{"id":38800,"date":"2026-10-07T05:59:35","date_gmt":"2026-10-07T09:59:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ukrainianjewishencounter.org\/?p=38800"},"modified":"2026-10-07T06:43:04","modified_gmt":"2026-10-07T10:43:04","slug":"babyn-yar-history-and-memory-chapter-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ukrainianjewishencounter.org\/en\/babyn-yar-history-and-memory-chapter-5\/","title":{"rendered":"\"Babyn Yar: History and Memory\" \u2014 Chapter 5"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Ukrainian Jewish Encounter was founded in 2008 with the goal of building stronger relations between Ukrainians and Jews, two peoples who, for centuries, lived side by side on the territory of what is modern-day Ukraine. Since then, in keeping with its motto, \"Our stories are incomplete without each other,\" UJE has sponsored conferences, round-table discussions and research, as well as translations and publication of works the organization anticipates will promote a deeper understanding between the two peoples and an appreciation of their respective cultures.<\/p>\n

We offer for the first time the book Babyn Yar: History and Memory<\/em> in eBook format.<\/p>\n

A ravine on the outskirts of Kyiv on September 29-30, 1941, was witness to one of the great atrocities of the Holocaust. There, over a two-day period, nearly 34,000 Kyiv Jews were shot to death in one of the first major events that has become known as the \u201cHolocaust by Bullets\u201d.<\/p>\n

With deep compassion and understanding, a group of internationally-renowned scholars discuss the treatment of Babyn Yar in culture, music, and the arts from Stalinist times to our own. Beyond the detailed and harrowing accounts of what took place in Kyiv in late September 1941, the essays in this volume realize the importance of preserving Babyn Yar as a symbol of the Holocaust and other tragedies of the twentieth century.<\/p>\n

Babyn Yar: History and Memory<\/em> was edited by Paul Robert Magocsi, Professor Emeritus of history and political science at the University of Toronto, where from 1980 to 2025 he held the professorial Chair of Ukrainian Studies and Vladislav Hrynevych, Leading Scholar at the Kuras Institute for Political and Ethnic Studies, Ukraine.<\/p>\n

The book (Ukrainian version) was published in conjunction with a series of events sponsored by UJE to commemorate the 75th<\/sup> anniversary of Babyn Yar<\/a>. Published in 2016 by Dukh i Litra<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Publication of the English version (2023) was made possible by the generous support of the Ukrainian Jewish Encounter, Toronto, Canada. Distributed by the University of Toronto Press for the Chair of Ukrainian Studies, University of Toronto,<\/p>\n

(The editors appreciate the support of the sponsor and acknowledge that the views expressed herein are not necessarily those of the Ukrainian Jewish Encounter.)<\/p>\n

Chapter 5<\/h1>\n

Click here for a pdf <\/a>of the entire book.<\/p>\n

Babyn Yar: Executioners and Rescuers<\/h2>\n

Oleksandr Kruglov<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The mass killing of Kyiv's Jews in late September\u2013early October 1941 was a genocidal crime and a crime against humanity. As in all such crimes, several elements were involved: Nazi Germany's highest leaders (Hitler, Himmler), organizers (Higher SS and Police F\u00fchrer in Russia-South Obergruppenf\u00fchrer Friedrich Jeckeln), executors (German punitive organs \u2014 the SD, SS, police), instigators (the Wehrmacht), and accomplices (the Ukrainian Auxiliary Police). All these elements can be considered to various degrees as the executioners of Babyn Yar.<\/p>\n

The role of the Wehrmacht in organizing the destruction of the Jews
\n<\/strong>Units of the Seventy-first and Seventy-fifth infantry divisions and the Ninety-ninth Light Infantry Division, which were part of the Twenty-ninth Army Corps, entered Kyiv at about noon on 19 September 1941.[1]<\/sup><\/a> At this time about 400,000 residents were still in the city; out of some 930,000 inhabitants in mid-1941, about 200,000 were called up for military service after 22 June 1941, and 325,000 were evacuated.[2]<\/sup><\/a> Before the war about one in four residents of the city was a Jew, and as will become clear below one in ten of the remaining 400,000 was a Jew.[3]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Fifty-three SS-men commanded by Obersturmf\u00fchrers August H\u00e4fner and Adolf Janssen and a part of the staff of Einsatzgruppe C arrived in the city in eight trucks together with the advanced Wehrmacht units.[4]<\/sup><\/a> The bulk of the Sonderkommando, which was carrying out an \"action\" in Zhytomyr (on 19 September 3,145 Jews were executed) only arrived in Kyiv on 25 September together with most of the staff of Einsatzgruppe C and the attached Third Company of the SS Special Assignment Battalion (commander SS Obersturmf\u00fchrer Bernhard Grafhorst).[5]<\/sup><\/a> The following day, 26 September, a unit of Sonderkommando 4a began action in the city with permission of the Sixth Army.[6]<\/sup><\/a> The police regiment S\u00fcd arrived in Kyiv the same day. It was composed of the Forty-fifth Reserve Police Battalion (commander Police Major and SS Sturmbannf\u00fchrer Heinrich Hannibal), as well as part of the staff of SS and Police F\u00fchrer and of Obergruppenf\u00fchrer Friedrich Jeckeln.[7]<\/sup><\/a> Finally, on 20 September two companies of the Eighty-second Reserve Police Battalion (commander Rudolf Ebert), which at that time was subordinated to the 454th<\/sup> Guard Division, arrived from Zhytomyr.[8]<\/sup><\/a> All in all, by the end of September more than two thousand German policemen and SS members had assembled in Kyiv.<\/p>\n

Immediately after the Nazi German authorities seized Kyiv, they began to take repressive measures against the Jews who remained in the city. The first anti-Jewish measures were conducted not by the SD or by police, but by the Wehrmacht.[9]<\/sup><\/a> Each Wehrmacht division was stationed in a particular city district: the Ninety-fifth in Kyiv east; the Ninety-ninth in the Kyiv cantonment; the Seventy-fifth in Kyiv center, southern part; the 299th in Kyiv southwest; the 296th in Kyiv north and northwest.[10]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

On 20 September, the Seventy-fifth Infantry Division issued an order \"to recruit Jews to work uncovering and removing landmines, obstructions, and so forth.\"[11]<\/sup><\/a> The following day, the Ninety-fifth Infantry Division issued an order about \"control of the male population of Kyiv,\" according to which early in the morning on 22 September a sudden action was to be taken to seize men of draft age. They were to be placed in an \"investigation camp\" where Abwehr officers, assisted by \"reliable\" Ukrainians, would check them. \"Soldiers in civilian clothing, partisans or released criminals and\u2026 Jews\" were sent to Dulag 201, a transit camp for prisoners of war.[12]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

