling the lawn at Babi Yar," - an absurd charge. We
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did not trample lawns not only because of our upbringing, but
given a formal document describing in detail our crimes. Now,
because there were no lawns, not even plain grass at Babi Yar
when 1 read it (see photocopy), I saw black spots before my
due to the late spring.
eyes. The charge was not only of "trampling the lawn" at Babi
Of course, we refused to admit to this terrible "crime,"
Yar, but of "trying to destroy the lives of members of the po-
but the magistrate was not interested in our testimony. He had
lice." I understood that this document would be kept in the So-
received an order and meant to obey it. An official accusation
viet files and some day it could be used against me for a more
was speedily prepared and we were transferred under strict
severe punishment. I refused to sign my name, The guard ex-
guard to the court of the Shevchenko district of Kiev. The
plained that a full investigation and clarification would take
"trial" was conducted by one judge without a jury, but with
a few days. Meanwhile, I would have to return to the cell.
two "witnesses" - two policemen who confirmed the accusa-
However, i was fully aware that on the other side of the door,
tions: trampling on the lawn. The court procedure was swift,
my wife and children were waiting for me. I cursed the official
Three women had to pay a fine, but the men were sentenced
demands, and signed my name, took the document and went
to from 10 to 15 days in jail. Those who served in the war
out to an ambiguous freedom.
received a sentence of 10 days; the rest, 15. From the court-
room, the men were transferred to the Lukyanovska prison
Shimon KIPNIS
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where our hair was cut short. We were put into a small dark
and dirty cell already occupied by 18 drunkards and hooligans.
In this stinking cell there was nothing but two rows of wooden
beds and a bucket. No mattresses, no pillows, no blankets
Early in the morning we were given some soup for break-
fast and then sent outside to work, but after a while, those of
us accused of the crime of trampling the lawn were returned to
the cell. Perhaps the government was afraid of our anti-Soviet
propaganda. Once back in the cell, I had the opportunity to
learn more about my immediate comrades. I knew, of course,
that they were innocent. Beyond that, I could not help obser-
ving their lack of knowledge of Jewish history, so I decided to
introduce them to several classics of Jewish literature: Mendele
Mocher Sforim, Sholem Aleichem, Peretz. I told them a little
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about the Soviet Jewish writers who had been killed during
Stalin's Black Years: Itzik Fefer, Dovid Hofshteyn, Leib Kvit-
ko, Peretz Markish, David Bergeison, and many others whom I
knew personally. But the lack of fresh air finally took its toll
and we proclaimed a hunger strike. We would go to work only
if we had fresh air to breathe. We put our grievances on paper
in the prescribed form and gave it to the officials. Eventually,
we returned to work.
After ten full days and nights in prison, five of us were
released after signing our names to a huge document and being
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the vase higher, he continued:"It you examine the earth careful-
ly, you will find shoelaces from a shoe belonging to little
Sarele who was struck down together with her mother. Look
A CRYSTAL VASE OF EARTH
carefully and you will see tears streaming down an old woman's
FROM BABI YAR
face. Look deeply and you will see your father praying 'Sh'ma
Yisroel' with his eyes raised to the sky, waiting for rescue from
a good angel. Listen carefully and you will hear the thunder of
the guns in the hands of the heroes of the Warsaw Ghetto fight-
For months after the liberation of Kiev, there remained
ing the fascist murderers. Listen intently and you will hear the
many traces of the war: walls left naked from burnt-out houses,
chant of the martyrs deported from the ghettos as they were
deep holes from bomb blasts, and pale, emaciated people, still
marched to the death camps: Never say that this is your last
afraid they might see a fascist face. As yet, there was no elec-
road." Look further and you will see that the earth is soaked
tric power and the city remained dark. Kreshchatnik, the most
with blood, the earth is trembling It is the last breathing of
beautiful part of the city, seemed to me like an abandoned
our martyrs who gave their lives for us, for you, my friends,
from the Kiev State Jewish Theatre, so that we may continue
cemetery.
our work for our Jewish nation, our Jewish culture, our Jewish
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In the spring after liberation, however, there was a busy
and bright spot: the theatre of musical operettas, where survi-
language."
vors of the war planned to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the
Mikhoels then picked up a handful of earth from the vase
Jewish Theatre of Kiev. (This theatre had been moved to Cher-
and continued:"! brought you a vase of earth from Babi Yar.
Throw in the seeds of flowers. They will bloom as symbol of
novitz and was never returned to Kiev because it was destroy-
ed by Soviet authorities in Chernovitz together with all leading
the new flowering of the Jewish people whom Hitler sought to
figures in Jewish cultural life.) For the first time since the end
annihilate and obliterate from the face of the globe. In spite
of the war, we had the opportunity to hear voices in Yiddish.
of him, we live and will continue to live, We, the Jewish artists,
From Moscow arrived a delegation from its Jewish Theatre un-
no matter whom we represent: Tevye the Milkman, Shimele
der the leadership of the great Yiddish actor and director Shlo-
Soroker, Hirsch Leckert or Bar-Kochba, we will always have
mo Mikhoels. They had come to greet their fellow artists and
before us this sample of Babi Yar earth, which calls to us and
Jews in Kiev. There were many heartfelt speeches, but the most
demands of us, despite our enemies, that we continue to live
forever."
impressive was the speech of Mikhoels, which I will remember
to the last day of my life.
Thirty-seven years have passed by and the inspiring words
XEROX 7020->
With swift steps, Mikhoels walked to the podium holding
of the great Shiomo Mikhoels are still with me, with the same
vividness
a crystal vase in both hands. Everyone wondered why the vase
was full of some black substance instead of flowers, but it be-
Shimon KIPNIS
came clear as soon as he began to speak. "Before coming here,"
be said, "to greet our friends and artists from the Jewish Theat-
re of Kiev, we bought this crystal vase and went to Babi Yar. We
filled up the vase with earth from Babi Yar, the same earth
which heard the cries of our fathers and mothers, brothers
and sisters, the little children, boys and girls who never grew
up, who perished at the hands of the fascist beasts." Raising
;#25
122
123
I SAW THIS WITH
KILLED TOGETHER
MY OWN EYES
WITH THE PRIEST.
My father was sent to the front, and 1, with my mother
and sister, Liza, were sent to Babi Yar. I am reminiscing with
I still see them: Rose Kogut and her Russian husband,
horrer over the few terrible hours I was there and saw every-
Peter, and the two beautiful girls, who did not succeed in run-
thing with my own eyes. To the last day of my life I will not
ning away from Kiev.
forget the terror and fear. In the turmoil I lost my mother and
Peter's father, a priest from the Andreyevsky cloister in
my sister, but suddenly, somehow I was seized with a strong
Kiev, hid them in a perfectly camouflaged place for several
urge to save myself. I ran to the German, standing at an opening
months, until one of the parishioners denounced them to the
and explained in German that I was a Ukrainian who was
Germans.
accompanying a Jewish girlfriend. He believed me and... let me
The murderers, seeing that the priest was hiding Jews,
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go!
transported him together with Rose, her husband and the two
Once free, I started to think what to do next, and where
children to Babi Yar, where all were killed instantly. Honor
to go. Instinctively, I ran back to my home, but the janitor told
to a noble priest, who was helping Jews and paid with his life
the police that I had run away from Babi Yar. But, thank God,
for it!
I succeeded in running away from my persecutors. By good
fortune I met a girl, Rose, who also had run away from Babi
Raya PAVLOVSKAYA
Yar. Together we tried to reach the front line and after a few
Los Angeles, California
weeks, full of unbelievable obstacles and danger, we finally
achieved our objective.
Forty one years have passed by and I cannot forget that
terrible day, when my mother and dear sister were killed. Their
only crime was that they were Jewish.
I was extremely happy to learn that somewhere far away
XEROX 7020->
from us, on the other side of the ocean, there are people trying
to memorialize our relatives and friends who were killed in
Babi Yar. Please, inscribe in your Book of Remembrance the
names of my mother, Batasheva Riva, 36 years old, and my
sister, Batasheva Liza, 17 years old.
My deep gratitude and many thanks to all those who are
helping to publish this book.
Genya BATASHEVA
147, Enthusiasts St. 51, Apt. 106
Kiev, USSR
:#26
124
125
Now I will be aware that all of them: my grandfather,
my mother, sisters and brother will be buried symbolically
in a Jewish cemetery in Philadelphia, according to Jewish
tradition.
A LETTER FROM KIEV
Thank you very much, my dear friends!
Maria WEISSBAND
Boulevard Perova 32, Apt. 50
Kiev 125, USSR
I am writing to you from Kiev, from the city where the
terrible tragedy took place. My friends, now residents of Phila-
delphia, informed me that thanks to the initiative of Mr. Shi-
mon Kipnis, a Book of Remembrance of Babi Yar is in the
offing. What a reverent idea! Many thanks to you!
I would appreciate it very much if you would insert in
your book the names of my mother, my sisters, brother and
my grandfather.
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My grandfather, Ushomirski David Yakovlevich, a shoe-
maker, one of the best in his trade, had twelve children; only
eight survived the Holocaust. My grandfather was especially
proud of my mother, Bronislava Davidovna, whom he loved
and adored because, in spite of the fact that she was the
daughter of a very poor Ushomirski, still she managed to
obtain a higher education and became a medical doctor.
When the war started, two of her brothers were mobili-
zed and sent to the front. Many of our relatives were evacu-
ated. We were also planning to leave the city, when my three-
year old brother, Data, became ill with scarlet fever. My mother
hesitated to start a long journey with a sick child.
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After a month, when we brought my brother back from
the hospital, my five-year old sister, Mila, became seriously
sick with the same illness. And yet my grandfather succeeded
in sending my grandmother, one of his daughters, and myself
with the last echelon out of Kiev. He and my mother remained
in the city. He would not leave his most beloved daughter.
And they all perished in Babi Yar.
I am the only living survivor of a large, lovely family, and
every year, on September 29th, I and thousands like myself,
bring fresh flowers to Babi Yar, where the members of my
family were killed, and I cry, and cry, and cry...
;#27
126
127
When we returned to Kiev after the end of the war, we
learned from the neighbors that Meir had rented a horse and
wagon, that he loaded all his belongings and his wife and the
HOW MY DEAR FRIEND RACHEL
children and started a journey - which proved to be very
AND HER HUSBAND MEIR AND
short and ended in Babi Yar. Two policemen grabbed the
little girl: one each leg - tearing her apart. Later they did the
THEIR THREE CHILDREN WERE
same with the other girl and finally with the six-month old
KILLED
Avremele Meir and Rachel tried to save the children but
were both killed. An oncoming Nazi pushed the bodies with
his boot to the gutter, already filled up with many other bodies
My childhood friend Rachel was a beautiful and intelli-
of killed Jews.
gent girl and I loved her like a sister. She and I were married
My best friend Rachel, whom I treated like my sister, her
about the same time and both our families lived with love
stubborn husband Meir and their children: Eta, Milochka and
and respect for each other. But full happiness was marred
Avremele - all perished in Babi Yar.
by the fact that Rachel remained childless and this gradually
in my memory remains the day, when my dearest friends,
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caused her deep concern and jealousy. In my girl-friend's
Rachel and Meir celebrated the birth of their first child.
family there started a deep discord because her husband
expressed many times his desire to have a child. 1 travelled
Eta FURMAN
with Rachel to many famous doctors and even to quacks,
Brooklyn, New York
but as time went by she remained childless. Husband and
wife lived this way for eleven long years and finally in the
twelfth year Rachel gave birth to a girl. As is said in the Torah,
when God blesses somebody, He blesses fully. After a year she
gave birth to another girl, called Milochka The first girl was
given my name - Eta. Another year and a half passed by and
Rachel gave birth to a boy - Avremele.
Only a great writer could describe fully the happiness
and contentment of Rachel and her husband Meir and all of us.
XEROX 7020->
Together with their relatives and friends we joined the family
in their happiness. In March of 1941 Avremele was circumcised
and festivities in the house of Rachel and Meir lasted a full
week.
Everything became chaotic when the war started. I with
my husband and son were evacuated. But Meir did not believe
the many terrible stories about the Nazis in the newly occupied
territories. "They cannot be as bad as they are described,"
claimed Meir. He started to make plans to open a store and to
start a business. All our arguments and Rachel's appeals to leave
Kiev fell on Meir's deaf ears.
