{"id":39068,"date":"2026-10-28T01:19:47","date_gmt":"2026-10-28T05:19:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ukrainianjewishencounter.org\/?p=39068"},"modified":"2026-10-28T01:19:47","modified_gmt":"2026-10-28T05:19:47","slug":"babyn-yar-history-and-memory-%e2%80%94-chapter-8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ukrainianjewishencounter.org\/en\/babyn-yar-history-and-memory-%e2%80%94-chapter-8\/","title":{"rendered":"\"Babyn Yar: History and Memory\" \u2014 Chapter 8"},"content":{"rendered":"
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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 8<\/h1>\n

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

Babyn Yar as oral history<\/h2>\n

Gelinada Grinchenko<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

I am not a historian, but I was born and grew up in Kyiv, and even met people who lived through the occupation.<\/p>\n

One granny told me that it was not just Jews who were shot in Babyn Yar; there are also Russians and Ukrainians there, anyone you like, but only the Jews were shot because they were Jews.<\/p>\n

That is the essence of the Holocaust. Incidentally, this granny was not a historian either and did not have documents corroborating her words; she simply saw this with her own eyes, and I believe her. That's all.<\/p>\n

A post on F<\/em>acebook<\/em><\/p>\n

Oral histories, that is, audio or video recordings of survivor and witness accounts of the shootings that took place in the ravine in Kyiv known as Babyn Yar during World War II, occupy a singular place among documents containing accounts of this mass murder. The process of collecting such oral histories intensified immediately after the collapse of the Soviet Union, as it was impossible to undertake such work during the existence of the Soviet state.<\/p>\n

Oral history as a historical research method is predicated on sincere, frank, and honest communication between a researcher and a witness of an event. The main goal of such research is to obtain personal experience, private recollections, and the witness's subjective attitude to what he\/she has lived through. Given the imposed, \"ideologically correct,\" hence one-sided understanding of events pertaining to the war that was proposed in Soviet times, personal recollections were inevitably tailored to fit the generally acceptable version. Any divergence between the \"official\" and individual points of view put paid to the publication of the latter type of accounts.<\/p>\n

The very subjectivity of a personal recollection, a private memory of a person, and his\/her personal assessment of experienced events, distinguishes oral histories from \"classic\" paper documents. Furthermore, oral histories are usually recorded within a certain period of time after the event that has been experienced \u2014 and sometimes long after it. This interval of time may dim some recollections but not others. The interval also allows for the saturation of memories with experience that has been gained over a lifetime, and blends a person's personal knowledge with that proposed by the mass media, literature, cinematography, and the like. Thus, according to contemporary oral historians, even though witness accounts may add little to the study of the factological aspect of an event being studied, they offer something different: the subjective importance of a given event to the narrator, as well as the unique emotions and experiences of a person who has lived life in history.<\/p>\n

The narrators of accounts that were recorded after the collapse of the Soviet Union experienced the tragedy of Babyn Yar in various ways. Stored in the collections of various research institutions are interviews with Jews who managed to escape being shot, often at the very last minute, and with people who were heading to the ravine but, for some reason, did not arrive, lost track of their family members en route, and then came back home. There are interviews recorded with Jews who were not in Kyiv at the time of the shootings, but who lost their relatives and close friends in Babyn Yar. These collections also contain numerous oral histories of non-Jewish residents of Kyiv who knew about the mass executions because they had lost friends and neighbors. There are interviews with people who, risking their own lives, helped to hide Jews throughout the Nazi occupation and therefore saved their lives. Such individuals would eventually be recognized as the Righteous Among the Nations and the Righteous of Babyn Yar. Finally, there are recollections of Kyiv residents who recount the events of 29\u201330 September 1941 not from their personal experience but mostly from rumors that they recreate on the level of retold testimonies that have now become part of a collective, rather than personal, memory.<\/p>\n