The 299th<\/sup> Infantry Division issued a similar order on 21 September. According to this directive, a purge of the district where the division was stationed was to begin at 6:00 a.m. the following day. All men between the ages of sixteen and fifty were to be arrested; an investigation camp was to be set up; and soldiers in civilian clothing, commissars, released criminals, and partisans were to be sent to Dulag 201. All arrested Jews without exception were to be sent there as well.[13]<\/sup><\/a> The division notified its subordinated units that the planned action was being postponed for twenty-four hours and would begin at 6:00 a.m. on 23 September.[14]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

In an order issued that same day about the \"cleansing of Kyiv,\" the Seventy-fifth Infantry Division also ordered a cleansing action in the districts where it was stationed. During the action all men between the ages of sixteen and fifty were to be arrested and sent to investigation camps on the city outskirts that were capable of holding ten thousand inmates. Here, \"Ukrainian elements worthy of trust\" would separate the inmates into two groups: \"A. redressed Russian soldiers, [Communist party] commissars, released criminals, partisans, Jews, and others; B. men who did not arouse suspicion.\" Soldiers and Jews in group A were to be sent to Dulag 21, while \"all others are to be held under guard until they are taken in by the security service.\"[15]<\/sup><\/a> In an order issued on 23 September 1941, the division announced that the cleansing action was being postponed \"until a municipal administration and a Ukrainian committee have been established.\" Reinforced street patrols were to be conducted day and night in the course of which \"all persons suspected of being Red Army soldiers who had changed out of uniform,\" \"all male Jews,\" \"all persons who were out on the streets during the curfew ordered by the commandant's office\" (from 20:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m.) were to be arrested. Those arrested were to be delivered without investigation to Dulag 201 on Tabirna Street. \"Before being delivered to the camp, arrested Jews can be employed to remove street barricades and so on.\"[16]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Citing the Sixth Army's directive of 19 September concerning the arrest of men of draft age,[17]<\/sup><\/a> three days later the commander of the corps ordered the arrest of both Red Army soldiers dressed in civilian clothing and male Jews. They should immediately be sent without investigation to Dulag 201. \"The arrested Jews should first be employed to remove the numerous street obstacles.\"[18]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

On 23 September, Hans von Obstfelder held a conference with six subordinated division commanders.[19]<\/sup><\/a> It was decided that patrols should arrest Jewish men first and that Jews and prisoners should be assigned to work.[20]<\/sup><\/a> The following day explosions and fires broke out in the city, including in the field command, killing a large number of German soldiers and officers.[21]<\/sup><\/a> The buildings occupied by Sonderkommando 4a and the staff of Einsatzgruppe C were also partly destroyed. Seventy-five Molotov cocktails were discovered and rendered harmless in the Einsatzgruppe building.[22]<\/sup><\/a> In response, either Major General Kurt Eberhard[23]<\/sup><\/a> or von Obstfelder demanded that the SD take revenge by shooting all the Jews in the city.[24]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

It is very likely that Field Marshall Walther von Reichenau, who was then commanding the Sixth Army, approved the order to carry out mass punishment in Kyiv as a reprisal for the explosions.[25]<\/sup><\/a> Von Obstfelder had met him at the city's Boryspil airport on 25 September.[26]<\/sup><\/a> During the encounter he certainly told von Reichenau about the explosions and the fires and who he thought was involved in them. The same day there is an entry in the military journal of the Twenty-ninth Corps: \"Great fire continues to rage in Kyiv. It has been established that partisans and Jews are engaged in strengthening the fire as much as they can.\"[27]<\/sup><\/a> Also on that day the Ninety-fifth Division ordered its anti-tank battalion to prevent escape by Jews from the city.[28]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

On 26 September, after the main SD and police forces arrived in the city, Eberhard conferred with Jeckeln, SS Brigadef\u00fchrer Dr. Otto Emil Rasch, chief of Einsatzgruppe C, and SS Standartenf\u00fchrer Paul Blobel, commander of Sonderkommando 4a.[29]<\/sup><\/a> The details of the coming \"reprisal action\" were discussed. It was to be conducted by Sonderkommando 4a.[30]<\/sup><\/a> To support round-ups of victims, delivery of them to the execution site, and internal and external cordoning, Jeckeln called on the Forty-fifth and 303rd police battalions and the First Platoon of the Third Company of the Ninth Reserve Police Battalion.[31]<\/sup><\/a> The Wehrmacht allotted ammunition for the mass killings. Au\u00dfenstelle S\u00fcd of the General Quartermaster of the ground forces reported on 27 September that a hundred thousand cartridges had been delivered to the Higher SS and Police F\u00fchrer.[32]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Thus, it is quite clear that the Wehrmacht played an essential part in preparing the destruction of Kyiv's Jews. Since it held power in the city in late September\u2013early October 1941, its officers \u2014 von Reichenau, von Obstfelder, and Eberhard \u2014 could have prevented the killings. But instead of hindering them, the Wehrmacht directly contributed to the killing spree.<\/p>\n

The role of German punitive organs (SD, SS, Police)
\n<\/strong>The first executions of Jews began on 27 September, when, as can be seen from an account by the intelligence section (1c) of the 113th<\/sup> Infantry Division, \"a Jewish action conducted by the Police Regiment S\u00fcd\" started in Kyiv.[33]<\/sup><\/a> This action is also mentioned in radiogram no. 142\/143 at 10:15 a.m. on 28 September 1941, from Higher SS and Police F\u00fchrer Russia South about the previous day's activities: \"action in cleansing and cordoning Kyiv.\"[34]<\/sup><\/a> The victims were Jews arrested by Sonderkommando 4a and Wehrmacht patrols on the orders issued by the Twenty-ninth Army Corps on 22 September. The scale of the action is evident from Ereignismeldung UdSSR No. 97, dated 28 September 1941: \"1,600 arrests in Kyiv in the course of the first action.\"[35]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

The arrested Jews were confined at Dulag 201, which was located just south of Lukianivka Square in barracks on Kazarmenna and Kerosynna Streets (present-day Andriushchenko and Sholudenko Streets). The special \"Jewish camp\" set up in barracks on Kerosynna Street held both arrested Jewish civilians and Jewish prisoners of war who had been selected for Dulag 201.[36]<\/sup><\/a> Leonid Ostrovskyi, a former prisoner of war, testified after the liberation of the city:<\/p>\n

I spent about eight days at the camp on Kerosynna Street, at first with prisoners of war of various nationalities \u2014 Ukrainians, Russians, and others, about eight thousand in all. After two days I was transferred to a section of the camp where there were about three thousand prisoners of war and civilians, all of them from the Jewish population. From 28 September until I left all the Jews in the camp, younger than sixteen and older than thirty-five, were loaded into trucks every day and taken away. These trucks would soon return to the camp without the people and carrying only clothing, which was stored in separate rooms. This is why everyone in the camp realized that all those driven away by truck were not being taken to work, as the Germans tried to explain at first, but were being shot. Later these assumptions were confirmed by new arrivals at the camp who stated that all the Jews were being taken from the camp to Babyn Yar and were being executed there.<\/p>\n

