Editing Babi Yar (section)

==Massacres of September 1941==
{{See also|Battle of Kiev (1941)}}

Axis forces, mainly German, occupied Kyiv on 19 September 1941. Between 20 and 28 September, explosives planted by the [[NKVD|Soviet secret police]] (the NKVD) caused extensive damage in the city, and on 24 September an explosion rocked Rear Headquarters Army Group South.<ref name="kyivpost">{{cite news | title=Remembering the Kyiv Inferno, 1941 | work=Kyiv Post | date=25 September 2016 }}</ref> Two days later, on 26 September, Maj. Gen. [[Kurt Eberhard]], the military governor, and SS-{{lang|de|[[Obergruppenführer]]}} [[Friedrich Jeckeln]], the [[SS and Police Leader]], met at Rear Headquarters Army Group South. There, they decided to exterminate the Jews of Kyiv, claiming that it was retaliation for the explosions.<ref>
* {{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QSpUZ6t6BPwC&q=Kurt+Eberhard+kiev&pg=PA95
|title=War of Annihilation: Combat and Genocide on the Eastern Front |first1=Geoffrey P. |last1=Megargee |author-link=Geoffrey P. Megargee |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-7425-4481-9 |page=95 }}
* {{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=tdYkMPfUSUAC&q=eberhard&pg=PA141 |title=A War to Be Won: Fighting the Second World War |first1=Williamson
|last1=Murray |first2= Allan R. |last2=Millett |publisher=Harvard University Press
|year=2001 |isbn=0-674-00680-1 |page=141 }}</ref> Also present were SS-{{lang|de|[[Standartenführer]]}} [[Paul Blobel]], commander of {{lang|de|Sonderkommando}} 4a of {{lang|de|Einsatzgruppe}} C, and his superior, SS-{{lang|de|[[Brigadeführer]]}} Dr. [[Otto Rasch]], commander of {{lang|de|[[Einsatzgruppen|Einsatzgruppe]]}} C. The mass murder was to be carried out by units under the command of Rasch and Blobel, who were ultimately responsible for many atrocities in Soviet Ukraine during the summer and autumn of 1941.

The implementation of the order was entrusted to {{lang|de|Sonderkommando}} 4a of {{lang|de|Einsatzgruppe}} C commanded by Blobel, under the general command of Friedrich Jeckeln.<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.holocaustchronicle.org/staticpages/270.html |title=1941: Mass Murder |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131029193800/http://www.holocaustchronicle.org/staticpages/270.html |archive-date=29 October 2013 }} The Holocaust Chronicle. p. 270</ref> This unit consisted of {{lang|de|[[Sicherheitsdienst]]}} (SD) and {{lang|de|[[Sicherheitspolizei]]}} (SiPo), the third company of the Special Duties [[Waffen-SS|{{lang|de|cat=no|Waffen}}-SS]] battalion, and a platoon of the 9th Police Battalion. {{lang|de|Sonderkommando}} 4a of {{lang|de|Einsatzgruppe}} C and Police Battalion 45, commanded by Major Besser, conducted the massacre, supported by members of a {{lang|de|Waffen}}-SS battalion. Contrary to the "[[Myth of the clean Wehrmacht|myth of the clean {{lang|de|cat=no|Wehrmacht}}]]", the [[6th Army (Wehrmacht)|Sixth Army]] under the command of Field Marshal [[Walter von Reichenau]] worked together with the SS and SD to plan and execute the mass-murder of the Jews of Kyiv.<ref name=":0">{{cite book|last1=Wette|  first1=Wolfram| author-link1 = Wolfram Wette | title=Die Wehrmacht: Feindbilder, Vernichtungskrieg, Legenden|language=de|date=2005|publisher=Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag|location=Frankfurt am Main|isbn=3596156459|pages=115–128|edition=revised}}</ref>

On 26 September 1941, the following order was posted:

{{blockquote|
All Yids{{efn|name="yids"|The order was posted in German, Ukrainian, and in the largest letters, Russian. In only the Russian version is the defamatory word "zhid" ({{lang|ru|жид}}) used for Jews. The respectful Russian word is "yevrey" ({{lang|ru|еврей}}). The word "zhyd" ({{lang|uk|жид}}) in Ukrainian was at the time<!--Wiktionary notes it is now often considered offensive in Ukrainian due to its offensiveness in Russian.--> not defamatory at all, as noted by [[Nikita Khrushchev]] in his memoirs: "I remember that once we invited Ukrainians, Jews and Poles&nbsp;... to a meeting at the Lvov [Lviv] opera house. It struck me as very strange to hear the Jewish speakers at the meeting refer to themselves as 'yids.' 'We yids hereby declare ourselves in favour of such-and-such.' Out in the lobby after the meeting I stopped some of these men and demanded, 'How dare you use the word "yid?" Don't you know it's a very offensive term, an insult to the Jewish nation?' 'Here in the Western Ukraine it's just the opposite,' they explained. 'We call ourselves yids'&nbsp;... Apparently what they said was true. If you go back to Ukrainian literature&nbsp;... you'll see that 'yid' isn't used derisively or insultingly."<ref>{{cite book |first=Nikita |last=Khrushchev |title=Khrushchev Remembers |url=https://archive.org/details/khrushchevrememb00khru |url-access=registration |location=New York |publisher=Bantam Books |year=1971 |page=[https://archive.org/details/khrushchevrememb00khru/page/145 145]}}</ref>}} of the city of Kiev and its vicinity must appear on Monday, 29 September, by 8 o'clock in the morning at the corner of Mel'nikova and Dokterivskaya streets (near the Viis'kove cemetery). Bring documents, money and valuables, and also warm clothing, linen, etc.