Oral histories typically feature testimonies about the Babyn Yar tragedy, which differ in terms of content. As this article will demonstrate, witnesses have different ways of recalling the period before the war and reporting how well or little informed they were about the persecution of the Jews in Europe. They recreate in various ways the text of the order that preceded the dreadful events of 29\u201330 September 1941, and offer differing descriptions of the procession of people who made their way to Babyn Yar. Even though the general, factological picture created by the accounts of those who escaped Babyn Yar is undisturbed, their stories differ from each other. This very dissimilarity constitutes the main value of the recorded accounts, precisely because they contain uniquely personal interpretations and private observations as well as subjective assessments. All this in its totality contributes to an understanding of the course of a concrete event and general historical phenomenon from the perspective of the memories and feelings of their direct participants and witnesses.<\/p>\n

Two separate subjects are highlighted in this chapter: recollections of life before the war and the beginning of the war; and accounts about two specific days, 29 and 30 September, on the part of people who managed to return from Babyn Yar. I have included numerous quotations because oral history embodies, first and foremost, the meanings and content that belong to those who speak, whether the eyewitness, participant, observer, or contemporary of a certain event. [1]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Do you remember how the war started?: the first bombs, the first Germans<\/strong>\u2026<\/strong>
\n<\/strong>Practically every interview begins with the start of the war and the first encounters with the Germans. After the symbolic words, \"On 22 June at exactly four o'clock,\" the narrators recall what they were doing and what they were feeling. Almost all of them learned that war had broken out that morning or sometime during the day; those who heard explosions say they thought they were part of some maneuvers or training exercises. One person came home late at night from the theater or a walk and was still sleeping soundly in the morning; someone else was getting ready for the opening of the central stadium and only found out that the war had begun because the opening was cancelled; another person heard the terrible news on a streetcar while running errands in the city; someone else saw the first to be wounded; another did not understand what was happening for some time.<\/p>\n

For many narrators, the immediate awareness of the war was triggered by the announcement of general mobilization and the subsequent evacuation. They recall the great impact that the much-repeated government propagandistic slogan had on the city's residents: \"Kyiv was and will be Soviet.\" Thanks to this, most of the residents did not panic and remained in the city. Thus, their astonishment and fear was all the more devastating once they realized that the Soviet military was abandoning Kyiv.<\/p>\n

For many narrators, the German arrival in Kyiv on 17 September became fixed in their memories because that day was marked by chaos and the \"shameless\" (to quote the eyewitness Serhii Ivanov) looting of stores:<\/p>\n

As soon as the question arose that the Germans are approaching Kyiv and that Kyiv might be surrendered, people began looting stores. This looting was shameless. We, young boys, were not ready for this. But adults looted; men and women. Past the bridge in our area there was a huge department store. And we simply went to see how everything that could be dragged out was being hauled off. Not just goods but furniture, too. People were carrying everything out of all grocers' shops, stores, counters. This was right before the Germans arrived. This picture is deeply engraved [in my memory]. [2]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Another eyewitness, Viktor Berezin, provides more details: \"The Central Department Store was so looted that it was terrible to see; windows and storefronts were smashed and everything was dragged out of there; people fought among themselves, they grabbed things from each other, rags.\" [3]<\/sup><\/a> Kostiantyn Miroshnyk devotes a considerable part of his eyewitness testimonies to these events:<\/p>\n

The Red Army left. I don't know where the German troops are. . . . In Kyiv were no authorities. . . . Wide-scale public destruction began, destruction of shops in the city center, including various department stores. Well, when I ran over there, I saw people dragging and grabbing everything. It was awful. Simply a horror. I, too, slipped into the city's Central Department Store. Everyone was taking something; they were carting [stuff] on wheelbarrows and carts, [or] simply with their hands. I got hold of two shoe brushes that I grabbed somewhere, I ran outside, opposite a grocery shop. I'm thinking: 'Grab something here too!' After all, food is very important. I ran into the grocery store, where everything had already been raked out and looted; I found a can of food and threw it into my knapsack. Then I went home. Night fell on the city. I woke up in the morning and, like always, I ate something and rushed outside to find out what was happening now. A neighbor met me on the street and said: 'Why are you walking around here? The Germans are on Khreshchatyk Boulevard!' 'What do you mean, the Germans? There was no battle, there was no attack, there was nothing!' 'Just go and look.' I approached the city center and there, where the street slopes steeply downward from the Golden Gates and to the Khreshchatyk, I could see from a distance that some kind of columns are coming, marching. . . . People were standing on the sidewalks on both sides of the street. Right down the center [the Germans are marching] with such an easy gait, beautifully dressed, pompously. Well, I don't mean pompously; but, in any case, this was an army that was marching. There were officers, some on horseback and in cars. This was a parade of troops in very good form. Well-fed, clean, shaved, they entered Kyiv. There was a variety of moods among the people. Me, I was just watching. There were some who were very happy about this. And some German officers were on horseback, not just in cars, which is why girls, women, and men threw flowers that they had brought at them. The Germans were welcomed ecstatically. But I also saw gloomy people. Locals. They were gazing so gloomily at all of this . . .[4]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