#28
128
129
ONE WHO COMMITTED SUICIDE
MY UNCLE DAVID AND HIS
DAUGHTER GOLDA,
When Lipa Resnik, my cousin, returned to Kiev after
In 1921, in the time of the terrible pogroms, my family
the war, he was decorated with medals for his bravery on the
and I fled to America. But in Kiev where I was born, my
front line. But he learned that his entire family, including his
uncle David Tamarkin and his daughter remained. We corres-
wife and two children, had been killed in Babi Yar. He could
ponded with them very often before the Second World War.
not get over this horror and committed suicide.
After the war, we learned that our uncle David and his
daughter Golda perished in Babi Yar. We are very grateful to
Chaya SHWARZMAN
you for trying to collect and put together, in everlasting me-
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Brooklyn, New York
mory, all the names of the victims who perished in Babi Yar.
Esther KAUFFMAN
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
XEROX 7020->
#29
130
131
I CANNOT FORGET MY FATHER
AND NOW THEY ARE COMING TO
ME IN MY NIGHTMARES
I was a year and a half old, when my mother and I left
1, Yasha Kaper, was one of the 300 hundred war prisoners
Kiev. My father, Ephraim Zeilitch, served in the army defend-
who for ten terrible days dug out corpses in Babi Yar and then
ing our country. He and his younger brother Itzik soon ran
burned them to remove all traces of the criminal activities
away from the P.O.W. camp and found shelter under a reof
of the Fascist monsters. We worked from sun-up till late at
of the house of a Russian woman whom they knew for years.
night under the watchful eyes of the SS officers. At night we
But this woman denounced them to the Germans, who came
were locked in small huts, previously prepared especially for
to her house and killed them on the spot. So many years have
US and were fed with watery soup. We understood that we also
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passed by, and I cannot forget this disaster, which stays vivid-
would be killed after finishing our job. The Nazis were not eager
ly before my eyes.
to have living witnesses. We collected keys, knives, hammers
and all kinds of iron and succeeded in splitting the chains and
Fani ADELMAN-ZELDICH
running from the huts. We killed one nearby guard with our
Little Town, New Jersey
hammers and ran in different directions. The outside guard,
as soon as he became aware of our escape, opened machine
gun fire and,yet, fifteen of us remained alive. 1 reached the deep
forest and joined the partisans.
Forty years have passed from this memorable day and I
cannot forget those terrible days and nights, when we were
ordered by Nazis to burn the corpses of men, women and
children. During all these years I have not slept peacefully,
disturbed by terrible nightmares.
XEROX 7020->
Yasha KAPER
Kiev, USSR
:#30
133
132
MY GRANDFATHER'S
MY GRATITUDE
THREE MISTAKES
My grandfather, Chaim Velvl Dubinski, lost his life in Babi
Yar, because of three mistakes during arduous life.
My daughter-in-law, who resides in Philadelphia, informed
His first mistake occurred in 1914 when he refused to join
me of your plan to prepare an Yizkor book with the names of
his father and other children who emigrated to America where
the victims killed at Babi Yar. It is shameful that such a book
the family grew and prospered, making a good living to this
cannot be published in Kiev, where this holocaust took place.
day.
1 will be very grateful to you if you will insert in this book
He made the second mistake in 1937, when we received
the names of my father, Aaron Dukelski, my mother Yellene,
paid-up ship tickets to America, where we could live as free
my sister Mania, and my dearest brother Joseph Yuzik. He arri-
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Americans, but he refused to leave the country, explaining:
ved in Kiev to help evacuate the entire family, but he was too
"My children, we were born here and we will die here."
late, and he was killed together with the others.
It was extremely hard and painful to write these words
The third mistake, which had such a tragic eriding, came
in 1941, when we begged him to run away from Kiev and he
to you, but at the same time 1 am thankful that there is such
repeated again:"I am an old man and the Germans will not
a land and such wonderful people who will not forget the
touch old people."
terribly tragic event experienced by our nation.
This was his last mistake.
Vera DUKELSKA
Kiev, USSR
Leonid LELCHYTSKY
Irvington, New York
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1#31
134
135
MY GREAT GRANDFATHER WAS
111 YEARS OLD
AFTERWORD
I will be very greatful to you if you would include in your
Babi Yar Yizkor Book the name of my great grandfather,
Yosef Slucki, 111 years old, and my great grandmother, 86
years old, whom the Nazis forcibly removed from their home
together with their daughter and grandson - my father - Ben
Very few people knew of Babi Yar until World War II,
Zion Fainitsky. All were shot.
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when on September 29, 1941, a great tragedy occurred there,
Let this Yizkor Book serve as their grave and as our mo-
a monstrous tragedy that is now part of Jewish and general his-
nument.
tory.
There, near the city of Kiev, at Babi Yar, Nazi murderers
Boris FAINITSKY
New Zealand
killed thousands of children, women and old people, hour by
hour, day by day - only because they were Jews!
Jews have suffered greatly during their long history under
the hands of Haman and the Spanish Inquisition, the Chmel-
nitsky massacres and Russian pogroms perpetrated by his
descendants in Kishinev, Odessa, Bialistok and countless other
cities. Jews have also suffered through the ordeals of the Drey-
fus Trial in France and the Beilis Trial in Russia... And now we
add the tragedy in Babi Yar, one of the blackest and horrifying
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in our long history.
Babi Yar not only evokes the blood and tears and torment
of the Jews of Kiev. It is a crime and scandal for all mankind,
a perpetual stain upon its name. We speak of it and remember
it because it is a nadir in history, like Auschwitz, Treblinka,
Maidanek or the Ninth Fort at Kovno. We speak of it because
it is a continual fire in our memory, a cry that comes from the
depths of our heart.
We hope another book will follow this one, to include
additional names of the martyrs who perished at Babi Yar and
:#32
other Russian cities and towns during World War II.
136
©
KADDISH
PRAYER IN MEMORY OF
THE JEWISH MARTYRS
Magnified and sanctified be the
name of God throughout the world
May God be mindful of the souls
which He hath created according to
of all our brothers, departed mem-
His will. May He establish His king-
bers of the house of Israel who sac-
dom during the days of your life
rificed their lives for the sanctifi-
and during the life of all the house
cation of the Holy Name and the
of Israel, speedily, yea, soon; and
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honor of Israel. Grant that their he-
say ye, Amen.
roism and self-sacrificing devotion
May His great name be blessed
find response in our hearts and the
for ever and ever.
purity of their souls be reflected in
Exalted and honored be the
our lives. May their souls be bound
name of the Holy One, blessed be
up in the bonds of eternal life, an
He, whose glory transcends, yea, is
everlasting blessing among us.
beyond all praises, hymns and bless-
Amen.
ings that man can render unto Him;
and say ye, Amen.
May there be abundant peace
XEROX 7020->
from heaven, and life for us and for
all Israel; and say ye, Amen.
May He who establish peace in
the heavens, grant peace unto us
and unto all Israel; and say ye,
Amen.
171
139
;#33
Babi Yar Remembered
By WILLIAM KOREY
C
OURTROOM 214 in the district
ments, was responsible for the shoot-
court building of the West
ing of 33,771 Jews during a 36-hour
German city of Darmstade in
period on September 29-80. 1941. The
Hesse is small and diagy, an unlikely
gas chambers of Auschwitz at the peak
setting for rendering justice in one of
of their effort could not duplicate this
the twentieth century's greatest crimes
feat. During the next swo years, tens
But every Monday and Tuesday for
of thousands more Jews. Russians and
fourteen months, beginning on Octo-
Ukrainians were to be put to death at
ber 2, 1067, three judges sat here and
the same site.
listened to 175 witnesses give testimony
Einsatagruppe c was one of four
concerning eleven (later, after the
"special task forces" organized in May
death of one, ten) defendants Impli-
1941, by Reinhard Heydrich. Chief of
cated in the massacre of Jews at Babi
the Security Police and Security Serv-
Yar. The defendants were also charged
ice, under a directive of Adolf Hitler
with mass killings in other parts of
and Heinrich Himmler. Numbering
the Ukraine-Kharkov, Zhitomir, Ra-
approximately 3,000 men (drawn from
domyal, Lucsk, and Belaya Tserkov.
SS, SD and Gestapo forces, as well as
But Babi Yar was the central focus of
from various police units), the Einsatz-
the trial.
gruppen were to be the principal in-
Chief Judge Vinzenz Paquet made
struments of terror in the Nazi war
it clear that "this is not 2 show trial
machine. Each Einsatagruppe was di-
not an attempt to master the Ger-
vided into special commando groups
man past." But, he added with empha-
(Senderkommandos or Einsatskomman-
six, "there is * historical background."
dos).
involving, at the onset of the Nazi in-
A confidential "Fuehrer Order" was
vasion of Soviet Russia, preparations
given to the assembled leaders of the
for must killing. That "historical back-
Einsatzgruppen and Sonderkommandos
ground" was to be starkly illuminated
at top secret meetings held in Pretzsch,
by the court proceedings. Tugether
Saxony in May, 1941. The "order" was
with other documentation it forms an
not written; it was transmitted orally
objective record of what transpired at
by Major General Streckenbach, Chief
the death ravine of Babi Yar on the
of Personnel of the Reich Security
outskirts of Kiev.
Main Office, in the presence of Hey.
drich. Under the guise of insuring the
I
political security of the conquered Rus-
T
HOOE tried at Darmstedt were mem-
sinn territories, the Einsattgruppen
bers of Einsatsgruppe C, Sonder-
were to liquidate all opposition to the
kommando 4A which had been as
Germans.
signed a special function in the Kiev
First listed for extermination were
area. This unit, numbering some 150
all Jews. Then came the following ca-
men, with the assistance of several
tegories-gypates, the insane, "Aslade
hundred men from two police regi-
inferiors," "asocial people, politically
24
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BABI YAR REMEMBERED
25
tainted persons, and racially and men-
rest of the unit marched in. Final prep-
rally inferior elements," and finally,
arations were made for @ decisive ac-
Communist functionaries. The Impre-
don "carried out exclusively against
cision of the various categories made
Jews with their entire families," as a
curbs on the homicidal operations of
top secret Einsatrgruppen report Te-
the Einsatzgruppen difficult, if not in.
vesied.
possible.
On September 28, some 2,000 notices
An Intimate relationship between
were posted throughout the city:
the Army High Command and the Ein-
satigruppen was worked out in written
All Jews of the city of Kiov and its 40-
form at the end of May, 1941. Each of
virons must appear on the corner of
the Einsatzgruppen Was attached to a
MeInikov and Dokhaurov Streets (be-
major Army group ("C" was detailed
side the cemetery) at 8 A.M. on Sep.
to Army Group South), and extermi-
tember 29, 1941. They must bring their
nation orders required the express ap-
documents, money, valuables, WEITH
proval or the tacit consent of the ap-
clothing, Stc.
propriate commanding general. Indeed,
Jews who fail to obey this order and
the mass shootings were regarded by
are found alsewhere will be shot.
high military officials as a kind of Ro-
All who enter the spartments left by
man spectacle to relieve boredom. As
fews and sake their property will be
the Dermstadt trial makes clear, many
shot.
officers watched the executions from a
nearby bill with fascination.
These notices were printed in Russian,
The hunt for Jews was the first task
Ukrainian and German. (Strange as it
of the Einsaugruppen. It is significant
may. appear, the usually punctilious
to note that the "Fuehrer Order" with
Germans had incorrectly designated
respect to Jews came six months be-
the streets. There was neither a Mel.
fore the infamous decision taken at
nikov Street, nor a Dokhturov Street
Wannsee (January, 1942) to bring about
in Kiev. There was however a Melnik
"the final solution of the Jewish ques-
Street and a Degtyarev Street, the in-
tion." As a high official of the Einsaur
terrection of which was near the Luk-
gruppen explained at Nuremberg.
"Jews were to be killed
for
the
rea-
yanovka cemetery. Thus the designa-
son that they were considered carriers
tion was clear not withstanding the
of Bolshevism and, therefore, endan-
printing error evidently resulting from
gering the security of the German
the use of incompetent translatora.)
Reich."
The notices were accompanied by E
The mass carnage that was to befall
word-of-mouth rumor, a deliberate
Klev was illustrative of this objective.
falsehood spread by the Kommandos
Two of the defendants at Darmstadt,
that the Jews were to be evacuated
Lieutenante August Haefner and Adolf
and resettled alsewhere. Since the de-
Janssen, headed a fifty-man advance
signated intersection site bordered on
party of Sonderkommando 4A which
a railway station. the seemed to
entered the city on September 19. the
have a plausible foundation. A secret
day Army Group South began to sweep
official report spoke of the "extremely
into the area. Two days later, the chief
clever organization" utilized to over-
of the Sonderkummando, Col. Paul
come "the difficulties resulting from
Biobel, arrived, and on the 25th the
such a large scale action."