From 28 September until 3 October 1941, the Germans took away ten to fifteen truckloads of people every day. During my stay at the camp, more and more people arrived every day in groups of several hundred, but by the end of the day the total number of prisoners of war remained almost unchanged because just as many were being taken away to be executed.[37]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

The executions on 29\u201330 September 1941
\n<\/strong>On 27 September, as the journal of the Sixth Army's 1c\/AO shows, \"two thousand notices for Jews to appear at a specified place were prepared at the printing press of the Eastern Front for Kyiv.\"[38]<\/sup><\/a> The next day \"members of the Ukrainian militia\" posted these notices, while at the same time rumors spread that Jews were being assembled for resettlement.<\/p>\n

On 29 September Kyiv's Jews began gathering at the Jewish cemetery on the northwest city outskirts. Anyone who would not leave their homes voluntarily was driven out by policemen from the Wehrmacht's Forty-fifth Battalion. Ferdinand Walsch, the former Oberwachtmeister of the Second Platoon who took part in removing Jews from their dwellings, recalled after the war:<\/p>\n

We members of the platoon were posted along the streets to search the houses for Jews and take them to a collection point. I can note that the doors of Jewish houses were marked with red crosses. I also remember the following incident: Meister N\u00f6hring (a regular policeman from Reichenberg) and I were assigned to search houses. In one flat we found a woman lying on a bed with a five- or six-year-old child beside her. It was a girl. The woman said that she was the child's grandmother and that the girl was ill. Then N\u00f6hring seized the child by the hair, went over to the flat's third-floor window, and holding the child by the hair leaned out the window. I will never forget that sight. I was certain, and still am certain, that N\u00f6hring would have thrown the child to the street. I therefore ran over to him, grabbed the child by the torso, pulled it back in, and shouted at N\u00f6hring: what, didn't he have children? N\u00f6hring looked perplexed, even frightened, and gave me the child. We immediately went out of the flat and left the child with her grandmother. N\u00f6hring never mentioned the incident again, and I am almost certain that he was ashamed.[39]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

There were some local antisemitic types who helped German policemen cleanse the city of Jews. In some cases, they simply killed the Jews they had discovered on the spot. The following are testimonies from a \"voluntary\" assistant killer and two eyewitnesses[40]<\/sup><\/a>, all of whom were questioned on 12 December 1943. In the words of the \"volunteer\" Ustinov:<\/p>\n

I was carrying a pail of wine to my flat in the evening\u2026 On the way I turned toward a noise I heard in the garden. When I came closer, I saw people were burying Jews whom they had caught. A housepainter by the name of Sergei\u2026 later took from these Jews a warm quilt and groceries for himself. Seeing this, I left the pail of wine with my son Nikolai, ran for a spade, and started to help with the burial. In all we buried six or seven people. Some were still alive and were crying out and begging us not to bury them, but we hit them over the head with spades and buried them. A girl of about twenty and an old woman with a fractured head particularly cried and pleaded. A German officer who was present wounded her with a pistol, and when she was in the pit a soldier finished her off with a submachine gun.<\/p>\n

According to witness Yushkov:<\/p>\n

Late in the evening in late September 1941 I was coming home from Oleksandrivska Street. As I approached the garden near my building, I saw a crowd of people and heard noise. When I came closer, I saw that Jews were being beaten and buried. I found a pit that been half filled. Next to it a girl of about twenty who was being finished off was screaming and begging for mercy. The girl was not finished off that evening, and a German shot her the next morning. Yegor Denisovich Ustinov and Grigorii (I don't know his surname) were the most active in this work\u2026 Finally, women whose surnames I don't know took the spades away from Ustinov and Grigorii and kept them from burying the half dead girl. The next morning, Aleksei, the janitor from 37 Nyzhnii Val Street, dragged down beaten-up, half-dead Jews whom Germans shot in the pit.<\/p>\n

According to witness Herasymova, she was passing by the garden in the evening, when she noticed \"a crowd of children, armed Germans, and men working with spades.\" Coming closer, she saw that:<\/p>\n

the men were filling in a pit with live people, I think, about six or seven. They were mostly old women, and with them was one sturdy man. The pit had been dug out like a trench. When I came up, some soil had been thrown in, and the people could still move about. They were running about the grave, embracing each other, and crying. The men who were filling in the pit were telling the children to throw stones into the pit, so that the people would be killed and not be buried alive. I saw one of the men. who was busy burying, hit a half-buried man over the head with a spade because he was struggling to get out. The man in the grave fell down from the blow and immediately sank.<\/p>\n

Probably thinking that they would obtain Jewish property, some inhabitants had detained Jews even before the mass shootings. They assembled them at one location and then handed them over to the German police. On the day of the mass shootings, they even delivered Jews to Babyn Yar of their own volition. These local residents included a certain Syrosh and Muzyria (later convicted in 1947), who on 29 September, together with three other persons, among them a certain Hryhoriiv, first tried to hand over to the Ukrainian police at 15 Korolenko Street about fifteen Jews whom they had found in a cellar. When the police did not take in the Jews, Syrosh and Muzyria led them to Babyn Yar. There, according to Muzyria's testimony, they first stripped their victims and directly loaded their belongings into a car.[41]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

German policemen directed the Jews who arrived at the cemetery along Melnikova Street to the turn at Kahatna Street (now known as Sim\u00ef-Khokhlovykh Street), where their warm clothes, valuables, and papers were confiscated, then went along Kahatna Street and turned onto Lagerna (now Dorohozhytska) Street. On Lagerna Street the Jews walked past the southern end of Babyn Yar to the turn to the right to the Lukianivka Highway (now approximately Olena Teliha Street), which at that time passed between the pre-war Syrets military camps and Babyn Yar itself. Along this road the Jews reached a broad even area (formerly a shooting range) that abutted upon the southern side of the large western spur. Here the Jews were forced to undress and then driven into the ravine and shot.<\/p>\n

A large number of the Jews (up to ten thousand) on Dehtiarivska Street immediately set off to the Lukianivka freight station, thinking no doubt that a train was waiting to transport them to their new place of residence. The station, one of the main freight stations in the city, was located in those days at the juncture of Kahatna and Dehtiarivska Streets. But police and SS forces met the Jews at the station, forced them to put down their belongings, and led them to Babyn Yar.[42]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