After describing the Germans' entry into Kyiv, the eyewitness accounts become denser, as though compressed in time. They often mention, in passing and without any details, the first attempts to recreate normal life under the occupation, the destruction of Khreshchatyk Boulevard which was mined with explosives, and the rumors that the Jews and communists had done this. One interviewee suggests that the Jews were eventually accused not of blowing up the Khreshchatyk, but of damaging the hoses bringing up water from the Dnieper River to put out the fires. In fact, this episode \u2014 the destruction of Khreshchatyk Boulevard and the accusations leveled against the Jews \u2014 serves as a prologue to recollections of the Babyn Yar tragedy, which its narrators most often begin with the notorious order commanding the Jews of Kyiv to assemble on Monday, 29 September 1941, at 8:00 a.m.<\/p>\n

\"There is an order, it must be obeyed. We have to get ready\"
\n<\/strong>Narrators recreate the text of this order in a variety of ways: some verbatim, others introduce mistakes, still others are completely wrong about the date, place, and goal of the roundup. Reactions to the order also vary. Kateryna Kovalenko, for example, talks straightaway about a bad omen: \"All Jews are to appear with their belongings and appear by order there and there. And the street is terrifying, a feeling of some sort of pogrom.\" [5]<\/sup><\/a> Some narrators, like Vira Lukanina, who were young when the order was issued, nevertheless remember it and recall the experiences of their family members.<\/p>\n

And so, one day mama was walking and saw an announcement stating that all the Jews of the city of Kyiv must take their valuables and appear at 9:00 at the corner of Melnykov Street. Mama wanted to tear down this announcement, but someone grabbed her and said: 'What are you doing? Do you want to end up at the Gestapo?' So mama continued on. After coming home, she told us everything. We wanted to do something to help. [6]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

A stark note of anxiety runs through the recollections of Valentyna Berezliova, who was an adult when the German occupation began. Throughout all the years spent \"under the Germans,\" she hid her future husband in her apartment. (They finally married, but not until 1974 because, according to Berezliova, superstitions about what she had lived through prevented her from agreeing to an official marriage before then).<\/p>\n

In the evening I went to Volodymyrska Street to get water and read a blue-colored poster, the kind they used to wrap a lump of sugar. It said: 'All Jews residing in Kyiv and its vicinities are to appear with their valuables and warm clothing at 7:00 at the Jewish cemetery.' I no longer remember how I made my way home, and instantly told my husband everything. . . . I will tell you right now that this was around the 28th<\/sup>; the 29th<\/sup> was Judgment Day, and everyone was supposed to go on the 29th<\/sup>. They wrote this dazzling, beastly announcement in less than a day. [7]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

From the early morning of 29 September people began gathering on the street indicated in the announcement. They were Jews, who came with their entire families; with them were some Ukrainians and Russians who were helping those who needed assistance by carrying their belongings or transporting them. Witnesses who saw the procession of Jews on 29 September mostly emphasize that the assembled people did not know or understand where they were going and what would happen later. From the sidelines, it resembled a mass resettlement operation. In the words of Zoia Popova:<\/p>\n