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MEDISTRAM-MARCH, 1969
TPect KOMMANDO GROUP did not ex-
ground in a neat phe all the belong.
the majority of the Jews
Ingy they brought with them and then,
to show up immediately. At the
in sight columns of one hundred each
most, they expected some 6,000. But
were marched to the adjoining Babi
Kiev's Jews, unaware of the Nari OX-
Var
I could see well how at the
termination campaign, believing ap-
ravine's edge the columns were stopped,
parently that they would really be re-
how everyone was surpped maked, cheir
clothes piled in orderly bundles.
settled elsewhere, and fearful of the
death threat for disobedience, assem.
Before the shooting began, the Jews
bled by the thousands-"more than
were required to run a gauntlet of rub-
30,000." said the official report. It must
ber truncheons or big sticks as they on-
be remembered in this connection that
tered the long passage. The Ukrainian
the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact
Polizei were especially brutal with
was accompanied by a black-out of
those who dallied. As described by the
news in the Soviet press concerning
Soviet novelist Anatoly Kumetiov, they
Nari atrocities against Jews in Poland.
were "kicked, beaten with brass knuck-
And the implementation of the Wann-
les and clubs
with [a] drunken
see decision lay in the future.
viciousness and in a strange sadiatic
The Jews who gathered on the
franzy."
streets of Kiev on September 29 were
The initial executions were described
composed of mothers, children, the el-
In an early Soviet note dated January
derly and the sick. The male youth had
6, 1942:
left the city with the retreating Red
The first persons selected for shooting
Army. The late Ilya Ehrenburg de-
were forced to lie face down at the bet-
scribed, in 2 moving section of his me
tom of the ravine and were that with
moirs, how "a procession of the doomed
automatic rifles. Then the Germans
marched along endless Lvovskaya [a
shoveled a little earth over their bodies.
thoroughfare leading to the intersec-
The next group of people awaiting on
tion]; the mothers carrying their
ecution was forced to Lie on top of
babies; the paralyzed pulled along on
them and was shot in the same way.
hand carts."
Evidence at the Darmstadt trial com-
The unexpected size of the crowd
firms the technique. Then the proce-
made for a slow procession through
dure was altered. According to the Lut-
the principal streets. It was not until
zenko account, the victime were "pus
late morning or early afternoon that
in 4 row at the very edge of the ravine
most of the victims reached the ceme*
and shot in the neck by machine gums;
tery. At that point the street was
children were thrown alive into the
blocked with a barrier of barbed wire
ravine." A Darmstadt defendant re-
and anti-tank obstructions A passage
called how he would then enter into
had been left through the middle,
the "glutinous mass" of bodies to shoot
guarded on both sides by Kommandos
at those which seemed still alive. Show-
assisted by Ukrainian Polizei. The vic-
elfulls of sand covered the bodies.
time were ordered to remove their
Then the machine guns would again
clothing. An eyewitness, Sergel Ivano-
stutter, and another group plunged
vich Lutznko, the warden of Lukya-
downward. The sole survivor of the
novka cemetery, related in an official
Babi Yar mass murder, Dina Mironov-
Soviet account, the grim finale of the
na Pronicheva, now with the Kiev Pup-
march:
pet Theater, came from the Soviet
They were ordered to deposit on the
Union to provide the court with the
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EASI YAR REMEMBERED
27
harrowing details that verified the tech-
lay buried In & common grave with
nique of slaughter.
Jews.
Col. Blobel later testified that his
But there remained a Jawish stress
unit had been divided into squads of
to the extermination procedure. Char-
so men each; a squad would shoot for
acteristic was the selection process by
an hour and would then be replaced
which Soviet prisoners of war were
by a second squad. It continued until
chosen for execution at Babi Yar, An
night when the Germans retired to
Elesstrgruppe directive specified that
their quarters, harding the remaining
"the regial origin has to be taken into
Jews into empty garages. Early in the
consideration." A report of executions
morning the massacre was resumed.
by Sonderkommando 4A. in November,
That evening. an eyewitness reported,
1941
noted:
the larger part were
"the ravine was dynamited so as to
again Jews, and a considerable part of
cover both the dead and those still
these were again Jewish prisoners of
alive." Illustrative of the mentality of
war who had been handed over by the
the Einsatzgruppe was the testimony of
Wehrmacht." One day in March, 1942.
one of them at Durmstade Following
Col. Blobel was driving in the vicinity
the massacre, he presented himself to
of Babi Yar with Gestapo agent Albert
an officer (also a defendant at Darm-
Hartel when the latter noticed that the
stadt) and asked: "Lt. Col., Don't you
surface was agitated by pressures from
have anything more for me to shoot?"
below, the spring thaw having released
gases from decaying corpses. Blobel
D
URING the subsequent two years of
proudly explained: "Here my Jews are
German occupation, the death
burled."
roll of Babl Yar victims continued to
But the $$ Colonal had not finished
mount with executions of pricemers of
his task, for the dead were not to be
war. partisans, and Communist active
permitted even their rest. At German
ists Though the extraordinaty pace
defeat neared and they feared that the
set by the September 29-80 massacre
butchery might come to the attention
was not duplicated, the rain of bullets
of the world, the 33 ordered Blobel to
never ceased. A report of the Einsatz-
erase all traces of the Babi Yar mass
gruppe stressed that even "the imme-
burial. In August, 1948, he supervised
diate hundred per cent elimination of
the digging up of the area; each corpse
Jewry
would not remove the po-
was examined for rings, earrings and
licical source of danger." The "main
gold teeth. Huge crude crematoria
task," the report went on, was "the
were built; the bodies were stacked at
destruction of the communistic ma-
ternately with logs, and doused with
chine" and this purpose could not be
gasoline. Each pyre. took two nights
replaced "in favor of the practically
and one day to burn. The bones that
ensier task of the elimination of the
did not respond to incineration were-
crushed. mixed with earth and scat-
Jews." A pose-wer report of a USSR
tered over the area. The fires lasted al-
Special Commission chaired by Nikita
most six weeks, the stench suffocating
Khrushchev estimated that over 100,-
the entire Lukyanovka district.
000 men, women and children were
The evidence could not, however, be
liquidated at Babi Yar. (A total of
suppressed. Disclosures of 4 hidden
195,000 are said to have been executed
eyewitness, revelations of a surviver of
in the general area of Klev.) Tens of
the shooting, capsured Einsatagruppen
thousands of Russians and Ukrainians
records, reports of excaped slaves who
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had participated in the 1943 excava-
been shown to have participated per-
don and charred pieces of bone which
sonally in organizing murders of Jews
even today are dug up at the site-ail
was former SS Lt. Col Kuno Callsen,
brought to the world details of what
2 56-year-old sales clerk. The prosecu-
had happened. Some details were made
tion had asked for a life sentence, but
public at the Nuremberg trials of 1947-
Judge Paquet sentenced him to 15
48 which concluded with a death sen-
years at hard labor. Two defendants.
tence imposed upon Blobel and other
&Siyear-old bank director Adolf Jans-
Einsatruppen leaders. The Dermateds
HIS and 57-year-old insurance palesman
trial provided the final chapter in the
Kure Hans, each received 11-year sen-
documentation process.
tences. (The prosecution had asked for
15 and 12 year terms respectively.)
II
Hans fainted when he heard the sen-
rence. The other major defendant, 56.
N NOVEMBER 29. 1968, exactly 27
O
year-old August Haefner, a wine mer-
years and two months after the
chant, drew a 9-year sentence (the pro-
massacre at Babi Yer, 10 members at
secution had asked 12 years). Shorter
Einantigruppe C Sonderkommendo 4.A
terms were meted out to the other de-
stood before the Durmstade judges to
fendants. whose responsibility was less.
hear the verdict of the court. They ap-
The West German public was hard-
peared as models of propriety, scarcely
Iy enthusiastic about the trial. Rarely
resembling the stereotype of the 83
were more than a handful of adults
killer. Most were salesmen or mer-
visitors in court on any trial day. Af-
chants, solid middle-class burghers,
ter a flurry of press coverage when the
with greying hair and fitted reading
trial began. German newspapers gave
glasses. As with most defendants in
it little, if any, atention. (An excep.
German war crimes trials, they had
tion was the Darmstadt Echo which
pleaded that they had been forced to
provided extensive coverage. Some of
obey orders to kill. Had they not mur-
the best international treatment was
dered. they argued, their own life
given by the Swies News Zuercher Zei-
would have been placed in jeopardy.
tung which offered at intervals solid
One defendant observed: "For me it
reportage of the trial.) To the public
was 2 war operation. Y couldn't do any-
It was simply one of tweriey other such
thing about is.
It was a and affair
trials taking place today In West Ger-
to have to carry one this business."
many. (199 have been completed in
But Judge Paques ruled that "expert
the last 10 years.) But the Babl Yar
testimony proves that the defendants
trial was second in length and impor-
faced no threat to life or limb" had
tance only to the Auschwite trial in
they refused to carry out "criminal
Frankfurt several years ago, and that
commands." He pointedly noted how
trial had attracted considerable public
secret SS reports had heaped praise
interest. There exists 2 growing indif-
upon the special task force for its zeal
ference among West Germans toward
in killing. The prosecution demon-
war crimes trials. The most recent pub-
strated that the defendants had been
lic opinion poll showed 68 per cent of
proud of their "elite" status as mem-
German men and 76 per cent of Ger-
bers of the Gestapo and the SS, that
man women as opposed to the hold-
they relished "the great hour of the
ing of such trials.
little man in uniform."
The 1ack of concern was explained
The principal defendant who had
by Bernd-Rusdiger Uhse, one of the
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19
prosecutors at Darmitedt, as follows:
ly hostile to its Jewish community, and
After all, the events we are talking about
the Soviet public was able to learn of
took place 26 years age. If you 600 or
the distinctly anti- Jewish aspects of what
accident today and look at the bloody
had happened at Babi Yar. Much be-
victims, you are horrified. But if you
came known through the published
talk about the same accident five years
war-time reports of Yevgenii Kriger.
later you will not ger very upset about
an Investiia military correspondent,
it
and through Ilya Ehrenburg's prize
A similar view was echood by the
novel, The Storm, published in 1947.
younger generation. A group of Darm-
The massacre of Jews at Babi Yar
stadt high school students, while as-
also was sympathetically treated in
tending the trial as part of B civics
poetry, such me the poem composed by
course, fult that the Babi Var atrocities
the Ukrainian-Jewish writer, Savva Go-
were "past history." One young man
lovaniveky, and in recorded songs of
thought the proceedings were "a good
the Yiddish singer, Nehama Lifechitz
reminder" to keep men "aware of these
(one of which told of the grief of a
chings and remember that we were re-
Jewish mother unable to find the re-
sponsible for them," but his view did
mains of her children who perished at
not represent the typical assitude.
Babi Yar). Indeed, official plans were
More characteristic was this comment:
laid for a public monument at Babi
"These were things done 20 years ago.
Yar. A prominent architect, A. V. Via-
They have paid for their sins and will
sov, prepared the design of a memor-
continue to pay for them
ial, "strict, simple, in the form of a
But at least the authorities are still
prism"; and the artist B. Ovchinnikov
worked out the appropriate sketches
intent upon meting out some measure
"dedicated to Babl Yat."
of retribution for the past. And, If the
But the anti-semiric campaign which
punishment did not and could not fit
burst forth in late 1948 required that
the crime, the historical record now
Babi Yar be plunged into the "mem-
was there concerning what happened
ory hole" of history. Golovanivaky's
at Babi Yar,
poém was singled out for attack in
March, 1949 because he had dared to
III
suggest that Ukrainians and Russians
T
HE TRIAL received very little COVER-
"had turned their backs on an old Jew,
age In the Soviet Union. This le not
Abraham, whom in 1941 the Germans
surprising, since Babi Yor constituted
marched through the streets of Kiev
the most poignant example of Jewish
to be shot." The poet was charged
martyrdom on Soviet soil, Sovier BU-
with "nationalistic slander" and "def-
thorities have from the very beginning
amation of the Soviet nation." Anoth-
Attempted to blur this aspect of its
er Ukrainian-Jewish poet, Pervornal-
character. The official government re-
sky, was also denounced for "repeating
post on the massacre, published some
Golovanivsky's defamation of the So-
six months after Kiev's liberation,
viet people." The theme of Babi Yar
spoke of Nazi crimes at Babi Yar
was no longer countenanced in litera-
against Soviet citizens generally rather
tare, and the plans for the memorial
then against ILS Jewish community
were quietly shelved.
specifically.