Any Yids who do not follow this order and are found elsewhere will be shot. Any civilians who enter the dwellings left by Yids and appropriate the things in them will be shot.|Order posted in Kyiv in Russian, Ukrainian, and German on or around 26 September 1941<ref name=Berenbaum97>[[Michael Berenbaum|Berenbaum, Michael]]. ''The World Must Know'', United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, this edition 2006, pp. 97–98.</ref>}}

[[File:Big-babijar14.jpg|thumb|right|Notice dated 28 September 1941 in [[Russian language|Russian]], [[Ukrainian language|Ukrainian]] with [[German language|German]] translation ordering all Kyivan Jews to assemble for supposed resettlement]]
On 29 and 30 September 1941, the Nazis and their collaborators murdered approximately 33,771 [[Jews|Jewish]] civilians at Babi Yar.<ref name="USHMM">{{cite encyclopedia|url=http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005421|title=Kiev and Babi Yar|encyclopedia=Holocaust Encyclopedia|publisher=[[United States Holocaust Memorial Museum]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070103133722/http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005421|archive-date=3 January 2007}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Prusin|first=Alexander V.|date=Spring 2007|title=A Community of Violence: The SiPo/SD and Its Role in the Nazi Terror System in Generalbezirk Kiew|journal=Holocaust and Genocide Studies|volume=21|pages=1–30|doi=10.1093/hgs/dcm001|s2cid=146390847 |issn=1476-7937 }}</ref><ref name="HC-270">{{cite web|title=The Holocaust Chronicle: Massacre at Babi Yar|website=The Holocaust Chronicle|format=web site|url=http://www.holocaustchronicle.org/staticpages/270.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131029193800/http://www.holocaustchronicle.org/staticpages/270.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=29 October 2013|access-date=17 December 2007}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|first=Victoria |last=Khiterer|author-link1=Victoria Khiterer |year=2004|title=Babi Yar: The tragedy of Kiev's Jews|url=http://www.brandeis.edu/gsa/gradjournal/2004/khiterer2004.pdf|url-status=live|journal=Brandeis Graduate Journal|volume=2|pages=1–16|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071128164646/http://www.brandeis.edu/gsa/gradjournal/2004/khiterer2004.pdf|archive-date=28 November 2007|access-date=20 January 2008}}</ref> The order to murder the Jews of Kyiv was given to {{lang|de|Sonderkommando}} 4a of {{lang|de|Einsatzgruppe}} C, consisting of SD and SiPo men, the third company of the Special Duties {{lang|de|Waffen}}-SS battalion, and a platoon of the No. 9 police battalion. These units were reinforced by police battalions Nos. 45 and 303, by units of the Ukrainian auxiliary police, and supported by local collaborators.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Encyclopedia of the Holocaust|volume=1|last=Gutman|first=Israel|publisher=Macmillan|year=1990|pages=133–136}}</ref> {{lang|de|Sonderkommando}} 4a and the 45th Battalion of the German Order Police conducted the shootings. Servicemen of the 303rd Battalion of the German Order Police at this time guarded the outer perimeter of the execution site.<ref name=MtVol4/><ref name=Kruglov/><ref name=Evstafieva/><ref name=ProcISC/>

The commander of the {{lang|de|[[Einsatzkommando]]}} reported two days later:<ref name="Gilbert">{{cite book |author-link=Martin Gilbert |last=Gilbert |first=Martin |year=1985 |title=The Holocaust: A History of the Jews of Europe During the Second World War |publisher=Holt, Rinehart and Winston |isbn=0-03-062416-9 |page=[https://archive.org/details/holocausthistory00gilb/page/202 202] |url=https://archive.org/details/holocausthistory00gilb/page/202 }}</ref>

{{blockquote|The difficulties resulting from such a large scale action—in particular concerning the seizure—were overcome in Kiev by requesting the Jewish population through wall posters to move. Although only a participation of approximately 5,000 to 6,000 Jews had been expected at first, more than 30,000 Jews arrived who, until the very moment of their execution, still believed in their resettlement, thanks to an extremely clever organization.<ref>Nuremberg Military Tribunal, ''Einsatzgruppen trial'', Judgment, at page 426, quoting exhibit NO-3157.</ref>}}

According to the testimony of a truck driver named Hofer, victims were ordered to undress and were beaten if they resisted:

{{blockquote|I watched what happened when the Jews—men, women and children—arrived. The Ukrainians{{efn|name="Ukrainians"|While the witness referred to {{nowrap|"[t]he}} Ukrainians" there has only been one documented Ukrainian speaker at Babi Yar, and that was Second Lieutenant Joseph Muller, an ethnic German from [[Galicia (eastern Europe)|Galicia]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/the-dark-secrets-of-babi-yar-1583.html|title=The dark secrets of Babi Yar |date=2 October 1998|work=Kyiv Post|access-date=14 March 2018|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150218141949/http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/the-dark-secrets-of-babi-yar-1583.html|archive-date=18 February 2015}}</ref> Thus, it is more accurate to describe these people as "Ukrainian speakers". A German policeman who guarded Babi Yar testified in 1965 that "the Jews were guarded by Wehrmacht units and by a Hamburg Police Battalion, which, as far as I can remember, carried the number 303."<ref>{{cite book |editor-first=Peter |editor-last=Longerich |editor-link=Peter Longerich |year=1989 |title=Die Ermordung der europäischen Juden: Eine umfassende Dokumentation der Holocaust 1941–1945 |language=de |location=Munich and Zurich |publisher=Piper |page=123 |isbn=9783492110600 |oclc=1198514341}}</ref>}} led them past a number of different places where one after the other they had to give up their luggage, then their coats, shoes and over-garments and also underwear. They also had to leave their valuables in a designated place. There was a special pile for each article of clothing. It all happened very quickly and anyone who hesitated was kicked or pushed by the Ukrainians{{efn|name="Ukrainians"}} to keep them moving.|Michael Berenbaum: "Statement of Truck-Driver Hofer describing the murder of Jews at Babi Yar"<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.einsatzgruppenarchives.com/hofer.html |title=Statement of Truck-Driver Hofer describing the murder of Jews at Babi Yar |access-date=9 January 2006 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070606213149/http://www.einsatzgruppenarchives.com/hofer.html |archive-date=6 June 2007 }} Cited in {{cite book |author-link=Michael Berenbaum |last=Berenbaum |first=Michael |title=Witness to the Holocaust |location=New York |publisher=HarperCollins |year=1997| pages=138–139}}</ref>}}

The crowd was large enough that most of the victims could not have known what was happening until it was too late; by the time they heard the [[machine gun]] fire, there was no chance to escape. All were driven down a corridor of soldiers, in groups of ten, and then shot. A truck driver described the scene.

{{blockquote|Once undressed, they were led into the ravine which was about 150 metres long and 30 metres wide and a good 15 metres deep&nbsp;... When they reached the bottom of the ravine they were seized by members of the {{lang|de|Schutzpolizei}} and made to lie down on top of Jews who had already been shot&nbsp;... The corpses were literally in layers. A police marksman came along and shot each Jew in the neck with a [[submachine gun]]&nbsp;... I saw these marksmen stand on layers of corpses and shoot one after the other&nbsp;... The marksman would walk across the bodies of the executed Jews to the next Jew, who had meanwhile lain down, and shoot him.<ref name=Berenbaum97/>}}

In the evening, the Germans undermined the wall of the ravine and buried the people under the thick layers of earth.<ref name="Gilbert" /> According to the {{lang|de|Einsatzgruppe}}'s Operational Situation Report, 33,771 Jews from Kyiv and its suburbs were systematically shot dead by machine-gun fire at Babi Yar on 29 and 30 September 1941.<ref>[http://www.einsatzgruppenarchives.com/osr101.html Operational Situation Report No. 101] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061207163856/http://www.einsatzgruppenarchives.com/osr101.html |date=7 December 2006 }} (einsatzgruppenarchives.com)</ref> The money, valuables, underwear, and clothing of the murdered were turned over to the local [[Volksdeutsche|ethnic Germans]] and to the Nazi administration of the city.<ref>Nuremberg Military Tribunal, ''Einsatzgruppen trial'', Judgment, at p. 430.</ref> Wounded victims were buried alive in the ravine along with the rest of the bodies.<ref>{{cite book|last=Lawrence|first=Bill|title=Six Presidents, Too Many Wars|url=https://archive.org/details/sixpresidentstoo00lawr|url-access=registration|year=1972|publisher=Saturday Review Press|location=New York|page=[https://archive.org/details/sixpresidentstoo00lawr/page/93 93]|isbn=9780841501430}}</ref><ref name="haaretz06">{{cite news |url=http://www.haaretz.com/news/yad-vashem-tries-to-name-babi-yar-victims-but-only-10-identified-1.198036 |title=Yad Vashem tries to name Babi Yar victims, but only 10% identified |access-date=3 August 2010 |newspaper=Haaretz |first=Amiram |last=Barkat |display-authors=etal |date=September 2006 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110523040842/http://www.haaretz.com/news/yad-vashem-tries-to-name-babi-yar-victims-but-only-10-identified-1.198036 |archive-date=23 May 2011 }}</ref>