here comes a women hitched to a small cart, a two-wheeled cart. [She was] a young woman; walking next to her is a small child holding her by the hand; on the other side is an elderly woman. And sitting on the cart is an old man, there are some things wrapped in a bundle, but what caught my eyes was a broom! They were bringing a broom with them. This means that people really believed that they would be transported somewhere. And that's the kind of domestic 'treasure' they were bringing with them; and so, we reached Hohol Street, and from every alleyway and from every street people were gradually merging into this crowd. [8]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Some narrators cite conversations that took place either within their own families or a neighboring Jewish family on the eve of 29 September. The conversations make it clear that the Jews of Kyiv also figured that the ominous order about \"all the Jews of the city\" had to do with further resettlement. \"There is an order, it has to be obeyed. We have to get ready,\" says Kostiantyn Miroshnyk, recalling the words of his grandfather, after which the old man told Kostiantyn's grandmother and aunt to gather up their belongings. [9]<\/sup><\/a> People tried to take all their valuables, like jewels, dinner sets, and fancy dresses that a mother had recently sewn for her daughter. For the impending journey the mother dressed her in both of them, with an old dress on top, because she thought that in the new place of settlement it would be necessary to barter them for something. Vira Lukanina mentions all the above in her interview and then recounts a moving story about the Chudnovska family. This newlywed couple \u2014 Olena, who was Ukrainian, and Marko, who was Jewish \u2014 were expecting a child. They went to Babyn Yar together and perished there.<\/p>\n

My mother went to see her niece Lialia [dim. of Olena \u2014 Marta], a Ukrainian language teacher. She went to her house, she had a husband named Mara, they had completed their studies at the pedagogical institute at the same time. He looked like Pushkin. Lialia was expecting. [Olena's] mother, Hanna Oleksandrivna, and Tania lived with them. Tania was saying: 'Don't go, Lialia, don't go! And Mara, don't go either! I will bring you to the countryside in Makariv raion. People will hide you. Let's go!' Mara said: 'Well, Lialia, we won't go anywhere! No one will take us! Are the Germans really such barbarians? I am a scholar, I'm a philologist. See how many books I have! Will I really abandon all this?' This was before Babyn Yar. But he already realized that there was nothing more to say, and they simply began to get ready. Hanna Oleksandrivna tells Lialia to stay because she is not a Jew, but Lialia could not abandon her husband, and that's why she was going. And Tania, and Mara, and Lialia went to Babyn Yar. . . . Lialia went with them, they ran into their friends. There was a lawyer; in general, all the young people. They were walking and joking. It was difficult for people to believe that other people were capable of such savagery. . . . A German shoved Lialia and said: 'Go away, you Russian woman!' She said something to him in Hebrew, and he let her through. We never saw them again. [10]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Recollections of young people who, in keeping with all the laws of nature and the world, should have lived and prolonged their family lines, are shared by Nelli Baianova. In her memory the dreadful existential discordance between blossoming youth and inevitable, very sudden death was forever etched: \"I must tell you that everyone went: old people, children. But for some reason the memory of one couple has remained with me my whole life. She was a very young girl of astonishing beauty, he a young fellow. Either they had gotten married recently or they were brother and sister; they were pushing a baby carriage. I remember their faces even now; they affected me extraordinarily.\" [11]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

But despite feelings of foreboding and pleas to disregard the German order, the people who came to see off their Jewish friends or who were simply watching the procession were generally convinced that a resettlement operation was underway. Hence, they discussed the possible destinations of their resettlement. In the oral histories that I analyzed, the two places that were mentioned most often were Palestine (some narrators say \"Israel\") and Russia (the phrase used is \"to Stalin\"). It is interesting to note that, in reply to the interviewer's question to Zoia Popova, \"Is this what you think right now? Did you hear this from someone?\" she said: \"No, we were talking about this among ourselves, we rejected it outright because of the warm clothing; why do you need warm clothing in Palestine?; this means that they will be sent to Russia.\" [12]<\/sup><\/a> People hypothesized about a ghetto and some notional places, where the Jews would be forced to work. Here the witnesses allude to the German penchant for practicality.<\/p>\n