So complete was the blackout that
But in the Immediate post-war years,
Soviet citizens were never informed
the Soviet regime was not yet express-
that in June, 1951 one of the principal
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architects of the Babi Yar holocaust.
similar "tributes of respect" for the
Col. Biobel, was executed in Nurem-
Kiev citizens who had been shot in
herg for his crimes. And even such a
Babi Yar.
knowledgeable Soviet writer as Anatoly
Two months Inter, the same journal
Kuznetsov, the author of the recently-
carried a letter signed by a number of
published documentary novel on Babi
inhabirants of the district near Babi
Yar, stated that.
#
not a single
Yar in which they supported the rec-
Nazi has been tried or punished speel-
ommendation to arect a monument on
fically for Babi Yar." (Spumih, April,
the "murder site." They observed that
1967.)
Nekrasov's article "concerning the
The death of Stalin and the begin-
tragically famous Babl Yar attracted
ning of the "thaw" did not bring any
the particular attention of the Kiev
immediate change in the official atti-
Inhabitants" but at the same time,
rude on Babi Yar. It was not undl
they welcomed the idea that "a park
1959, following the consolidation of
be first planted in Babi Yar," and then
Khrushchev's authority, that the search
"a monument erected in its center."
for coexistence with America coupled
What made the latter particularly sig-
with the growing awareness of the need
nificant was the lack of & single refer-
for widespread reforms in various parts
ence to Jews. It signalled an eventual
of Soviet social life enabled Soviet pol-
half-way response of the authorities to
icy-makers to loosen some inhibiding
the outraged. conscience of the intel-
restraints. The three years that fol-
lectuals: % monument should indeed
lowed IRW a veritable renaisence in
be built, but one not specifically com-
Soviet literature. Even Jewish commu-
memorating the martyred Jews. A fur-
nal life was tendered a few concessions.
ther small Item in the literary news
The moment was opportune for sen-
paper on March 3, 1960 pointed in the
same direction. The editors noted that
sitive Intellectuals, brooding over the
double tragedy of Babi Yar-first the
the Deputy Chairman of the Kies
Town Council Executive Committee
holocaust there and then suppression
of any reference to it-to voice concern.
had replied to the Nekrasov artich
It was not long in coming. The distin.
with an explanation that the monu
guished Soviet writer, Viktor Nekrasov,
ment had not yet been erected because
of "lack of reclamation of the region.'
upon learning that the Architectural
Office of the Kiev Town Council
The Deputy Chairman went on u
planned to flood Babi Yar, fill it and
promise that once the afforestation o
"rurn the site into a park, to build a
the slopes of the ravine was completed
stadium there," wrote . long letter to
and a public park planted there, the
"an obelisk with a memorial plaque :
Literaturnala Ganela which appeared
Soviet citizens exterminated by th
on October 10, 1959:
Nazis will be erected in Its center.
Is this possible? Who could have
(Emphasis added.) The special marry
thought of such 1 thing? To fill 8
dom of Jews there was not noted.
deep ravine and on the site of such &
The Deputy Chairman's reply WI
colossal tragedy to make merry and
pertinent for another reason. F
play football?
pointed out that his commitment 1
Nekrasov noted that other sites of Nazi
build a memorial WAS & consequent
atrockies had been turned into me-
of "A resolution adopted by il
morials, and "Inst people ever forget
Ukraine Government in Decemb
what happened," he boldly demanded
1959," three months after Nekraw
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had raised the issue. Ye was clear that
On September 19, the poem was pub-
Nekrasov had pricked the conscience
lished and immediately became an in-
of the Kiev community.
termational sensation.
The poem hegan with a reminder
IV
that "No monthment stands over Babi
MUCH LARGER COMMUNITY, extend.
Yar." Only & "steep precipice," rie-
A
ing far beyond even Soviet bor-
mains as an "epitaph." Yet the mem-
dera. was to be stirred by Yovgenii
ory cannot be erasad:
Yevtusbanko in September, 1961, al.
There is a rustling of wild grass over
most twenty years to the day after the
Babl Yor
Babi Yes tragedy. In an autoblograph.
The trees look fearsome, like judges.
ical sketch published later in L'Ex-
Everything here screams in alience.
press, Yevtushenko explained how he
had came to write his courageous and
The poem was more than # remind-
of of tragedy: it probed the TOOSS of
moving Bobi Yar. He had waited for
a long time, he said, to publish a poem
popular anti-Semitiam, and what made
on anti-Semitism, but an appropriate
At particularly unusual was that Yev.
tushenko did not hesitate to indict his-
form had not presented itself until at
toric anti-Semitism in the Soviet
ter he had visited Babl Yar in the Fall
Union. After recalling the pogroms,
of 1961 to see and sense the holocaust.
the killing and beating of Jews, the
Upon his return to Moscow he wrote
the poem in "& couple of hours." In
poet declared:
it he identified himself with "each
Oh, my Russian peoples
man they shot here." "every child they
1 know
shot here." and, in his profound
That you are at heart Internationalist
mourning. be was transformed inso
But often three whose hands were MRI-
"one vast and soundless howl."
clean
On September 16, Yevenshenko re-
Blemished your purest of names.
cited Babi For to 1,200 students at the
On an official level, it is taboo to sug.
Polytechnical Museum. He afterward
gest that popular anti-Semitism persists
recalled being "so nervous" that he
to any significant extent. Yevenshenko
kept the text in from of him. The re-
dared to imply the contrary:
action was overpowering:
Let "The Internationale"
When I finished there was total allence.
Thunder forth
I just kept folding the paper in any
When the last anti-Semite on earth
hands afraid to look up. When I did,
Has been buried for good,
the entire audiance stood. Suddenly the
applause began and continued for near-
And in a section which he publicly re-
ly ten minutes. People rushed up on-
cited, but which was excised from the
Mage and embraced me. My eyes were
version that appeared in Literaturnais
filled with tears,
Gazeta, he explicitly noted that anti-
He was uncertain whether It would be
Service sentiments among Ruisians
published, but the forthright editor of
"scill arise on the vapors of alcohol and
Literaturnaia Gazela gave the go-ahead
in conversations after drinking."
signal, not without a last-minute warn.
More remarkable even than the at
ing to Yeviushenko: "No telling what
tack on anti-Semitism was the poet's
may happen. Are you prepared for
characterization of Jews throughout
it?" To which the poet replied, "I am."
the world as people with a long. com-
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MIDUTABAM-MARCH, 196
mon history and a unifying tradition
trusted him (Yeveushenko] with their
that made them a distinct entity. In a
word.
"
suiking section of his poem, be linked
Finally, in typical post-war Sovie
together the ancient Israelites, Christ,
fashion, Starikov challenged the view
Dreyfus and, significantly, defined this
shat Babi Yar represented the martyr
unity as $ distinct and separate "Jew-
dom of Jewry. The "destinies of the
ish people." This conception not only
persons who died there cry our" against
does violence to the analysis prescribed
the notion that Babi Yar was "one
by Soviet ideologists: it Ries in the face
history's examples of anti-Semitices
of the accepted docume that Sevies
For, he went on, "the anti-Seraided
Jews have little, if anything, in com-
of the Fascists is only part of their mis
mon with Jews elsewhere in time or
anthropic policy of genocide
the
space.
destruction of the Jews was only the
beginning
of
a destruction of the
The STORM of criticism that followed
lower races' including the Slave." To
poem's appearance was not un-
underscore his argument, Starikov apr
expected. Five days after "Babi Yar"
pealed to the authority of one of the
was published, Literature i Zhizn', the
Soviet Union's leading figures (and a
journal of the Writers' Union of the
few as well), Ilya Ehrenburg. Quoting
Russian Federated Republic, carried 2
arbitrarily from various war-time arti-
response in the form of a poem by an-
cles, including one on Babi Yar, Stari-
other Soviet writer, Alexei Markov.
lov contended that Ehrenburg "did
Yevtushenko's patriotism was Ques-
not stross the fact that It was Jews who
tioned-"What sort of real Russian are
were killed there."
you By referring to Jewish mar-
Starikov did not limit bis criticlem
tyrdom at Babi Yar and to Russian
to Yevrushenko. In a scarcely velied
anti-Semitism, Yevtushenko had at-
threat, be wondered aloud why X
tempted to defile (with A "pygmy's
editors of Literaturnaia Gazeta per-
spittle") "Russian crew-eus lads" who
mitted the poet "to insult the triumph
fell in battle against the Nazia. In a
of the Leninist national policy" with
concluding line, Markov Hung at Yev-
"provocations." At the twanty-secome
tushenko the accusation "cosmopoli-
Party Congress, the powerful chief ad
tan" which, in the Soviet lexicon of
itor of the journal Souetshil Soyes, NA
previous years, was an epithet that
kolai Gribachev. charged Literaturnes
carried the implication of treason.
Gazeta with "irresponsibility" in "ay
A less crudely violent if more tren.
tematically publishing chesp send
chant attack appeared in the same
tions"
journal three days later. Written by
Ehrenburg came to the defense
a well-known Soviet critic Dmiuri Sta-
the embasted Yevtushenko, He wrote
rikov, the article by implication de-
a short note to Literaturnaia Ganeta on
nied that anti-Semitism existed in the
October $ (published on October 14)
in which he sharply disassociated him
USSR. "The friendship of our peo-
self from the Starikov article, observe
plea" Starikov Wrote, "Is now stronger
ing that the selected quotations in fact
and more monolithic than ever," and
"contradicted" Ehrenburg's own views,
to suggest that anti-Semitism among
Yevrushenko won the hearts of young
Russians still exists is nothing less than
people throughout the USSR. Every
# "provocation," as well as a "mon-
copy of the Literaturnals Gaseta to:
strous" insult to those "who have en-
which his poem appeared WRB "sold
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BASE YAR REMEMBERED
as
out in a master of minutes." he later
he had selected Babi Yar because "the
reported. He was flooded with letters
problem of anti-Secultiam" continues
and telegrams--approximately 20,000
to have "a megative consequence"
of them. Only 50 or 40 were abusive
which "has not yes been resolved."
and these, he said, "ware all unsigned
Khrushchev forcefully rejected the ar
and in obviously disguised handwrit-
gument. Anti-Semittem "is not a prob-
ing."
lem," be declared. The young writer
Everywhere he went in Russia, his
would not be silenced. He responded:
audience wanted to hear him read
It is A problem, Nikita Sergeievich. It
"Baty Yar." Patricia Blake, a close ob
cannot be denied and it cannot be sup-
server of the Soviet literary scene, who
pressed. It is necessary to corne to grips
attended a number of Yevtushenko's
with is time and again. It has a place.
readings, reported:
I myself was a witness to such things.
Moreover, it came from people who
After nearly every one of his recitations
occupy official posts, and thus It as-
the audience began clamering again for
susned an official character. We cannot
"Babi Yes," pounding on the Bear with
go forward 10 Communium with such
# designing roar with their feet, He
2 heavy load at Judophobia.
read it again and again, and they class-
cred for it again. Toward the and of
It was time for the "approprists"
the evening when this happened once
discipline to be applied and for the
more, Yevtushenko should for allence
extendery public denunciations to be
and said, "Comrades, you and I have
made Basides, by the end of Decem-
been in this hall for Ave hours, and I
ber, 1962. the Party leadership had be
have read the poem four times. 1 should
come convinced that the liberalism of
think you would be as alred of hearing
the previous threw-year period had
it as I am of reciding ic" But again
they pounded and again he complied
going too far in various art forms, in
literature, painding, sculpture, cinema-
IV
tography. Lest the trend of critical ex.
amination of the past be extended to
Y
EVTUSHENKO and the support he TO-
embrace the hallowed Institutions of
calved had not merely stung the
public life, brakes had to be applied.
documaire apologists into action. The
A Kremlin conference of writers and
highest Party authorities became con.
artists on March 7-8, covered in de.
cerned. Khrushchev was later to reveal
tail in the public press, provided the
that "the Party Central Committee had
setting for the disciplinary setion. And
been receiving letters expressing anxie-
none other than the Party bose and
ty that in some works the position of
Premier, Nikita Mhrushchev, Was de-
Jews in our country has been depicted
signated to administer it While con-
in a discorted way." He referred speci-
demnation of liberating trends ex-
fically to the Babi Yar poem.
rended to all spheres of the arts and
A: a Moscow meeting of several
to numerous individuals, Babl Yar was
hundred intellectuals called by the
the focus of the attack. Two types of
Party leadership on December 17, 1962,
criticism were levelled 22 Yevtushenko.
the poem became as key issue. When
The first was a rehash of the principal
Yeveushanko recited the last two lines
argument used by Markov and Start-
of his poem to the audience, Khrush-
have
shev Interjected: "Comrade Yevru-
shenko, this poem has no place here."
