September 29 is a special date in the history of Ukraine and the world. This day commemorates the victims of Babi Yar, the place where the Nazis carried out one of the largest mass shootings during the Second World War. Tens of thousands of people were killed here in September 1941, and this tragedy left an indelible mark in history.
Shootings in the Babyn Yar tract began immediately after the Nazis entered Kyiv. But September 29 and 30, 1941 became the most tragic.
According to some historians, the Nazis used the detonation of several buildings in the center of Kyiv by Soviet saboteurs in the 20s of September as a pretext for the massacre of Jews.
After that, an announcement was posted in Kyiv that all Jews of the city should arrive on the morning of September 29 at the corner of Melnikova and Degtyarivska Streets. At the same time, take documents, valuables and necessary clothes with you. Before the war, about 160,000 Jews lived in Kyiv. At the time of the occupation of the city by the Nazis, there were about 60,000 of them left.
On September 29, 1941, huge queues of people, who at that moment did not understand what was waiting for them, stretched to the Babiny Yar area.
They were allegedly being registered for something. Then they took away all their belongings, forced them to undress, and shot 40-50 people per minute. Shots were fired on an almost half-kilometer stretch of the ravine, which began near the monument erected in 1976 and ended behind the current Dorogozhichi metro station. The bodies were sprinkled with earth, and the execution continued.
The continuous sounds of gunfire were muffled by the music and the engine of the plane flying over Baby Yar.
In two days, the Nazis killed almost 34,000 Jews in Babi Yar. The executor of the executions at the end of September was Sonderkommando 4a under the command of SS Standardenführer Paul Blobel.
Regular shootings in Babiny Yar continued even after that. In particular, over 600 members of the OUN were killed here over the course of two years.
It is impossible to establish the exact number of those shot in Babyny Yar. It is believed that the Nazis, before they were kicked out of Kyiv, killed about 100,000 people here.