The killings were carried out at different places in the ravine along a distance of at least one and a half kilometers.[43]<\/sup><\/a> The execution squads consisted of several riflemen armed with submachine guns or pistols, two men who loaded the magazines, and several men who led the victims from the brink of the ravine down to the execution site.[44]<\/sup><\/a> By order of Standartenf\u00fchrer Paul Blobel, commander of Sonderkommando 4a, SS Obersturmbannf\u00fchrer August Hefner supervised the killings for two days. At the postwar trial in Darmstadt, Germany of former members of Sonderkommando 4a, one of the accused (Hefner) described the role of the SD, SS, and police:<\/p>\n

The following morning, 29 September, an order to officers was announced. We were informed that a battalion of Order Police and all of Sonderkommando 4a, including Grafhorst's company [special assignment SS troops] were to carry out executions of Kyiv's Jews. One officer was assigned to a place where belongings were assembled. I was ordered to go first to the ravine. . . . I was stunned to learn that I was the only one who had been appointed for this task. Then I learned that a formation had been drawn up, and everyone left. I do not know the details.<\/p>\n

We arrived at this place, the ravine Babyn Yar. It was located northwest of Kyiv. I cannot recall any buildings north of this execution site. I remember that on the way we saw a large number of Jews who were moving in this direction. This was a large area, small orchard plots on one side. It was slightly hilly. I also learned by chance that a place to register and a place to collect belongings were to be set up. When I arrived, the protection police and a detachment were already there. Many people were walking about. Blobel was giving instructions. He said that I should go with him.<\/p>\n

We began to argue. I defended myself because I was supposed to go to the execution site. He said, there's the ravine, the Schutspolizei would shoot from the left, the SS from the right. I said that I knew perfectly well that the SS troops were using their own discretion and that Grafhorst would do the job, but he had openly forbidden interference in his actions. He ordered me to act, but not show myself to the police battalion.<\/p>\n

There was trouble the day before: two police officers had stated that Sonderkommando 4a did not need to be reinforced because of a couple of Jews. But [Obergruppenf\u00fchrer] Jeckeln said that Sonderkommando 4a should be reinforced. To avoid any unpleasantness in this respect I should not show myself. Blobel also said to me, 'You were left out of the shootings. I had an unpleasant situation because of you yesterday, so now instead of being punished get to work.' I went forward. The Jews were walking in several rows. They had to hand in their possessions and some even their outer clothing.<\/p>\n

In pits three, four, and even five, the Jews obediently lay down next to each other.[45]<\/sup><\/a> Protection police stood to the right and left. This was an inner cordon.[46]<\/sup><\/a> It extended to the Babyn Yar ravine. I had no idea of the concept of Babyn Yar. I first heard about it at the Nuremberg [trials]. About two or three policemen stood about a hundred meters from the ravine to control traffic. Some of the Jews went toward the Schutspolizei, others toward the SS troops. I encountered Grafhorst and one other officer from his company. The executions had already begun. I observed them. With regard to the ravine itself I can say that it was something like a clay quarry about 300\u2013350 meters long; it had a slope whose slant varied. I do not recall either a lateral ravine or a wooden bridge.<\/p>\n

The SS troops had a sector about thirty meters in length. Grafhorst told me that the Jews had to lie down on the bottom close to one another. . . . They would lie down this way until the whole bottom was filled. Then everything would start over again. The next ones had to lie down on the dead Jews. Six or seven layers were formed in two days. At first the SS troops used two execution squads to carry out the killings. The entire operation was called an 'action to shoot in the back of the head.' In reality this was not the case. The way the SS troops conducted the killings did not qualify as 'a shot in the back of the head.' I watched all this for a time and stood reeling on the plateau. What else could I do if Grafhorst was still there? Then I went over to the Schutspolizei to see what they were doing. When I came closer, I saw eight to ten execution squads there. Supposedly there were two or three more execution squads, but I could not see them.<\/p>\n

At midday Blobel came and said that the SS troops and I would be replaced by Sonderkommando 4a. I could go have dinner at the quarters and should return when the SS troops came back. At about half past two we were at the assembly site again. We were replaced again, and when darkness fell the business came to an end. We left for the quarters, and I no longer took an interest in anything.<\/p>\n

The next morning was the same. I had to go again. Twelve to fifteen men came from the SS. Only one execution squad shot for them. At midday there was a change again. By midday Grafhorst was no longer there. I heard that he had left that day for Berlin to try to recall his company. Suddenly I was called from behind by my rank. I turned around and saw Brigadef\u00fchrer Rasch and a crowd of officers. I saw him standing there as white as chalk and looking down into this valley of distress. I said to him, \"Herr Brigadef\u00fchrer, <\/em>down below it is just as it was ordered above \u2014 a flood of blood.\" He ordered me to get a pistol, jump down, and deliver the final blow. What could I do? I ordered a pistol and jumped down. I probably took several shots to deliver final blows. Rasch moved away, and I returned the weapon. I got out of the pit and went back across the area.[47]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

The Ukrainian Auxiliary Police in late September\u2013early October 1941
\n<\/strong>The Ukrainian police appeared in Kyiv in late September 1941. An advanced detachment of eighteen men, headed by Petro Onufryk (\"Bohdan Konyk\"), arrived from Zhytomyr on 21 September. Two days later a \"Cossack squadron\" headed by Ivan Kediulych (\"Chubchyk\") arrived.[48]<\/sup><\/a> After his arrival with two assistants on 29 September,[49]<\/sup><\/a> Andrii Orlyk became the first commandant of the Ukrainian urban police.[50]<\/sup><\/a> Soon after Hryhorii Zakhvalynskyi, who had commanded the Zhytomyr oblast police, took charge of the police in the Kyiv oblast.[51]<\/sup><\/a> His deputy was Ivan Kediulych.[52]<\/sup><\/a> All of these figures belonged to the Melnyk faction of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN).<\/p>\n

Sometime in early September, the 454th<\/sup> Protection Police Division in Zhytomyr organized a Ukrainian auxiliary police force for Kyiv, which was subordinated to the 987th<\/sup> Battalion of Ground Riflemen.[53]<\/sup><\/a> On 27 September the division ordered its supply officer, Hauptman Dr. Didik, to send the next day from Zhytomyr to Kyiv \"one hundred trained Ukrainian auxiliary policemen, part of whom should be familiar with conditions in Kyiv. . . . Until further orders the Ukrainian auxiliary police is subordinated to Feldkommandatur 195. . . . The Ukrainian detachment is to be supplied with provisions for three days.\"[54]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