Events are depicted in the poem as if
At this point the poet commented that
only the Jewish population fell victim
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to the Fascist exime, while at the bands
pressures exerted upon Yevtushenko
of the Miderite butchers there perished
poem had the desired results
not a few Rumians, Ukrainians and
Seviet people of other nationalities.
This was first made apparent in the
musical field. By December, one of the
The second criticism was more seri-
USSR's most prestigious cultural fig-
ous. and Khrushchev falt obliged to
ures, Dmitri Shostakovich, had come
wander into a forest of questionable
pleted his 13th Symphony, # musical
data to buttress 12. The clearly implied
and cheral setting of five poems by
reference in the poem, that and-Semi-
Yevtushenko, including "Babl Yar.
tism continued so exist in the Soviet
The work received ice first performance
Union, revealed that the author had
in Moscow on December 18, 1962 and
lacked "political maturity" and dis-
was accorded a tumultuous reception.
played "ignorance of the historical
But no reviews appeared in the major
facts." Sharply, the Premier demanded,
press organs. The day before this per-
"For whom and why was it necessary
formance, at 2 specially-called meeting
to present the matter as if the popula-
held in Moscow between top Party
tion of the Jewish nationality in our
lenders and leading Soviet intellectuals,
country was being harmed?" The
the Party's then principal ideologist,
charge is "not true," for, since the very
Leonid Ilyichev, criticized Shostakovich
early days of the October Revolution.
for choosing in undesirable theme for
Soviet Jews have been treated "on an
his symphony and thus failing to serve
equal basis in every way" with all other
the "true interest" of the people. Pub-
er national groups. A bludgeoning sug-
lie performances temporarily ceased.
gestion that Yevtushenko had permitted
To meet the powerful Party thrusts,
himself to be used by alien and foreign
Yevrushenko made two additions to the
sources followed: "Wish us there is no
sext. At one point, the following line
Jowish question, and those who devise
was added: "Here together with Rus-
one are singing to somebody else's
stans and Ukrainians lie Jews." A sec-
tune."
ond insertion read: "I am proud of the
Khrushchev then proceeded into a
Russia which stood in the path of the
characteristic class analysis of anti-
bandits." Yevtushenko vehemently de-
Semitism: it is typical of capitalist SO-
nied in a Paris interview in February,
clety and is alien to socialism. Jews do
1965 that he had capitulated to Party
not constitute a single undifferentiated
pressures. "I am not 2 man to take on-
ders," he observed. All that he had
whole. Properly, they sexes to be broken
done, he said, was to make a slight ad-
down into social classes: bourgeols
dision without changing a word of
Jews are like the bourgeoisie every-
the poem. He further commented that
where; proletarian Jews are like the
the addition was merely a response to
oppressed proletariat everywhere. "Peo-
a letter he had received, after the
ple's deeds." Khrushchev emphasized,
poem's publication, which described
are to be "measured not from is na-
how a Russian woman had saved the
tional, but from a class point of view."
life of a jewish child threatened by
To Illustrate his theme, he pointed
the S.S.
to an instance of alleged treachery to
Shostakovich incorporated. these re-
the Soviet state by a Jew during
visions into his symphony, and per-
World War II. This was Inter preven
formances were reacwed. On February
to have been 2 pure fiction. But these
10, 1955, Prauda observed that it was
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8 truly "Russian" work, Bus sharply
One day we both walked to Babi Yes
critical voices continued to be heard
we forced our way through the dence
about its theme. On April 2. the Minsk
undergrowth and assed on the edge of
newspaper, Sovetskata Byetorassiia,
the revine. The sun was shining, every.
asked why Shostakovich "looked only
thing was as peaceful, so quiet.
here," at Babi Yar. for "material re-
We were standing where hundreds of
thousands of people had once writhed
vealing the bestiality of faccism
and screamed in the threes of death.
"Why was fascism terrible only and
Almost all the victime had screamed
first of all because of anti-Semitism?"
horribly.
The critic took the occasion to chas-
tise those who could "elevate a petty
Kuznetsov, who had experienced
incident to the rank almost of national
Nazi rule in Kiev as a child of 12, had
tragedy."
for some 18 years been accumulating a
thick notebook on Babi Yar filled with
V1
clippings, documents, and personal
notes. Just before the Yevtushenko trip,
D
ISCUSSION about Babi Yar disap-
Kuznetsov had returned to Kiev to visit
peared from the public arena and
his mother. Deciding to take another
did not re-emerge until the summer of
look at a favorite childhood haunt, be
1966. The intervening period was
went to Babi Yar "and suddenly I
marked by increasing pressures upon
caugh: my breath and 1 realized that
the literary intelligentia culminating
the time had come to stare writing my
in the Sinyaysky-Daniel trial in Janu
book." Kumethey's account provided
ary, 1966. But, the intellectuals refused
the Sovier public an opportunity to
to capitulate. In March, 1966, a size-
learn the full measure of the massacre
able number of them petitioned the
for the first time since the war.
Presidium of the 23rd Congress of the
Kuznessov's work did not suppress
Party, then meeting in Moscow, con-
the specific element of Jewish martyr-
cerning the Sinyaveky-Daniel case,
dom in the history of Babi Yar. In his
charging that it "creates an extremely
Foreword to the novel, Kuznetsov rè-
dangerous precedent." Their criticisms,
calls how, as a youngster, shortly after
and those emanating from Communists
the war. he and a friend went to the
abroad, may have encouraged the au-
sise of the ravine to try to discover the
thorities to relax the pressures. In the
exact place at which the massacres took
changed atmosphere, it could be antiel-
place. Seeing an old man crossing the
pated that the Babl Yer issue would
ravine, young Kumetsov called out:
onee again arouse public discussion.
"Hey, uncle! Was it here where they
In August, 1906, Yunost. a liberal
shot the Jews, or was it further on?"
Hurney monthly, initiated a three-part
The old man called back: "And how
scrialization of a powerful documentary
many Russians were killed here. and,
novel, Babi Yor. by Anatoly Kurnetsov.
Ukrainians, and other nationalities?"
Public reaction to the Kuznetsov now-
The young writer had accompanied
Yevtushenko in the latter's visit to the
el was Alow in coming. The first com-
ment did not appear until November
Babi Yar site in the Fall of 1961. The
18, in Literaturnaia Rossiia. The re-
impression which the visit made on
viewer, Georgy Radov, described the
both of them was described by Kuznet-
book as "genuine Drt" written in the
NOV in the Soviet journal Sputnik
"richest prote." Then on November 22,
(April, 1967):
the journal that had first published the
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MISSTREADE-MARCH, 101
Yeveushenko poem. Literaturnaia Ga.
strikingly absent from she lengthy
reta, carried a powerful endorsement
mentary.
of the book by the Hberal literary and
Yet, the Investic review seemed
film critic. Alexander Borshchagovsky.
place & stamp of approval upon
Its "destiny," be wrote 4 "bayond
work:
doubt." Terming the book "s servel
of art," Borahchagovaky went on to say
the author evidently has been able
that "Soviet literature has gained a pas-
to relate known facts in such a way that
signate and talented work."
we feel we AND coming upon much
The critic did not hesitate to chal-
afresh
lenge the literary Establishment for
The portrayal of the leading character
avoiding the Babi Yes theme:
was "scrupulously" presented and the
Our writers have hardly touched on the
emotion of harred for the Nazi ideol-
tragle theme of Babl Var, they have
ogy effectively developed. The fact the
treated It with the caution that does
the book was reviewed at all in this can
not promise discoveries.
tral Soviet organ. and in a not unfav-
orable manner, indicated that documn
He emphasized the overwhelining fact
airism was, for the moment, not in the
of Jewish martyrdom:
the
first
ascendant.
act of the [Babl Yaz] tragedy [was]
Notwithstanding official rejection of
when the Jewish population of Kiev
was murdered. wiped out and cast into
Jowish martyrology, the editors of
the ravine in the course of a few days."
Literaturnaia Gazeta would not be held
This "mussive 'total' massare was us.
back from underlining the specific Jew.
precedented" in history. Borthchagov-
ish character of Babi Yar. On February
sky then went on to note that Babi Yer
22, they ran another piece on the Kun-
became, after September 1941, "& com-
netsov book, this time a portion of a:
monplace of terrible everyday reality"
lener written by Dina Mironovna Pro-
with "victimes of every nationality" sac-
nicheve, the survivor of the Babi Yar
rificed there by the tens of thousands.
massacre of September 29 and 30. The
leuer, in part, read:
W
HILE Borthchagovaky spoke for
the liberals, official comment
After the instruct of the Jews, the Ger
mans combed apartments and houses If
from the principal authoritative sources
they found children of B Jewish mother
was far slower and, when it appeared.
they killed them. even when, as in OUT
much more restrained. On January 22.
case, the father was Russian. The Per
1967, Ivestia finally carried $ review by
linel sciend my son, who was EWD years
P. Troitsky. He found "contrivance"
and three months old then, and took
in the book's structure, an artificiality
hiss to she courtyard to shows him My
that was "at variance with the serious-
husband begged them not to Lill the
ness" of the author's purpose. Ner did
shild, enying that I would return shat
he think that Kumetsov had revealed a
evening and they would then be able
world of unexplored Encts. The Babl
to seize mother and child together. They
Yer acrocities, the Investia reviewer
left the child until evening. Às soon as
the Folizai went of my husband
contended, had "already CUI deeply fort-
wrapped Vovochks (her child) in paper,
so our consciousness." But, if they did,
cied him with string like a large parcel
the reviewer himself was reluctant to
and carried him to me in Damiua. I
give expression to their principal fea-
hid in an attic together with the child
ture. The words "Jew" of "Jewish" are
for four months.
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In the name month, another strongly
Science and other cultural Institutions.
favorable review appeared in the lib-
Significantly, the inscriptions on the
eral Novyt Mir. The author was Ariad-
submitted projects avoided reference to
na Gromova who had, at half year
the particular character of Babi Yar as
earlier, exploded the anti-Semitic myth
R symbol of Jewish martyrdom. Instead,
fostered by Khrushchev that some Jews
the inscriptions note that "in this
had served the Nazi cause. Her review,
place" over one-hundred thousand "So-
entitled "Truth, Only Truth," stated
viet citizens, Russians, Ukrainians and
that Kuznetsov's Babi Yar story is "vi,
Jews were murdered" in 1941 by the
tally necessary both here and abroad."
Fascists. One architect of Jewish origin,
The specific Jewish martyrdom of Babi
Abraham Miletsky, was rumored to
Yar was alluded to briefly. but exp-
have submitted a plan bearing an in-
phatically.
scription in Yiddish, but was requested
The publication and open discussion
to withdraw it and to submit another
of Kurnethor's Babi Yes was accord-
without the inscription.
panied by related developments which
Those who might have been dissp.
suggested the strong pressures from the
pointed with the projected character
liberal intelligentsia for # memorial to
of the memorial could still take heart
the vietims of Babi Yar were having
from the fact that the Idea for a memo-
sorae impact upon the political authori-
rial was alive. Further verification came
thes. The outery of Nekrasov in 1959
on April 29, 1966, when the London
and the poetic appeal of Yevrushenko
Daily Telegraph correspondent in the
seemed, in 1966, to find the appropri-
Soviet, Union, John Miller, cabled his
ate millieu for fulfillment.
newspaper that he had been "emphat-
In April, 1965, the President of the
ically" assured by Ukrainian writers
France-USSR Association. Andre Blum-
that,
el. who was touring the Soviet Union
a companied by forty prominent Paris
Babi Yar would have its manument in
lawyers, was told by Michael Burks,
time for next year's 50th anniversary of
the Revolution. Some 30 proposed
the Mayor of Kiev, that plans were be
models of a monument had been CK-
ing made to building such & memorial
amined by a commission and the final
at the Babi Yar site. He carefully one
choice would be announced soon.
plained that it would curry no specific
reference to Jews.