People who witnessed the procession of deportees recall seeing many people accompanying the Jews (Ukrainians and Russians), who, unaware of the end goal of this march, had come to help their Jewish friends and neighbors carry their belongings or simply to say goodbye to them. According to the narrators, the crowd of people consisted mostly of women and their children, and elderly individuals. Among the latter were many old people who, for various reasons, had not been evacuated together with their families to the Soviet East, but had stayed behind in Kyiv. Kostiantyn Miroshnyk recalls the following incident: \"Everyone who was leaving asked and begged their grandfather, grandmother, Aunty Rokhl: 'Come with us!' And the old man would refuse. First of all, he said: 'All of you are going, we are staying, and we will look after your apartments, your property.' Then, he said: 'Where will you take me if I agree? Where will I go? And will there be a synagogue where you bring me? You don't know. No, you go and I will stay.'\" [13]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Terrible things happened to the elderly even before they reached Babyn Yar. Valentyna Berezliova recounts a dreadful story about her neighbor, an elderly Jewish woman named Busel, who asked the narrator to help her with her things on the morning of 29 September:<\/p>\n

At that very moment Busel knocks at my door and says: 'Valia, you promised to accompany me.' I say: 'Yes.' I left with her, she took a small bundle of things, she left all her belongings in her apartment. Where would she go, this old granny, who was 78 or 79 years old? I reached the grocery store with her; you know it, it's the 'Morozov Building'; every Kyivite knows it, on the corner of Volodymyrska Street and another street, I forget. And she fainted. A stocky German was walking by, some lady with him saw everything, how these unfortunate, exhausted, maimed people are moving. He takes out a pistol and kills her right in front of me. Can you imagine what I saw? I saw this with my very own eyes! [14]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Then the narrator pronounces awful words that reveal the horrific essence of the tragedy that took place several hours later:<\/p>\n

She was gone in a second, and it was very good that this happened because if she had gone to Babyn Yar, they were not shooting and killing there; they were covering wounded people with earth, this earth there was moving from blood and from everything. Not all of them were killed; they could not kill them all; a machine gun was standing there, they could have killed everyone. So, it is very good that she was killed that way. Later I thought that with this one shot maybe God saved her from all her sufferings. [15]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

\"I was thinking at the time . . . . that I was going to my death\"<\/strong>
\nOf all the recorded oral histories about Babyn Yar, the interview with Genia Batashova is one of the longest. It consists of eight parts, each lasting one hour. The recording was made on 30 April 1992 as part of an Israeli documentation project, and three years later was sent to the archives of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. Batashova's account begins with a recollection of her childhood and life with her parents, twin sister Liza, and younger brother Grisha. She recalls the Ukrainian famine of 1933, her schooling, and several stories about her twin sister, for whom she was often mistaken. The narrator shifts very soon to the early days of the war and devotes the main part of her account to recreating the events of 29 September. What follows is the story of how she was rescued from Babyn Yar together with a neighbor girl, Mania Palti; how she was hidden by neighbors; and then how she fled eastward from Kyiv. At the end of the interview Batashova talks about her return to Kyiv, postwar life, her two husbands, and immigrating to Israel.<\/p>\n

Batashova begins her account of Babyn Yar with a recollection of her neighbor, Mykola Soroka, [16]<\/sup><\/a> or \"Uncle Kolia,\" as he was called. A few days after the Germans entered Kyiv, he revealed to Genia's mother that he was a member of an underground organization. On the eve of the massacre in Babyn Yar he warned her family not to obey the Germans' order on 29\u00a0September but to wait until he verified if there was impending danger. Jumping ahead, I must mention that it was Soroka who, in saving the girls, sent Genia and Mania out of Kyiv after they returned home on 29 September, and explained the details of their escape route from Kyiv.<\/p>\n

Batashova's account of the evening before 29 September is quite lengthy. She recalls that her mother was crying nonstop, repeating to her children that \"I did not safeguard you.\" The neighbors brought some food for the road, and took Genia and her sister to spend the night at their house. \"I have been tormented my whole life, and I cannot forgive myself for going,\" the narrator states. \"Well, maybe because I did not believe that such a horror could happen, that this would be the last night of our life together. Perhaps I did not understand this? Still, I have reproached myself my entire life for having done something very wrong. To this day I don't know what my mother's last night was like. This has tormented me my whole life.\" [17]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