The Ukrainian police was controlled in September-October 1941 by Sonderkommando 4a under SS Obersturmf\u00fchrer M\u00fcller. He assigned Oleksii Babii, the Ukrainian interpreter in the force, to report on the mood of its two-hundred-fifty Ukrainians.[55]<\/sup><\/a> Babii had been inducted as a rank-and-file member into the force for this purpose.[56]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Oleksa Stasiuk, another member of the Ukrainian Auxiliary Police, described its role during the mass executions at Babyn Yar. According to him, on 29 or 30 September, forty of the policemen, who were then quartered in a school in Kyiv's Podil district, rode in two trucks to the site at Babyn Yar where the Jews' belongings were being confiscated, and then collected and loaded them onto the trucks.[57]<\/sup><\/a> Ukrainian policemen also guarded the victims and their belongings at the Lukianivka freight station.[58]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

According to Fritz H\u00f6fer, a driver with Sonderkommando 4a, the Ukrainian policemen not only collected the belongings but helped, if indirectly, to kill the victims.<\/p>\n

When the truck stopped near the heaps of clothing, it was immediately loaded with clothing. The Ukrainians who were there did this. I saw at this spot that the Ukrainians were taking the Jews \u2014 men, women, and children \u2014 who were arriving. They were sent to various places where they took turns piling up first their baggage, coats, shoes, outer clothing, and also underwear. They were also required to lay down their valuables in a certain place. Each kind of clothing was placed in a separate pile. All this proceeded very quickly, and if any of them lingered the Ukrainians kicked and hit them.[59]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Viktor Trill, a former SS Oberscharf\u00fchrer and driver with Sonderkommando 4a who was directly involved in the killings reported that Ukrainians guarded the Jews at the place of \"resettlement\" before the shootings.[60]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

There is also information that \"Ukrainians\" took a direct part in killing Jews. Herman Lass, a former member of the First Platoon, Third Company, 303d Police Battalion, who was inside the cordon around the execution site and witnessed the killings, reported in his postwar testimony that according to \"hearsay,\" \"Ukrainian members of the SD\" had been involved in killing Jews.[61]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

The \"Ukrainian members of the SD\" were to all appearances Ukrainian interpreters who were serving in Sonderkommando 4a. One of them was Stepan Fedak. He may not have personally participated in shooting Jews at Babyn Yar, but he was involved indirectly in the action. Johannes Materna, an ethnic German from Galicia and former interpreter with the Sonderkommando who knew Fedak well, testified while being questioned by postwar German investigation agencies that Fedak himself had told him on 29 September that he had been assigned to the cordon around the road that Jews walked along to Babyn Yar.[62]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Rescuers
\n<\/strong>In a book about Swiss rescuers of Jews, the Swiss historian Fran\u00e7ois Wisard correctly observed that the Holocaust cannot be understood only in terms of an opposition between executioners and victims. There was a third group: those who saved and helped Jews. Although there were few of them by comparison with the indifferent majority of the population, their efforts undoubtedly deserve acknowledgment and respect because what they did is akin to heroism.[63]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Since 1963, Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority, has been awarding the title of Righteous Among the Nations to those Gentiles who, risking their own lives, rescued Jews during World War II. In 2012, the European Parliament set up the Day of the Righteous, which is observed on 6 March. In Ukraine, its parliament passed a resolution on 2 February 2021 to establish 14 May as the day to honor Ukrainians who saved Jews during the war.<\/p>\n

As of January 2020, no less than 2,659 citizens of Ukraine had been awarded the title of Righteous Among the Nations.[64]<\/sup><\/a> In numerical terms, Ukraine accounts for 9.5 percent of all Righteous and is ranked in fourth place after Poland, the Netherlands, and France. Of the Ukrainian Righteous 155 are from Kyiv.[65]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

In 1989 the Jewish Council of Ukraine instituted the title of Righteous of Babyn Yar. The first Righteous were members of the family of the Orthodox priest Aleksei Glagolev. By January 2009, the Righteous of Babyn Yar title had been awarded to 605 residents of Kyiv and surroundings who had rescued in total no less than a thousand Jewish residents of the city.[66]<\/sup><\/a> As of January 2010, the Memory of Babyn Yar Fund had registered 607 Righteous, of whom 119 were still alive.[67]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Ukrainians, Russians, Poles, Tatars, Armenians, Moldavans, and Crimean Tatars are among the citizens of Ukraine who rescued Jews. It is also appropriate to mention individual Germans among the occupiers who tried to rescue Jews during the mass executions at Babyn Yar. Paul W\u00f6rzberger and Johann Koller were among the Germans who strove to help the victims. W\u00f6rzberger was a motorcycle messenger with the Second Company of the Forty-fifth Reserve Police Battalion, while Koller was the personal driver for the company's commander, Kreutzer. On 29 September 1941, W\u00f6rzberger drove to Babyn Yar with a dispatch for Kreutzer. As he recalled after the war:<\/p>\n

Near the piles of clothing at the ravine were two women who had been separated from the rest. When I was walking past them, they said that they were Ukrainian and I had to rescue them. They literally attached themselves to me. My friend Koller, who was Kreutzer's driver, was standing near this place. Both women and I went over to Koller, and we started discussing how we could rescue them. I cannot say whether the women were Jewish or really Ukrainian. We agreed that Koller would remove both women from the danger zone in his car. We both realized what would await us if our rescue action were to come to light. But we felt compassion for the women, who were crying badly. Since I knew that Kreutzer [the company commander] was in the ravine, this trip was very risky for Koller [his driver]. I remained at the spot to shield Koller if he were asked.[68]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Koller's account differs somewhat from W\u00f6rzberger's.<\/p>\n

During the operation against the Jews, I had to drive Kreutzer to the location. The Jews had already been sent off during this trip. When we arrived at the location, Kreutzer got out of the car and went to a hill. I heard gunfire from where Kreutzer had gone. My task had been completed. While I was standing there, motorcycle messenger Hans [Paul] W\u00f6rzberger from Wittenberg (near Dresden) came over to me. A woman was with him. W\u00f6rzberger asked me to drive the woman to the city. She was crying. I pondered for a while because it was very risky to drive someone away [from the killing site], and in addition we would have to go back past the entire guarded column. Nevertheless, I agreed. W\u00f6rzberger sat beside me, and we put the woman on the back seat. We set off for the city. The woman got out there. W\u00f6rzberger had obviously never seen her before. The woman ran off. We were glad that all had gone well.[69]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

A certain inconsistency in the details can perhaps be explained by the fact that W\u00f6rzberger and Koller related this incident twenty-seven years after it occurred. As for the rescued women, they were apparently seventeen-year-old Genia Batasheva and fourteen-year-old Mania Palti (see also Chapter 8 below). In Batasheva's account the rescue took place after she and other Jews were led to the large level ground near the ravine.<\/p>\n