Miller reported that the Ukrainian
Intelligentia were "highly sensitive" to
E
ARLY IN 1965, "Novosti," the Soviet
charges of "deliberate neglect" of the
press agency, publicly announced
memory of the victims of Babl Yar.
that the Ukrainian Architects Club of
They offered the explanation that Rus-
Kiev had placed on exhibit over 200
sia had to rebuild its factories and
projects and some 30 large-scale de-
homes before it could erect monuments
tailed plans for a memorial at Babi
to the past. The explanation did not
Yar. Visitors to the exhibition were in-
take account of the fact that Soviet also
vited to express their views. The an-
thorities had already built in various
nouncement further stated that, after
parts of the country monuments to
the exhibition, the entries would be
Nazi persecution.
judged by a special cribunal consisting
Final assurances about the memorial
of representatives of municipal and
appeared during Yunosi's publication
governmental authorizes as well as of
of the Kuznetsov novel. On September
representatives from the Academy of
9. 1966, Peter Tempest. the correspond-
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ent in Russia of the British Communist
on the Middle East at the United Na,
daily, the Morning Star, cabled from
done General Assembly. The rhetorical
Klev:
title of the review in Sovetskii Voin-
"To A Full Extent?"-set iss tone. The
The mamorial at Babl Yer to 200,000
reviewer. Alexei Yegorev, stated size
people. mostly Jews, masagered here
during the war will "definitcly" be
ply and dogmatically that Kurnetsov's
crected next year, I was told today.
description of Bobi Var was limited
restricted and therefore distorted
It is significant that Tempest had in-
Equally unobjective, Fegorov declared
cluded in his cable the point that
were such reviews as those by Borshcha-
"mostly Jews" constituted Babi Yar via
goveky (who gave "free rein to his [own]
time. Sovier authorities, needless to say,
imagination") and by Gromova (who
rejected this view. More pertinent was
had the gall to suggest that the book
the time-table which be reported. Like
was "vitally necessary for readers both
Miller. he was assured by Klevan au-
here and abroad").
thorities that the monument would be
What Yegorov found particularly
in place before the 50th anniversary of
distasteful was Kuznetsov's description
the Rustian Revolution Tempest went
of those Russians and Ukrainians who
on to say that & group of sculptors and
had been "Fascist lackeys and obeyed
architects were currently working on
their criminal orders." References to
the final design of the monument.
Russian and Cossack collaborators,
which would be inscribed simply "to
Ukrainian pro-Nazi policemen, Sevies
the victims of fascism."
black marketeers who pandered to the
Germans, ordinary citizens who coopit
VII
erated with occupation authorides
(some by turning over their Jewish
C
ELEURATIONS of the 50th anniversary
wives or informing on other Jews) are
have come and gone and still no
-from Vegorov's viewpoint-nothing
memorial exists at Babi Yar. Nor was
short of "offensive" and hardly appro-
the enthusiastic reception to Kuznet-
priate for a "historical work."
sov's book to last long. 1967 was to be
Nor did Kumetsov's characterization
marked by one long paean of praise to
of the category of the martyred faxe
the October Revolution with unpleas-
much better. In Д sarcastic introductory
ant reminders of the past fifty years
remark, Yegorov reminded his audience
muted and critical observations cen-
that Kuznetsov "Is not the first artist
sored. The blow to Soviet pride flow.
who chose the tragedy of Babi Yar as a
ing from the overwhelming defent of
topic:" Yevtushenko had "touched up-
the Arab armies-both Resisn-sup-
on it and, R$ is known, twisted histor
plied and diplomatically supported-in
ical facts." The same type of "wisting."
the Six-Day War Intensified à burgeon-
was characteristic of Kuznetsov's book,
ing nationalism.
Vegorov suggested. He recalled the as
The super-patriots struck back. It
change in the Foreword of the novel
was hardly surprising that the first and
between 18-year-old Anatoly Kusnetsov
principal critician of the Kuznetsov
and the old man. Anatoly's question me
book should appear in a journal of the
to where the Jaws had been shot was
military-ulways the repository of cor-
"intolerably irritating." Vegorov pre-
rect national pride-or that its date of
ferred the response of she old man.
publication should be August 1967, fol.
But even Kurnewor's treatment of
lowing the setback for Soviet diplomacy
Babi Yer as a "multinational tragedy
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-the words are Vegorov's declared
Soviet literary and political 112a, might
to be inadequate. Kurnetsov was to be
attempt to distort the reality of Babi
censured for being "brief" and "per-
Var, they cannot make its significance
functory" about the martyrdom of "So-
compatible with their prescribed view.
viet citizens." His emphasis should
Embarrassment emerges each time the
have been:
symbol is resurrected by some writer de-
In Bahi Yas lie buried many Russians,
termined to confront Sovies society
Ukrainians and other nations Here
with the truth about Jewish martyr-
were shot the sellors of the Dnieper fir
dom. For such confrontation Inevitably
tille; the raflway workers of the Kiev
raises the question of Jewish national
region; workers and employees of Klev;
identity and the problem of anti-Sem-
Red Army soldiers and commanders who
itism, both currently now "unmention-
were taken prisoner.
able" in the Soviet Union.
But however the doctrinaire con-
servatives, now once again dominent in
WILLIAM HOREY à the Director of the
B'and Brish International Council.
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LEVEL 1 - 18 OF 26 STORIES
The Associated Press
The materials in the AP file were compiled by The Associated Press. These
materials may not be republished without the express written consent of The
Associated Press.
September 25, 1988, Sunday, AM cycle
SECTION: International News
LENGTH: 766 words
HEADLINE: Jews Criticize Soviets At Rally Marking Babi Yar Massacre
BYLINE: By ANDREW KATELL, Associated Press Writer
DATELINE: MOSCOW
KEYWORD: Soviet-Massacre
BODY:
to commemorate the Nazi massacre of Jews at a ravine called Babi Yar. But
Hundreds of people gathered Sunday in an unusual officially sanctioned rally
government. several speakers directed their anger not at the Germans but the Soviet
"Babi Yar was a. prelude to the spiritual genocide of the Jewish people of our
country," Yuri Sokol, a veteran of World War II, told at least 500 people
huddled on a tree-lined road outside the gates of Moscow's Vostryakov Cemetery.
A few years ago, police would have broken up such a demonstration as an
anti-Soviet outpouring of nationalism. But under Soviet leader Mikhail S.
Gorbachev's policy of glasnost, or openness, only a few policemen were on hand
and did not interfere.
Standing alongside Jewish activists atop a makeshift speakers platform on a
truck were B promiment Jewish Soviet army general, the head of the Soviet
Anti-Zionist Soviet. Committee and members of the national parliament, the Supreme
"You must agree that some democracy exists because 10 years ago you couldn't
have met here," William Perry of New York told the crowd in a mixture of Yiddish
and English. Perry is president of the International Union of Industrial,
Service, Transport and Health Employees.
It was the second year that authorities gave permission for a Babi Yar
co-sponsor. memorial rally in Moscow but the first in which a state organization was a
The rally, which lasted 1 1/2 hours, was called by the official Anti-Zionist
Committee, which includes Soviet Jews who oppose Israel, and by the unofficial
Society for Friendship and Relations with Israel.
It marked the 47th anniversary of the killing of more than 100,000 people,
mainly Jews, at Babi Yar in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev. Speakers said that
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The Associated Press, September 25, 1988
shortly after occupying Kiev, the Nazis rounded up and shot to death 35,000 Jews
on Sept. 29-30, 1941.
Pictures of women and children concentration camp prisoners, people hanging
from gallows and piles of corpses were nailed onto the side of the truck. A
Sukkoth, in a Hebrew prayer of mourning for the massacre victims.
Moscow rabbi led the crowd, assembled on the first night of the Jewish holiday
Several speakers reminded the crowd that the suffering and repression of Jews
did not end when the Nazis were defeated.
"After the war, members of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee were shot, there
was the 'Doctors Plot' and they wanted to deport the Jews to Siberia," said
Valery Sherbaum, the secretary of the friendship society.
Soviet dictator Josef Stalin accused some of the country's top physicians,
most Jewish, of being spies and trying to kill Kremlin leaders. He had them
arrested in 1953.
Sherbaum said repression of Jews did not stop after Stalin's death the same
year. Even under Gorbachev, Jewish cemeteries have been destroyed in several
Soviet cities, Jews are not permitted to organize classes to study Hebrew or
Yiddish and unsanctioned Jewish organizations are denied meeting places, he told
the crowd.
Yuli Kosharovsky, a Jew refused permission to emigrate, said the government
still publishes anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist literature.
Other speakers said the Pamyat organization, an unofficial Russian political
group that has sprung up under glasnost, was reviving the anti-Semitism
symbolized by the Babi Yar massacre through its racist ultra-nationalist views,
For years, authorities arrested and harrassed Jews agitating for
preservation of Babi Yar as a symbol of the Holocaust.
After poet Yevgeny Yevtushenka wrote a poem about the massacre deploring the
lack of a memorial, authorities relented and a monument was erected in 1976 on
the swampy ravine.
But many Jews have remained unsatisfied because the monument's plaque does
not mention that most victims were Jews.
Among those at Sunday's rally sharing that view was 2 member of the first
Israeli diplomatic delegation to visit the Soviet Union since the Kremlin
severed ties with the Jewish state in 1967.
"It's very painful that there is not one word mentioning that Jews were
killed there," said Gershon Gorev, who attended the ceremony with his wife Hasia
and Yaakov Kedmi, another member of the six-member Israell team that arrived in
Moscow July 28.
Gorev said he was also distressed that rally speakers did not mention that
some Ukrainian residents of Kiev helped the Nazis round up Jews and send them to
their deaths.
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The Associated Press, September 25, 1988
In a sign of official sanction, the Mascow Communist Party and government
newspaper Evening Moscow ran an announcement of the ceremony on Thursday, and
the state-run Tass news agency carried a dispatch after the demonstration.
E IS® NEXIS® LE IS® 1 MIS
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President Bash has read
This book
- pg239
THE
I6
SECOND
2
39
uments)
WORLD
uments)
iments)
WAR
nents)
A Complete History
ood (documents)
ry (documents)
at
hood
Today
trope
MARTIN GILBERT
ips
otographs
HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY
NEW YORK
Photographs
UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST
MEMORIAL MUSEUM
LIBRARY
Ref
743
G 6337
1989
Copyright © 1989 by Martin Gilbert
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce
this book or portions thereof in any form.
Published in the United States by
Henry Holt and Company, Inc., 115 West 18th Street,
New York, New York 10011.
Originally published in Great Britain under the title
Second World War.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Gilbert, Martin 1936-
The Second World War : a complete history / Martin Gilbert. - 1st
American ed.
p. cm.
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
ISBN 0-8050-0534-X
1. World War, 1939-1945. I. Title.
D743.G6334 1989
940.53-dc20
89-11129
CIP
Henry Holt books are available at special discounts
for bulk purchases for sales promotions, premiums,
fund-raising, or educational use. Special editions
or book excerpts can also be created to specification.
For details contact:
Special Sales Director
Henry Holt and Company, Inc.
115 West 18th Street
New York, New York 10011
Printed in the United States of America
1098765432
1941
t Rastenburg, a
a. It was the first
18
17, in northern
the second time.
to break through
atch of his tank
Russia at bay
in on our forces
ry on September
at quantities of
SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 1941
hen hunger takes
ng his guests at
rovide Germany
to all in Europe
find among them
= German settlers
On I9 September 1941, German forces entered Kiev. That day, Leningrad
uselves 'a closed
suffered its worst air and artillery bombardment of the war, with 276 German
superior to any
bombers breaking through the city's anti-aircraft defences. More than a thou-
sand citizens were killed, including many who, already wounded, were in one
e Soviet Union's
of the city's hospitals when it was hit. Two days later, on September 21, 180
er 16, following
bombers struck at Leningrad's principal defensive island, Kronstadt, seriously
at it would soon
damaging the naval dockyard.
indings, Marshal
From London, with Churchill's authority, British Intelligence sent Stalin a
as another forty-
series of warnings between September 20 and 25, based upon the reading of the
September 18, as
most secret German Vulture messages being sent to and from the Eastern Front,
strong command
giving details of German intentions and movements on the Moscow front. These
in the head and
details included information on the location and strength of German air and
ought bravely to
ground concentrations in the Smolensk area. For Britain herself, however, the
, as many as half
end of the second week of September brought bad news at sea. On September
rave and massive
20, a convoy of merchant ships bound for Gibraltar lost five of its twenty-seven
cause for concern
ships when German submarines struck. Morale was briefly raised when a
t 86,000 German
German aircraft, flying over the convoy and radioing u-boat commanders of
gun three months
the location of the merchantmen, was shot down by one of the escort vessels.
