75 years ago: In 48 hours, 33,771 Jews slaughtered at Babi Yar

Seventy-five years ago Thursday the slaughter of 33,771 Jews began in a valley near Nazi-occupied Kiev.

The mass executions of men, women and children at Babi Yar took place over a 48-hour period between September 29-30, 1941.

They were ordered to strip, marched to the ravine and machine-gunned.

It was one of the most grim atrocities of the 20th century and an early example of how Nazi Germany learned how to commit murder on an unprecedented scale.......

Ukraine is marking the anniversary with a weeklong memorial attended by delegations from the United States and Israel including President Reuven Rivlin.

 

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko attends a ceremony

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko attends a ceremony at the monument to Jewish victims of Nazi massacres in Ukraine's capital Kiev, on Sept. 29. (Photo: AP)

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 Ukrainian collaborators.

"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."

Up to six million Jews — approximately 30% 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 (Russian: Бабий Яр, Babiy Yar; Ukrainian: Бабин Яр, Babyn Yar) is a ravine in the Ukrainian capital Kiev and a site of massacres carried out by German forces and local collaborators during their campaign against the Soviet Union.
The most notorious and the best documented of these massacres took place from 29–30 September 1941, wherein 33,771 Jews were killed. The decision to kill all the Jews in Kiev was made by the military governor, Major-General Kurt Eberhard, the Police Commander for Army Group South, SS-Obergruppenführer Friedrich Jeckeln, and the Einsatzgruppe C Commander Otto Rasch. It was carried out by Sonderkommando 4a soldiers, along with the aid of the SD and SS Police Battalions backed by the local police