75: Babi Yar

From USA Today:

"75 years ago: 33,771 Jews slaughtered at Babi Yar"

The slaughter of 33,771 Jews began in a valley near Nazi-occupied Kiev 75 years ago Thursday, one of the most grim atrocities of the 20th century. The mass executions of men, women and children at the Babi Yar massacre took place over 48-hours between Sept. 29-30, 1941. They were ordered to strip, then marched to the ravine and shot to death by machine-gun fire. The massacre was an early example of how Nazi Germany learned how to commit murder on an unprecedented scale. Ukraine is marking the massacre's anniversary with a weeklong memorial attended by delegations from the United States and Israel, including President Reuven Rivlin.  Rivlin, who cut short his trip to attend the funeral of Israeli statesman Shimon Peres, addressed Ukraine's parliament on Tuesday. "The blood of our brothers and sisters, that was spilled at that dark time, places upon us the duty to remember, and teach the whole world, about the dangers of not just anti-semitism, but of all hatred, and all racism. While we mourn the past, we must also speak about the present, and look to the future," he said. Ukrainians, Romani and other non-Jewish groups were also killed at Babi Yar at the hands of Nazis with the help of Ukrainians. "While Babi Yar was organized by the Nazis, there were willing helpers in the Ukrainian militia," said World Jewish Congress President Ronald S. Lauder. "This happened all across Europe. In almost every occupied country, local people helped the Germans round up their Jews. In some cases, the locals were even more enthusiastic in their killing than the Nazis. And that is what happened at Babi Yar." Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko spoke Thursday about the importance of creating a memorial center dedicated to the victims of the Holocaust in Ukraine, and those killed at Babi Yar. “The creation of the Babi Yar Holocaust Memorial Center is very significant for the whole of humanity. This center must become a part of the efforts of civilized people to assure the triumph of human values in the research of historical truth,” Poroshenko said. The center is expected to open in 2021, and will coincide with the 80th anniversary of Babi Yar. Up to 6 million Jews — approximately two-thirds of Jews in Europe — were murdered during the Holocaust. Millions of non-Jewish people were also exterminated including communists, homosexuals, resistance fighters and people with physical and mental disabilities.

^ Babi Yar is one of the worst massacres of the European-theater of World War 2. I visited Babi Yar (and took the picture above) when I was in Kyiv, the Ukraine. It is such a hollowed place and yet it is used by ordinary people - including families - everyday. I doubt that the majority of those people even know what happened there despite the different memorials. After the war the Soviets (who were very anti-Semitic) allowed a memorial a mile away from the actual massacre site and it couldn't mention the Jewish victims (even though 99.9%  of the 33,771 were Jews) and could only mention the Soviet victims in general. It wasn't until after the USSR collapsed and the Ukraine gained its independence in 1991 that the memorials were put in the exact site that the crime happened. 75 years may have gone by since the massacre, but it is still a very important part of 20th Century history as well as World History in general. ^

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2016/09/29/48-hours-33-771-jews-slaughtered-babi-yar/91258042/