The Hitlerites were tearing clothes off people . . . and sending them half undressed to the execution site. People were rushing about as if they had lost their heads. Screams from the doomed and bursts from automatics blended with the continuous rumble. I did not completely understand what was happening to me and where I had lost my mother, sister, and brother. In this turmoil I encountered Mania Palti, a fourteen-year-old girl from our courtyard. We took each other by the hand and started searching for rescue. We went up to one of the executioners and began explaining to him that we were not Jewish and had accidentally found ourselves at Babyn Yar simply out of curiosity. He took us to officers who were standing beside a car and started to explain something to them. One of the Hitlerites soon indicated with a gesture that we could get in the car, which we did. The driver covered us up with some sort of clothing and drove off in the direction of the city center. The driver took us to Melnykiv Street and let us out.[70]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Despite differences in detail W\u00f6rzberger's and Batasheva's testimonies agree on the whole, while Koller's is somewhat different. He may have forgotten many details because he was simply helping W\u00f6rzberger. For W\u00f6rzberger and Batasheva, however, they remembered this event. This is probably better because W\u00f6rzberger was the initiator of the rescue, and for Batasheva it was a question of her life.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Notes<\/strong><\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> In addition to these divisions, the Ninety-fifth and 299th<\/sup> infantry divisions were part of the Twenty-ninth Army Corps.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Tatiana Evstafeva, \"Tragediia Babego Yara (1941\u20131945),\" in Druha svitova viina i dolia narodiv Ukra\u00efny: materialy 2-\u00ef Vseukra\u00efnsko\u00ef naukovo\u00ef konferentsi\u00ef, m. Ky\u00efv, 30\u201331 zhovtnia 2006<\/em> (Kyiv, 2007), 278. Von Vroreich, councillor of military administration from the 454th<\/sup> Guard Division, also estimated the number of remaining inhabitants as 400,000. Bundesarchiv-Milit\u00e4rarchiv, Freiburg (subsequently BA-MA), RH-26-454\/28.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Before the war about one in four residents of the city was a Jew.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Bundesarchiv Au\u00dfenstelle Ludwigsburg (subsequently BArch), B162\/17958, Bl. 7591, Fernschreiben des AOK 6 an XXIX AK v. 14.9.1941, Betr.: Einsatzkommandos f\u00fcr Kiew. The vanguard included a platoon of SS troops commanded by SS Oberscharf\u00fchrer Jaeger and several officials. Hefner's testimony from 31 May 1965 in BArch B 162\/5652, Bl. 2906.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> BArch, B 162\/439, \"Ereignismeldung UdSSR\" No. 106, 7 October 1941.<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> BA-MA, RH 26-29\/9, T\u00e4tigkeitsbericht des XXIX AK, 4 September\u201319 November 1941; BArch, B162\/17958 Bl. 7595).<\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> Vojensk\u00fd historick\u00fd archiv, Prague, KdoS RF SS, box 1, inv. \u010d. 2, Radiogram by Higher SS and Police F\u00fchrer, No. 136\/37, 26 September 1941,10:00. According to another source (BArch, B 162\/6670, Bl. 1981ff, final indictment by the Regensburg Procurator's Office 2 February 1970. in the case of Rosenbauer, Besser, and Kreutzer), the Forty-fifth Battalion arrived in Kyiv on 22 September 1941 and was located at first at the university and then at a savings bank. The 303d Battalion arrived in Kyiv on 23 September. See the entry in the police service passport of Oberwachtmeister Erich Karrasch: \"23.9.\u201314.10.41: tasks concerning the guarding and cleansing of Kyiv.\"<\/p>\n

[8]<\/a> Yad Vashem Archives, Jerusalem, MfS HA XII 11 ZUV 64 \u2013 Ermittlungsverfahren gegen Piehl, Johannes; NARA T 315, roll 2216, TR. 10. The battalion remained in the city until 8 October 1941.<\/p>\n

[9]<\/a> The Wehrmacht forces were comprised of the Twenty-ninth Army Corps (commander General Hans von Obstfelder), which included five divisions: the Seventy-first (Artillery General Alexander von Hartman), the Seventy-fifth (commander Generalleutnant Ernst Hammer), the Ninety-fifth (commander Generalleutnant Hans-Heinrich Sixt von Arnim), the Ninety-ninth Light Infantry Division (commander Infantry General Kurt von der Chevallerie), and the 299th Infantry Division (commander Artillery General Moser), as well as the temporarily subordinated 296th Infantry Division (commander Generalleutnant Wilhelm Stemmermann). Von Hartman was killed at Stalingrad on 25 January 1943. Hammer was captured by American troops in April 1945, released in 1947, and died in 1957. Von Arnim was taken prisoner at Stalingrad on 20 January 1943 and died in captivity in 1952. Chevallerie went missing in action in Poland in April 1945. Moser died in Soviet captivity in 1946. Stemmermann was killed near Cherkasy on 18 February 1944.<\/p>\n

[10]<\/a> BA-MA, RH 26-29\/9.<\/p>\n

[11]<\/a> BA-MA, RH 26-75\/42.<\/p>\n

[12]<\/a> BA-MA, RH 26-95\/15; K. J. Arnold, \"Die Eroberung und Behandlung der Stadt Kiew durch die Wehrmacht im September 1941: zur Radikalisierung der Besatzungspolitik,\" Milit\u00e4rgeschichtliche Mitteilungen,<\/em> vol. 58 (Munich, 1999), p. 50.<\/p>\n

[13]<\/a> BA-MA, RH 26-299\/43.<\/p>\n

[14]<\/a> Ibid.<\/p>\n

[15]<\/a> BA-MA, RH 26-75\/42.<\/p>\n

[16]<\/a> Ibid.<\/p>\n

[17]<\/a> BA-MA, RH 26-299\/122, Armee-Oberkommando 6, O.Qu \/ Qu 2, A.H.Qu., den 19.9.1941, Betr.: Gefangennahme von Zivilisten.<\/p>\n

[18]<\/a> Ibid.<\/p>\n

[19]<\/a> In addition to his five divisions von Obstfelder was temporarily in command of the 296th<\/sup> Infantry Division from the Seventeenth Army Corps.<\/p>\n

[20]<\/a> Arnold, \"Die Eroberung und Behandlung,\" p. 51.<\/p>\n

[21]<\/a> An exploding mine at the Kyiv Monastery (Lavra) had killed sixty-two-year-old Colonel Hans-Heinrich Freiherr von Seidlitz und Gohlau, Artillery Commander of the Ninety-fifth Artillery Division.<\/p>\n

[22]<\/a> BArch B, 162\/439, Ereignismeldung UdSSR No. 106, 7 October 1941.<\/p>\n

[23]<\/a> Eberhard, commander of Field Command 195, was appointed city commander by orders from the Sixth Army on 24 September 1941 and subordinated to the commander of the Twenty-ninth Army Corps, who was the chief of the city garrison. On 27 September the garrison chief became Major General Friedrich Zickwolff, commander of the 113th<\/sup> Infantry Division. Arnold, \"Die Eroberung und Behandlung,\" p. 43.<\/p>\n

