As someone who was fully-engrossed in Ukrainian culture from my 2 years living there, I would be remiss if I didn't mention that today is the 65th anniversary of the massacre of Babi Yar.
When I lived there in the mid 90s I spoke with a man who remembered seeing the first German tanks drive into Kiev on September 19th, 1941. What he didn't know then was that a terrible massacre of Jewish Ukrainians would take place 10 days later.
On the 28th, a decree was sent around saying:
"All Jews living in the city of Kiev and its vicinity are to report by 8 o'clock on the morning of Monday, September 29, 1941, to the corner of Melnikovsky and Dokhturov Streets (near the cemetery). They are to take with them documents, money, valuables, as well as warm clothes, underwear, etc. Any Jew not carrying out this instruction and who is found elsewhere will be shot. Any civilian entering flats evacuated by Jews and stealing property will be shot."
Most Jews simply thought they would be loaded onto trains and deported for awhile. What really happened was, they were ordered to undress, beaten, had their property stolen, and were led to the edge of Babi Yar gorge and shot. At least 33,771 were killed 65 years ago today and tomorrow. In only 2 days.
There is much more to know about Babi Yar than I wrote and the links here can fill in the blanks. Prepare to be horrified as you read of the clean up effort (towards the bottom of the page and in more detail elsewhere), and escape of the prisoners who had to do the work to cover up what the Nazis did at Babi Yar. Perhaps the best page of links is here.
Thankfully, this is how I knew Babi Yar. Memorial garden with monuments. The Russian word for monument is pommyatnik. The root word is from the verb: to remember. May we all remember what was done at Babi Yar and never let it happen again whether in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, or Heaven-forbid, here in North America.