One of the merchant ships, however, the Walmer Castle, leaving the convoy to
tary circles that
rescue survivors of two of the torpedoed ships, was bombed from the air, and
-occupied Yugo-
sunk. Then, on September 2I, the German submarine disappeared; they had
e, operating from
found another target, a convoy on its way to Britain from Sierra Leone. In three
Dalmatian coast,
nights, nine of its twenty-seven ships were sunk.
1 with the Cetnik
On the Eastern front, SS units fought alongside the regular German Army
70,000 men in all,
formations. Sometimes their brutality was particularly in evidence, as on Sep-
wn of Uzice, with
tember 23, when, near Krasnaya Gora, in reprisal for the killing of three SS
: to hold the town
sentries, the inhabitants of a whole village were lined up and machine-gunned.
1 begun to harass
Sometimes it was the fearlessness of an SS man that was seen, as on September
24, at Lushno, when an SS corporal, Fritz Christen, after every soldier in his
battery had been killed, remained at his gun, knocking out thirteen Soviet tanks.
237
RUSSIA AT BAY
1941
1941
The first Death's Head soldier to be awarded the Iron Cross First Class with
Not only in b
the coveted Knight's Cross, Christen was later flown to Rastenburg to be
feature of the wa
decorated personally by Hitler.
patrolling a stree
In the Far East, the Japanese were making plans to start their war with the
United States by means of a daring raid on the American naval base at Pearl
1,800 Jews living
loaded on to loi
Harbour, in mid-Pacific. On September 24 the Japanese Consul in Hawaii,
outskirts of the c
Nagai Kita, was instructed to divide Pearl Harbour into five zones, and to report
back to Japan on the precise number of warships moored in each zone. American
3,446 Jews in the
children, were ta
Signals Intelligence in Hawaii read this message, but, having no decrypting
facilities, had to send it back to Washington by Pan Am Clipper. There was
by machine-gun
The scale of th
only one flight a week; but the weekly flight on September 26 was cancelled
because of bad weather. The intercept was therefore sent by sea, reaching
recorded: by the
been murdered in
Washington on October 6. Shortage of decrypting staff, and the fact that the
35,782 'Jews ano
message was not in the very highest grade of codes, led to a further three days'
delay; but even then, with the message finally decrypted, it was not considered
Report - No. I(
Kherson. There
to be more than a routine espionage assignment, typical of those in a dozen
other places, such as similar orders which were being decrypted from Japanese
was being obstru
agents in Manila, Panama and Seattle.
Vershovsky, ord
Stalin, meanwhile, continued to be informed of the contents of the Enigma
protecting them f
messages in which the Germans were transmitting their most secret military
positions and plans. The only other Russian to be told was the Chief of the
On September 27
the rest of southe
General Staff, Marshal Shaposhnikov. Whenever the Russians asked for the
States launched a
source of the messages, Cecil Barclay, the special liaison officer with the British
Military Mission, was instructed to maintain the utter secrecy of the intercepts
were to be many
by saying that the information came from an officer in the German War Office.
'Liberty ships', a:
the loss inflicted I
On September 25, the German forcès launched their soûthern attack. Hitler
intended this attack to precede the imminent assault on Moscow, for which
many of the part
German armoured units were even then reassembling after their transfer from
Robert E. Peary,
the Leningrad front. But this twin drive towards Kharkov and the Crimea,
On September
PQ I, left Iceland
which Hitler had expected to be swiftly accomplished, was to be checked and
House of Comm
frustrated by a strong Soviet defence. A new and powerful Russian tank, the T-
ended was to be
34, had begun to dominate the battlefield. It was on September 26 that the SS
copper, as earlier
Death's Head Division was first forced to send into action special "Tank
2, as German for
Annihilation Squads' to attack the T-34, against which its hitherto devastating
Churchill read th
anti-tank guns had proved ineffective. These squads consisted of two officers
and ten men who, carrying explosives, mines, grenades and bombs in satchels,
you warning the }
of the Secret Intel
had to go forward on foot towards any individual Russian tank that had
you have sent.
penetrated through the German defensive line, and to destroy or disable the
tank as quickly as possible with their hand-held explosives.
In Moscow, th
Averell Harrimar
On September 26, an SS Captain, Max Seela, demonstrated what could be
to meet Stalin's r
done when he destroyed the first of seven Russian tanks which had broken
through to the German position. Seela crawled up to the tank on his own,
satisfy his appeal
placing two satchels of explosives against the turret, and detonating them with
30, Lord Beaverbi
a grenade. He then led his squad forward to destroy the six remaining Soviet
forthcoming supp
tanks. As their crews struggled to escape from their burning vehicles, they were
500 anti-tank gun
shot down one by one and killed.
rubber and 250,00
The extent of ]
238
1941
1941
RUSSIA AT BAY
SS First Class with
Not only in battle, but far behind the lines, cruelty continued to be a daily
Rastenburg to be
feature of the war in the East. That September 26, when a Lithuanian policeman
patrolling a street in the Kovno ghetto thought that he heard a shot being fired,
their war with the
1,800 Jews living in the street - men, women and children - were rounded up,
aval base at Pearl
loaded on to lorries, driven to one of the pre-First World War forts on the
Consul in Hawaii,
outskirts of the city, and killed. On the following day, on no provocation at all,
ones, and to report
3,446 Jews in the Lithuanian town of Eisiskes, including more than eight hundred
ch zone. American
children, were taken to specially dug pits in the Jewish cemetery, and shot down
ing no decrypting
by machine-gun fire.
Clipper. There was
The scale of the Special Task Force killings now exceeded anything previously
C 26 was cancelled
recorded: by the end of September, in a two-day massacre, 33,771 Jews had
t by sea, reaching
been murdered in the ravine at Babi Yar, on the outskirts of Kiev, and a further
d the fact that the
35,782 'Jews and Communists', according to the same Operational Situation
further three days'
Report - No. IOI of October 2 - in the Black Sea cities of Nikolayev and
was not considered
Kherson. There were German complaints, also, that their work of mass murder
f those in a dozen
was being obstructed. On September 28, at Kremenchug, the Russian mayor,
ted from Japanese
Vershovsky, ordered the baptism of several hundred Jews with a view to
protecting them from the slaughter. He was arrested and shot.
ents of the Enigma
lost secret military
On September 27, German forces captured Perekop, cutting off the Crimea from
is the Chief of the
the rest of southern Russia. That day, in the Baltimore Naval Yard, the United
ians asked for the
States launched a 10,000 ton merchant ship, the Patrick Henry, the first of what
cer with the British
were to be many thousand of standardized, mass produced vessels, known as
cy of the intercepts
'Liberty ships', and overcoming by their mere numbers and rapid construction
erman War Office.
the loss inflicted upon Britain by the incessant German submarine attacks. With
hern attack. Hitler
many of the parts prefabricated before the final assembly, one such ship, the
10scow, for which
Robert E. Peary, was constructed in the extraordinary record time of four days.
their transfer from
On September 28, the first British convoy of war supplies to Russia, Convoy
V and the Crimea,
PQ I, left Iceland for Archangel. Two days later, Churchill announced in the
to be checked and
House of Commons that the whole British tank production of the week just
lussian tank, the T-
ended was to be sent to Russia. Large quantities of aluminium, rubber and
aber 26 that the SS
copper, as earlier requested by Stalin, had already been despatched. On October
ion special 'Tank
2, as German forces prepared to launch Operation Typhoon against Moscow,
itherto devastating
Churchill read the German secret messages giving details of the assault. 'Are
ted of two officers
you warning the Russians of the developing concentrations?' he asked the head
bombs in satchels,
of the Secret Intelligence Service, and he added: 'Show me the last five messages
ian tank that had
you have sent.
troy or disable the
In Moscow, the Anglo-American Mission headed by Lord Beaverbrook and
Averell Harriman was finding out what Russia required, and doing its utmost
ted what could be
to meet Stalin's requests. It was the Americans, for example, who were able to
which had broken
satisfy his appeal for four hundred tons of barbed wire a month. On September
tank on his own,
30, Lord Beaverbrook agreed to send Russia the whole of Britain's share of her
conating them with
forthcoming supplies from the United States: 1,800 fighter aircraft, 2,250 tanks,
X remaining Soviet
500 anti-tank guns, 23,000 tommy guns, 25,000 tons of copper, 27,000 tons of
vehicles, they were
rubber and 250,000 soldiers' greatcoats.
The extent of Britain's material pledge to Russia was formidable, covering
239
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United States Holocaust Memorial Council
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To: Naomi Paiss acc: Sara Bloomfield)
From: Sybil Milton
Re: Background on Babi Yar
Date: 17 July 1991
Babi Yar
Babi Yar ravine, located to the northwest of the Ukrainian city of Kiev, is
the site of the massacre of 33,771 Jews on September 29-30, 1941. Kiev was
captured on September 19, 1941 by the 29th Corps and Sixth German Army.
Kiev originally had a Jewish population of 160,000 people; 100,000 Jews had
fled the city before the Germans occupied it.
From 24-28 September, a large number of buildings in the center of Kiev
were blown up. The Germans decided to retaliate for this sabotage by killing
the Jews of Kiev. The SS and Police Leader in Southern Russian Lieutenant
General (SS Obergruppenführer) Friedrich Jeckeln and mobile killing squad
(Einsatzkommando) 4a of Einsatzgruppe C, consisting of SS security police
and security service men reinforced by German police battalions and
Ukrainian auxiliaries were assigned to kill the Jews of Kiev.
On 28 September, posters appeared throughout Kiev ordering the Jews
to report for resettlement the next morning, at 8 AM on 29 September 1941.
The text of this announcement had been prepared by Propaganda Company 637
and printed by the German Sixth Army print shop. On 29 September, the Jews
walked from the intersection of Melnik and Dekhtyarev streets in Kiev to
the Jewish cemetery, located at the southern end of the ravine known as
Babi Yar. The area was cordoned off by barbed wire and guarded by German
and Ukrainian police as well as by the Waffen-SS. At the ravine, the Jews
were forced to turn over all valuables in their possession, to disrobe, and
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then walk to the ravine in groups of ten. At the edge of the ditch, they
were mowed down by automatic fire.
In the months that followed many additional thousands of Jews were
taken to Babi Yar and shot. Babi Yar was also the site where Gypsies and
Soviet prisoners of war were murdered. Postwar Soviet legal and forensic
experts have estimated that at least 100,000 persons were murdered at Babi
Yar.
In July 1943, Paul Blobel, who had been the Commander of Einsatzkom-
mando 4a of Einsatzgruppe C in 1941 and 1942, and was thus responsible for
the massacre at Babi Yar, returned to the scene of his crimes at Babi Yar
and Kiev. In 1943 he was appointed chief of Commando 1005 for the
exhumation and burning of corpses buried after the mass executions he had
previously committed. After the war, Blobel was sentenced to death by the
United States Military Tribunal at Nuremberg in 1948, and executed in 1951.
Together with SS Lieutenant Colonel (SS Obersturmbannführer) Baumann,
Blobel ordered that the corpses at Babi Yar be exhumed in mid-August 1943.
This gruesome task was performed by prisoners from the nearby Syretsk
concentration camp; the labor commando assigned to this job included 100
Jewish prisoners and 227 other prisoners. The prisoners were temporarily
housed in small bunkers built from the ravine wall at Babi Yar. At night,
they were locked in with an iron gate, and a cordon of armed German guards
watched them. The mass graves were opened by bulldozers and the prisoners
dragged the corpses to open cremation pyres, built of wooden logs atop
railroad ties doused with gasoline. The bones that could not be incinerated
were crushed with special "bone-crushing" machines. The ashes were then
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sifted to retrieve any gold or silver particles. Cremation of the corpses
took place for six weeks from August 18 to September 19, 1943. On September
29, 1943, the prisoners who had labored at this gruesome task were taken
to be executed. In desperation, 25 prisoners broke out of the enclosure at
Babi-Yar; 15 escaped, the others were shot on the spot.