[24]<\/a> BArch, B 162\/5653, Bl. 3092-95, testimony by former SS Obersturmbannf\u00fchrer August Hefner, 16 June 1965; BArch, B 162\/5653, Bl. 3176\u201377, testimony by former SS Obersturmbannf\u00fchrer Adolf Janssen, 24 June 1965.<\/p>\n

[25]<\/a> H. R\u00fc\u00df, \"Wer war verantwortlich f\u00fcr das Massaker von Babij Jar?\" Milit\u00e4rgeschichtliche<\/em> Mitteilungen<\/em>, vol. 57 (Munich, 1998), p. 489. R\u00fc\u00df cites a statement in 1963 by Erich Erlinger, who in 1942\u20131943 was commander of the Security Police and SD in Kyiv.<\/p>\n

[26]<\/a> BA-MA, RH 26-29\/9, Kriegstagebuch No. 2, Korpskommando XXIX. A.K, 20 September 1941\u201319 November 1941.<\/p>\n

[27]<\/a> Ibid.<\/p>\n

[28]<\/a> BA-MA, RH 26-95\/11; Arnold, \"Die Eroberung und Behandlung,\" p. 53.<\/p>\n

[29]<\/a> Dieter Pohl, \"Die Einsatzgruppe C 1941\/42,\" in Peter Klein, ed., Die Einsatzgruppen in der besetzten Sowjetunion 1941\/42: Die T\u00e4tigkeits-und Lageberichte des Chefs der Sicherheitspolizei und des SD<\/em> (Berlin, 1997), p. 75; Dieter Pohl, Die Herrschaft der Wehrmacht: Deutsche Milit\u00e4rbesatzung und einheimische Bev\u00f6lkerung in der Sowjetunion 1941\u20131944<\/em> (Munich, 2008), p. 260; R\u00fc\u00df, \"Wer war erantwortlich,\" p. 495, cites Blobel's testimony at the Nuremberg trials in 1948. See also BA-MA, B 162\/4699, Bl. 319, the bill of indictment (12 January 1967) by the General Prosecutor's Office, Frankfurt am Main, in the case of Kallsen and others.<\/p>\n

[30]<\/a> At that time the Sonderkommando had about 120 men. Urteil LG Darmstadt Ks1\/67 (GStA), 29 November 1968, against Callsen and others, in Justiz und NS-Verbrechen,<\/em> vol. XXXI (Amsterdam and Munich, 2004), p. 248. In addition to security police officials, drivers, and administrative and technical personnel the Sonderkommando included a platoon of reserve SS troops and a platoon of police guards.<\/p>\n

[31]<\/a> Testimony by Rene Rosenbauer from 5 September 1963, in BArch, B 162\/17927, Bl. 1187.<\/p>\n

[32]<\/a> Pohl, Die Herrschaft der Wehrmacht<\/em>, p. 260.<\/p>\n

[33]<\/a> BA-MA, RH 26-113.<\/p>\n

[34]<\/a> Vojensk\u00fd historick\u00fd archiv, Prague, KdoS RF SS, karton 1, inv. \u010d. 2.<\/p>\n

[35]<\/a> BArch, B 162\/439.<\/p>\n

[36]<\/a> Gosudarstvennyi Arkhiv Rossiiskoi Federatsii, Moscow, Fond 7021, Opis 148, Delo 60, Arkush 10, order of early October 1941 by Andrii Orlyk, commander of the Ukrainian police in Kyiv.<\/p>\n

[37]<\/a> Ostrovskii's testimony from 12 November 1943 in ibid., Fond 7021, Opis 65, Delo 6, Arkush 3 ob. 1943.<\/p>\n

[38]<\/a> Bernd Boll and Hans Safrian, \"Auf dem Weg nach Stalingrad: die 6. Armee 1941\/42,\" in Hannes Heer and Klaus Naumann, eds., Vernichtungskrieg: Verbrechen der Wehrmacht 1941 bis 1944<\/em> (Hamburg, 1995), p. 278.<\/p>\n

[39]<\/a> Walsch's testimony from 16 February 1967, in BArch, B 162\/6662, Bl. 205\u2013206.<\/p>\n

[40]<\/a> The three testimonies by Ustinov, Yushkov, and Herasymova are all cited in Evstafeva, \"Tragediia Babego Iara,\" pp. 269-270. At the court-martial of the Eighth Guards' Tank Corps held on 21 January 1944, Ustinov, Yushkov, and Baranov were sentenced to death. They were hanged two days later at the place where they had killed people<\/p>\n

[41]<\/a> Vitalii Nakhmanovych, \"Do pytannia pro sklad uchasnykiv karalnykh aktsii v okupovanomu Kyievi (1941\u20131943),\" in Druha<\/em> svitova<\/em> viina<\/em> i<\/em> dolia<\/em> narodiv<\/em> Ukra\u00efny<\/em>, pp. 257\u2013258.<\/p>\n

[42]<\/a> BArch, B 162\/5648, Bl. 1596\u201397, testimony on 1 November 1963 by Hinrich Kron, the former Wachtmeister of the Second Platoon, Third Company, 303d Police Battalion.<\/p>\n

[43]<\/a> BArch, B 162\/5654, Bl. 3575, testimony by August Hefner on 4 August 1965: \"The length of the ravine where the executions took place was about five hundred meters, but possibly more.\"<\/p>\n

[44]<\/a> Ibid.<\/p>\n

[45]<\/a> In the original: \"one on top of another.\"<\/p>\n

[46]<\/a> In the original: \"agreement.\"<\/p>\n

[47]<\/a> BArch, B 162\/17909, Bl. 388-98.<\/p>\n

[48]<\/a> Derzhavnyi arkhiv Kyivs'ko\u00ef oblasti, Fond 2412, Opys 2, Sprava 227, Arkush 2: \"Korotkyi narys pro zasnovannia i zorhanizovannia UOP v Kyievi.\" Petro Onufryk soon left via Poltava for Kharkiv, where he headed the Ukrainian police for a time. He was killed in late 1945 by order of Mykola Arsenych, the chief of the OUN-B Security Service.<\/p>\n

[49]<\/a> Andrii Orlyk, or Anatolii Konkel (1899-1989), was Waffen Hauptsturmf\u00fchrer in the SS Division Galicia at the end of the war. He lived in Great Britain after the war under the name Anatolii Orlyk<\/p>\n

[50]<\/a> Oleksandr Kucheruk, \"Pochatkovyi period diialnosti ukra\u00efnsko\u00ef politsi\u00ef Kyieva u veresni-hrudni 1941,\" Ukrainian Website\u2014Orhanizatsiia Ukra\u00efns'kykh Natsionalistiv, 10 October 2016.<\/p>\n

