Today is the anniversary of the Babyn Yar tragedy: how many people were shot by the Nazis in Kyiv in the last days of September 1941
Kyiv • UNN
On September 29, Ukraine and the world commemorate the victims of Babyn Yar. In two days in 1941, the Nazis shot nearly 34,000 Jews, and about 100,000 people were killed there in total.
Today, on September 29, Ukraine and many countries around the world commemorate the victims of the Babyn Yar tragedy, UNN reports.
The executions in the Babyn Yar tract began immediately after the Nazis entered Kyiv. But the most tragic were on September 29 and 30, 1941.
According to some historians, the Nazis used the bombing of several buildings in the center of Kyiv in the 20s of September by Soviet saboteurs as a pretext for the massacre of Jews.
After that, notices were posted in Kyiv that all the city's Jews should arrive on September 29 in the morning at the corner of Melnykova and Degtyarivska streets. They were to bring their documents, valuables, and necessary clothing. Before the war, about 160 thousand Jews lived in Kyiv. By the time the city was occupied by the Nazis, about 60 thousand remained.
On September 29, 1941, huge lines of people stretched to the Babyn Yar area, who at the time did not understand what awaited them.
They were allegedly registered for some reason. Then they took all their belongings, forced them to undress, and shot 40-50 people per minute. They were shot on an almost half-kilometer-long stretch of ravine that began near the monument erected in 1976 and ended behind the current Dorohozhychi metro station. The bodies were covered with earth, and the execution continued.
The continuous sounds of gunfire were muffled by music and the engine of an airplane flying over Babyn Yar.
In two days, the Nazis killed nearly 34,000 Jews at Babyn Yar. The Sonderkommando 4a, led by SS-Standartenführer Paul Blobel, was responsible for the executions in late September.
Regular executions in Babyn Yar continued after that. In particular, over 600 members of the OUN were killed here within two years.
The exact number of people shot in Babyn Yar is impossible to establish. It is believed that the Nazis killed about 100,000 people here before they were driven out of Kyiv.