On the morning of 29 September Batashova's mother and her three children, together with Mania Palti's mother and her three children, were at home waiting for \"Uncle Kolia.\" Genia's mother began to fret because it was long past 8:00 a.m., so they decided to go by themselves: the four members of the Batashov family and the four members of the Palti family. They set off along Turgenev Street, then reached Artem Street, where there were a lot of people already, according to Batashova. The two-family procession stopped near the Lukianivka marketplace and sat down to rest. Mykola Soroka caught up with them there, and once again he begged them not to go but wait for further news from him. But the two mothers were getting nervous, and they decided to go on with their children. There is a striking detail in this scene, when the families are resting. Batashova points out that while they were sitting there, some people rushed up and said that the first convoy of people had already gone. When she heard this, her sister Liza began checking her belongings and became terribly sad that she had forgotten to bring salt from home: How could you set out on a journey without salt?<\/p>\n

Continuing her account, Batashova says that after they passed Pugacheva Street, she did not see any more wagons; people were going on foot. At the end of this street she saw a fence. \"Why did we not hear the shots there, beyond Pugacheva Street?\" the narrator asks herself.<\/p>\n

I can't understand. . . . In my opinion we should have heard the shots. But we did not hear them yet. Well, it's obvious that they had planned everything because if people had heard. . . . So, we walked a short distance from Pugachev Street, and there on both sides stood anti-tank hedgehogs. . . . with a passageway down the middle. We could walk to this passageway. We could still move toward this, toward these anti-tank hedgehogs. We could turn around. And a lot of things were already scattered next to these anti-tank hedgehogs. Farther on there was nothing, but right in front of this, people were already throwing down such heavy, portable things. And I remember this one episode. Some Russian came there and was choosing clothing for himself. He picked up one article, looked at it, put it down, looked [some more]. He was putting something aside. It was disgusting. And from out of the crowd, a Jew, a man came up to him. They got into an argument. He struck him. But we went on. Something began back there, but I don't know how it ended. [18]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

Batashova recalls that standing next to the passageway were guards who were not letting people go back. A little farther away, at the entrance to the passageway, the narrator saw sacks into which you had to throw documents, money, and valuables. They threw in their documents and some money; they did not have any family valuables with them. Then they stepped onto the road alongside of which trees were growing in even rows. It was here on this road that they heard shots and realized what was happening.<\/p>\n

For Batashova this road represented the gates of hell, a place of no-return where a horrific fate awaited the people heading to Babyn Yar. On this road she saw policemen and Germans, but she speaks mostly about the Germans:<\/p>\n

There were Germans here: And they were standing with dogs, with submachine guns, and clubs. At this point they were not standing on ceremony. They drove us like cattle. I always use this word because no other word will do. They drove us, those who were walking, properly \u2014 with clubs. And if people stopped, they set the dogs [on them]. . . . Mama was crying so much that I became rigid. I remember mama and Liza crying, but Grisha and I were not. I was simply rigid. If I tell you what I was thinking at the time [sic<\/em>]. I realized that I was going to my death. And I thought: my teeth will never hurt again. I suffered a lot, my teeth often hurt me. This was the only way I could help myself. Crying, mama somehow tried the whole time. I remember her hands, the whole time she tried . . . to protect us with herself. The whole time. . . . She cried so much along the way, she cried so much. And then, this road was not a long one. On this road people were already tearing out their hair. And there was such shouting! [19]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

The road led to a small square measuring approximately 250 by 150 meters. This little square was already Babyn Yar, she emphasizes. At the end of the square were chutes with artificial gangways, behind which was \"death, they were already shooting there, machine guns were clattering away uninterruptedly.\" [20]<\/sup><\/a> There was an incessant clamor, people were rushing about, wailing, they tried to dodge the blows and get away from the dogs. In this particular portion of her testimony, the narrator emphasizes that resistance was no longer possible. This is the only part in the interview where Batashova digresses from her straightforward account and makes an emotional declaration in defense of those terrorized and confused people, who could not fathom what was going on or put up resistance because they had no way to do so:<\/p>\n

People often ask me: 'How is it possible that people did not put up resistance?' You know, I have lived a long time, I turned fifty after Babyn Yar, and I have been encountering this question literally my whole life. First of all, this is a provocation; it was said that the echelons are already departing, and people were going around, special people. Second, it was known that there is really a railway line there. But once people entered these passageways, they were in a vice, they were already surrounded on all sides. And it was already dangerous . . . especially once they came onto this road with trees; it was even risky to turn your head. A wrong move here and you might get a bullet or a dog and a club.<\/p>\n