[51]<\/a> Testimony given at the Security Police in Zhytomyr on 10 December 1941 by Vasyl Sherei, aide-de-camp to the commandant of the Zhytomyr oblast police in Derzhavnyi arkhiv Zhytomyrs'ko\u00ef oblasti, Fond r-1151, Opys 1, Sprava 3, Arkush 19zv,<\/p>\n

[52]<\/a> Ivan Kediulych was Zakhvalynskyi's deputy until February 1942. When Ukrainian nationalists were arrested in Kyiv, he fled to Proskuriv, where again he was arrested, but escaped to Lviv and sided with Stepan Bandera's forces in the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), There he headed a training unit and from January1945 headed the Nineteenth Kamianets-Podilskyi Tactical Sector of the UPA. He was killed in a battle with an NKVD unit on 1 August 1945.<\/p>\n

[53]<\/a> National Archives and Record Administration, Washington D.C., T 315, Roll 2216.<\/p>\n

[54]<\/a> Ibid.<\/p>\n

[55]<\/a> Oleksii Babii (1909\u20131944) joined the Sonderkommando 4a as an interpreter in July 1941and served there until October, when he was transferred in Poltava to Abwehr 202. He was arrested by the Gestapo in Kremenchuh as an OUN functionary on 8 March 1942, and taken away for execution, but managed to escape at the last moment. He was one of the organizers of the UPA in Volhynia. From late November 1943 until July 1944, using the name Petro Levchuk (with the birthdate 1912), he served in the SS Galicia Division with the rank of SS Untersturmf\u00fchrer. He was killed in the Battle of Brody on 20 July 1944. Arkhiv OUN, Kyiv, Fond 1, Opys 1, Sprava 276. Arkush 3: \"Spohady pro vtechu vid rozstrilu, Kyiv, 30.3.1942.\" See also Nestor Myzak, Za tebe, sviata Ukra\u00efno: buchats'kyi povit u vyzvolnii borotbi OUN, UPA<\/em>, Vol. 4 (Chernivtsi: Bukrek, 2004), p. 330.<\/p>\n

[56]<\/a> Arkhiv OUN, Kyiv, Fond 1, Opys 1, Sprava 276, Arkush 3:\"Spohady pro vtechu vid rozstrilu, Kyiv, 30.3.1942.\" See also Yuri Radchenko, \"The Biography of the OUN(m) Activist Oleksa Babii in the Light of His 'Memoirs on Escaping Execution' (1942),\" Journal<\/em> of<\/em> Soviet<\/em> and<\/em> Post<\/em>-<\/em>Soviet<\/em> Politics<\/em> and<\/em> Society<\/em>, VI, 1 (Stuttgart and Hannover, 2020), pp. 239-279.<\/p>\n

[57]<\/a> See the interrogation record of Stasiuk at the Ukrainian SSR Ministry of State Security on 1 July 1946, in Babii Yar: chelovek, vlast, istoriia: dokumenty i materialy<\/em>, Vol. 1: Istoricheskaia topografiia\u2014khronologiia sobytii<\/em>, compiled by Tatiana Evstafeva and Vitalii Nakhmanovich (Kyiv, 2004), pp. 280\u2013281.<\/p>\n

[58]<\/a> Hinrich Kron's testimony from 1 November 1963 in BArch, B 162\/5648, Bl. 1596\u201397.<\/p>\n

[59]<\/a> Hofer's testimony from 27 August 1959 in BArch, B 162\/19216, Bl. 9375-9376.<\/p>\n

[60]<\/a> Trill's testimony from 25 June 1960 in BArch B 162\/5641, Bl. 12-15, cited in Aleksandr Kruglov, Tragediia Babego Yara v nemetskikh dokumentakh<\/em> (Dnipro: Tkuma\/Lira, 2011), pp. 84\u201387.<\/p>\n

[61]<\/a> Lass's testimony from 10 October 1966 in BArch, B 162\/6672, Bl. 377-78.<\/p>\n

[62]<\/a> Materna's testimony from 25 April 1966 in BArch, B 162\/19206, Bl. 1332.<\/p>\n

[63]<\/a> Fran\u00e7ois Wisard, Les Justes suisses<\/em> (Geneva: CICAD, 2007), p. 6.<\/p>\n

[64]<\/a> Yad Vashem, The Righteous Among the Nations Database, (https:\/\/www.yadvashem.org\/righteous\/statistics.html).<\/p>\n

[65]<\/a> Yad Vashem, The Righteous Among the Nations Database, https:\/\/righteous.yadvashem.org\/?search=Kiev&searchType=righteous_only&language=en<\/a>. For lists of Righteous specifically from Kyiv, see Pamiati ukra\u00efntsiv, iaki riatuvaly ievre\u00efv pid chas Druho\u00ef svitovo\u00ef viiny<\/em> (Dnipro: Ukra\u00efns'kyi instytut vyvchennia Holokostu Tkuma, 2021), pp. 84\u201389.<\/p>\n

[66]<\/a> Ilia Levitas, \"Kiev,\" in I. A. Altman, ed., Kholokost na territorii SSSR: entsiklopediia<\/em> (Moscow: ROSSPEN, 2009), p. 405.<\/p>\n

[67]<\/a> Fond \"Pamiat BabegoYara,\" http:\/\/babynyar.gov.ua\/fond-\u00abpam'yat-babinogo-yaru<\/a>.<\/p>\n

[68]<\/a> W\u00f6rzberger's testimony from 16 September 1968 in BArch, B 162\/6666, Bl. 1000.<\/p>\n

[69]<\/a> Koller's testimony from 26 April 1968 in BArch, B 162\/6664, Bl. 643\u201344.<\/p>\n

[70]<\/a> Record of interrogation of Genia Batasheva as a witness by the Ukrainian SSR KGB on 15 July 1980, in Babii Yar: chelovek, vlast, istoriia<\/em>, p. 322.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Ukrainian Jewish Encounter was founded in 2008 with the goal of building stronger relations between Ukrainians and Jews, two peoples who, for centuries, lived side by side on the territory of what is modern-day...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":38801,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[180,124,114],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ebook-babyn-yar-history-and-memory","category-sponsored-projects","category-publications","primary-category-124","primary-category-sponsored-projects"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ukrainianjewishencounter.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ukrainianjewishencounter.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ukrainianjewishencounter.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ukrainianjewishencounter.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ukrainianjewishencounter.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38800"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ukrainianjewishencounter.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38800\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38812,"href":"https:\/\/ukrainianjewishencounter.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38800\/revisions\/38812"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ukrainianjewishencounter.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ukrainianjewishencounter.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ukrainianjewishencounter.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ukrainianjewishencounter.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}