After the war, Ilya Ehrenburg called for amemorial at Babi Yar. In 1961, the
poet Yevgeni Yevtuschenko published a poem commemorating "Babi Yar." In
1962, Dimitri Shostakovich (check spelling) set Yevtuschenko's poem to music,
including it in his 13th Symphony. In 1966, a memorial for Babi Yar was
begun; it was completed in 1974 and carries a Ukrainian inscription
commemorating "the victims of fascism during the German occupation of Kiev,
1941-1943."
Quotes of possible use:
In Operationsreport USSR (Ereignismeldung) No. 97, from Einsatzgruppe C in
Kiev, dated 28 Sept. 1941, it states:
" Town almost destroyed on entry of troops. Numerous barricades and tank
traps set up in main street. On September 28, the citadel blew up and the
Artillery Commander and his chief of staff were killed. On September 24,
violent explosions in the quarters of the Feldkommandatur; the ensuing fire
has not yet been extinguished. Fire in the center of the town. Very valuable
buildings have been destroyed. So far, fire fighting almost without any
effect. Demolitions by blasting being carried out to bring the fire under
control. Fire in the immediate neighborhood of this office. Had to be
evacuated for that reason. Considerable damage done in and around the
building Up to now, 670 mines detected in buildings all public buildings
and squares are mined, among them, allegedly also the building assigned to
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this office for future use It was repeatedly observed that fires broke out
the moment buildings were taken over. As has been proved, Jews played a
preeminent part. Allegedly 150,000 Jews living here. Verification of these
statements has not yet been possible. 1,600 arrests in the course of the
first operation, measures being evolved to check the entire Jewish
population. Execution of at least 50,000 Jews planned. German Army welcomes
measures and demands drastic procedure. Garrison commander advocates
public execution of 20 Jews. A large number of NKVD officials, political
commissars, partisan leaders and partisans arrested. According to reliable
information, demolition battalion of NKVD and considerable number of NKVD
men in Kiev. This morning, enemy plots detected Advance units of the
Higher SS and Police Leader have arrived. Detailed reports to follow."
Additional quotes from postwar West German prosecutions:
Source: Ernst Klee, Willi Dressen and Volker Riess, "Schöne Zeiten":
Judenmord aus der Sicht der Tater und Gaffer (Frankfurt: Fischer Verlag,
1988), pp. 66-70.
1. Statement by the Truck Drive Höfer, Aug. 27, 1959 to German prosecutors:
"One day, I was assigned to drive my truck to the outskirts of the city
[Kiev]. I was accompanied by an Ukrainian. It must have been about 10 AM.
En route, I was overtaken by columns of Jews, walking with luggage in the
same direction I was going. There were entire families. These columns of
people grew larger the further out of town we got. Piles of clothing lay in
a large empty field. This was my destination. I had been lured there by the
Ukrainian.
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After I stopped near the piles of clothing, my truck was then loaded
with these pieces of clothing. This task was done by the Ukrainians who
were assigned to this field. I looked at the place, where arriving Jews -
men, women, and children - were received by the Ukrainians. They were led
to various places, where they all laid down their luggage and then
undressed removing coats, shoes, garments, and even their underwear. They
also had to place their valuables in a specific location. A special pile was
made for each type of clothing. This moved very rapidly and when anyone
hesitated, things were speeded as the Ukrainians kicked and shoved them.
I think only a very few minutes elapsed between removal of a coat and total
nakedness. No distinction was made between men, women, and children. The
Jews who were last in line probably had some chance to flee upon seeing
the disrobing. I wonder today that this didn't occur.
The naked Jews were led into a ravine, whose measurements were
approxiamtely 150 meters long (ca. 450 ft.), 30 meters wide (ca. 90 ft.), and
a good 15 meters deep (ca. 45 ft.) Two or three small passages led into the
ravine and the Jews were channeled (?sluiced) into the large ditch. When
they entered the edge of the ravine, they were attacked by the Security
Police and shot while lying on top of the already murdered Jews. This
happened very rapidly. The corpses were in regular layers. When a Jew lay
down on the pile, a policeman came up with a machine gun and shot the
person in the neck. The Jews who entered this ravine were so horrified at
the gruesome sight that they lost all will-power. Allegedly, they even lay
down in rows, each awaiting their death shot.
There were only two marksmen who did the shooting, each posted at
opposite ends of the ravine I saw all of this for only a few moments. When
I approached the ravine, I was SO horrified by the sight, that I couldn't
stay there very long. I saw three rows of corpses in the ravine, each ca.
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60 meters (ca. 180 ft.) in length. I couldn't see how many layers were already
below the bodies in the gully. It was all so unbelievable, that I was not
able to register all of the details The ravine was located about 150
meters (ca. 450 ft.) from the first piles of clothing, but it was impossible
to see into the ravine from the piles of clothing and possessions left
behind. Moreover, there was a gusty wind and it was also very cold. One
couldn't hear the shots from inside the depth of the ravine I am still
puzzled today that the Jews didn't try anything to escape or stop what was
happening. New groups of people kept coming from the city to this field in
the belief that they were being resettled." (pp. 66-69)
2. Statement by Kurt Werner, member of squad (Einsatzkommando) 4a on 28 May
1964 to West German prosecutors:
"The entire unit, except for the guards, were marched to the shootings at
6 AM. I sat on a truck. Everything at our disposal was put into service. We
drove for about 20 minutes to the north. We stopped on a paved road next
to an open field. There were innumerable Jews assembled there and a place
had been set up, where the Jews had to deposit their luggage and clothing.
About a kilometer further on, I saw a natural ravine. It was sandy soil. The
ravine was 10 meters (ca. 30 ft.) deep, ca. 400 meters (ca. 1,200 ft.) long, and
ca. 80 meters (ca. 240 ft.) wide.
After arriving at the execution site, I together with other comrades
was compelled to go into this gully. It didn't take long before the first
Jews were led into the gully. The Jews had to lie face down in the soil.
There were three groups of marksmen in the gully, totalling about 12 men.
Constantly new groups of Jews were led into the gully to where the
marksmen stood. Each new group of Jews had to lie on the corpses of those
shot before them. The riflemen stood behind the Jews and killed them with
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shots to the neck/head... I spent the entire morning in the ditch and when
I wasn't assigned to shooting, I would refill the chambers of the weapons
with ammunition. We were ordered to leave the ravine at noon when our
replacements arrived. In the afternoon, we were assigned to taking the Jews
up to the ravine. The shooting lasted until 5 or 6 PM. We were then returned
to our quarters and given a ration of alcohol that night." (pp. 69-70)
3. Operations report [Ereignismeldung] No. 101, Kinsatzgruppe C, Kiev, dated
2 Oct. 1941:
"Sonderkommando 4a working together with the Staff and 2 units of Police
Regiment south executed 33,771 Jews on 29th and 30th September 1941 in
Kiev." (p. 69)
4. Operations report [Ereignismeldung] No. 128, 3 Nov. 1941:
"The difficulties of completing such a massive operation - especially the
registration - were overcome in Kiev, only because the Jews were encour-
aged to report voluntarily for resettlement with our posters. Although we
initially thought that only 5,000-6,000 Jews would show up, more than 30,000
Jews showed up as requested. Because of our skillful organization, they
believed they would be resettled until moments before they were killed.
Although 75,000 Jews have been liquidated until now, we are already positive
that these methods will not provide a solution for the Jewish problem." (p.
70)
Translation from the German by Sybil Milton
Translations from Ernst Klee and Willi Dressen, "Gott mit uns": Der deutsche
Vernichtungskrieg in Osten, 1939-1945 (Frankfurt Fischer, 1989), pp. 117-36.
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1. Includes eyewitness account by Dina Pronitschewa of Feb. 9, 1957 to
Soviet prosecutors, published later in the periodical Junost no. 8 (Aug.
1966):
"She went to read the orders. She read it through quickly and went
away again. No one stood about for any length of time looking at these
announcements, and few discussions took place Her parents, her mother just
home from a recent operation and still fragile, made her question: how would
her mother be able to travel? The old folks were convinced that they would
be placed in a train at Lukjanowka and deported to Soviet territory. Dina's
husband was Russian, she had a Russian surname, and moreover, she didn't
even look like a Jew. She considered the pros and cons, asked advice,
pondered matters once again, and finally decided, that her parents should
travel. Dina would accompany them, place them in the train, and remain
behind with her children, whatever might happen (p. 121)
With the first mmorning light, she dressed, took her papers, and went
to her parents nearby in Turgenjevska Street. There were more people about
than usual; all of them hurrying busily someplace.
She arrived at her parents home at 7 AM. The whole house was awake.
They said farewell to the neighbors, promised to write, turned over the keys
and contents of their home to these neighbors. The old folks couldn't carry
very much. They had nothing valuable in any case, but took only the
essentials and food with them. Dina carried their rucksack her back. They
left exactly at 8 AM In Turgenevska Street and also in Artem Street, many
people were already up and about. There was a crush of people with bundles,
carts, cars, even trucks - traffic was gridlocked, one could move a few
inches and then stop again. It was like a muted demonstration, but one
without flags, orchestras, or celebrations.
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Dina wore a fur coat. She felt much too hot. Around noon, they
reached the cemetery. She remembered seeing the brick wall and gate of the
cemetery. Barbed wire was strung across the street at this point. There
was a chain of Germans and also Ukrainian police in black uniforms. The
people filed single file through the controls, but no one returned. They left
their belongings behind and stumbled forward en masse accompanied by
whipping and curses of the guards. It made no sense at all. (pp. 122-23)
She placed the luggage in one pile to her left and the food in another
pile on the right. Nothing looked like a train station here and although she
didn't know what was happening, she instinctively felt that this was not a
deportation transport To reassure her parents, she told them: "There are
many different kinds of Germans, but in general they are cultivated and
respectable people." (p. 123).
Description of chain of soldiers, arrival at the ditch, chain of
soldiers with dogs on leashes, walking into the pits unclothed as though
made of wood (p. 124-26)
She feared to look at the person naked next to her. The number of
unclothed people in the gully grew steadily. She no longer heard the
screams or the gun shots. Dusk (nightfall) came. Dina came with the second
group of ten people into the ditch. There was a wall on the left, small
places for the riflemen on the right She began to dig in the sand with all
her might. Although she was covered with other bodies, she didn't move at
first. She didn't want to suffocate Her eyes were full of sand. It was
darker than hell and the air was heavy She crawled very slowly out of the
pile of bodies through the whole night. She then found a bush at the edge
of the gulley, where she could hide. She had hallucinations, imagining that
her mother, father, and sister were walking past her She crawled to a
garbage dump, where she located scraps of paper and rags to cover herself.
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She discovered a small house nearby behind a gate early in the dawn hours.
There were 20 soldiers at breakfast in the house. They offered her some
clothing and a chance to escape. She thought it was a trap. Eventually she
took the opportunity and fled to her sister-in-law's home, since her sister-
in-law was Polish...."
2. The second report is by Jakow Abramowitsch Kapjer, who escaped Babi-Yar
twice (once in 1941, the second time in 1943): PP. 133-34.
"On 29-30 September 1941, the Germans transported the prisoners by truck
to Babi-Yar in order to execute them. I sprung from the truck on the way
to Babi-Yar, but I couldn't hide forced labor assignment one of the few to
escape on 29 Sept. 1943 from the prisoner detail burning corpses.
Summary and translation from the German by Sybil Milton
NAOMI: I think the first quotes are better. The German version of the
Russian language material is stilted and third person and somehow the
flavor of the originals never really come through.
Sources:
Anatoly Kutznetsov, Babi Yar (New York, 1967)
Ilya Ehrenburg, and others, The Black Book of Soviet Jewry (New York:
Holocaust Library, 1981), pp. 3-12.
Ernst Klee and Willi Dressen, and Volker Riess, "Schöne Zeiten": Judenmord
aus der Sicht der Täter und Gaffer (Frankfurt: Fischer Verlag, 1988) pp. 66-
70. (see 4 translations above from postwar German judicial investigations
and prosecutions)
Ernst Klee and Willi Dressen, "Gott mit uns": Der deutsche Vernichtungskrieg
im Osten, 1939-1945 (Frankfurt: Fischer Verlag, 1989), pp- 117-36 (reports by
survivors)
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Yitzhak Arad, Shmuel Krakowski, and Smuel Spector, ed., The Einsatzgruppen
Reports (New York: Holocaust Library, 1989)