You know, I feel responsible before those who perished so that they are not accused of not having resisted. They absolutely could not put up resistance. And you know, I feel like shouting that to the whole world. They could not, they were deceived, and once they realized [it], they had no possibility even to turn their head. This is my answer. Especially here, in Israel; I was in Jerusalem for the commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary [of Babyn Yar], and I spoke about this, too. Because I want to defend them. I bow to the memory of not only my family, I bow to the memory of all those who perished there. And I want people to understand, so that it does not occur to anyone to say [that], so that not even a shadow will fall on the memory of these people. Because they are not guilty; they did not have a chance to resist. And, after all, who was there? Who could have put up resistance there? Do you think there were young men there? There were children, old people, people past middle age. The bulk was at the front, there were sickly people there.\u00a0 [21]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

After these remarks, the narrator resumes her description of the small square located in front of the execution site. Again and again she mentions the shouting and the sound of people being beaten. She says that the Germans were tearing people's clothes off and constantly driving them in the direction of the entryways. Genia and her family came into the square together, but suddenly she saw a swathed baby lying on the ground and screaming. \"Her mother probably dropped her, could not go with her little ones to the entryway. The baby was screaming so loudly, so loudly; I turned toward it, and right then and there a German or a policeman came up and smashed this baby's head in with a cudgel. When I saw this, I was gripped by such horror that I fainted.\" [22]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Batashova cannot remember how long she was unconscious, but when she came to, her family was no longer beside her. \"I was in such despair that I was going to die alone, without them.\" She began running around, looking for her family. She was beaten and driven forward, but she was nimble and managed to wriggle out. Suddenly she spotted her mother and Grisha. She watched Grisha running up to a policeman, grabbing him by the arm, and pleading with him: \"Uncle, save me, I didn't do anything wrong!\" [23]<\/sup><\/a> The policeman was pulling away, and Genia was now hanging onto his arms, also begging to be saved. But the policeman shoved them and struck Grisha and Genia. Genia fainted again. When she came to, her family had disappeared again. She began running around the square and suddenly spotted a neighbor girl with whose family her own family had set out on the road to Babyn Yar. It was Mania Palti, who was already undressed, also alone, without her family.<\/p>\n

Mania was a beautiful blonde, while Genia had light brown hair and did not consider herself to look Jewish. This circumstance led the girls to embark on an action that saved their lives. They decided to approach a couple of policemen and tell them that they were Russians and that, while accompanying some Jews, had entered the passageways by accident, out of mere curiosity. The first policeman chased them away with the words, \"I saw that you are not Jewesses, but now that you've come, stay.\" But the second policeman, \"Very well, I will try to help you.\" [24]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Batashova recalls that they could not believe their luck. In recounting her miraculous rescue, she says that it was as though everything that was taking place around her was not happening; it's as if she were recounting someone else's story, not her own. That's how incredible the scene was. The policeman led the girls to some Germans standing next to a passenger car, and began explaining in broken German that the two girls were sisters. One of the Germans asked them their names. Genia replied that her name was Batashova, but for some reason Mania used the name of another woman, Uliana Chernetska, who lived in the same building as Mania's family. The German began snarling and yelling that they were not sisters, that they were lying. But Genia suddenly realized what was happening and said that they were cousins. Then the Germans asked them where they lived and ordered them to get in the car.<\/p>\n

From the ground he lifted up a small sack and draped a brown beaver-lamb coat on Mania. He picked up a small bag of kopecks from the ground. Before the war children would collect kopecks, and you could get little [trinkets] with these kopecks. He gave me the kopecks, and my hands were burned because I realized that the child [who dropped them] may have been shot already. In the back of the car was a small window; I turned my head and suddenly in the passageway I saw all of my relatives. Grisha was with mama. To this day I remember how mama was standing. They were not looking where death was; they were looking and searching for me. And when I saw her, I moved forward; I dropped the kopecks, they scattered in the car and on the ground. The German was pointing at my head, [showing] how I had dropped the kopecks. If the car had not started moving, I would have definitely jumped out of the car. And the car started moving. I was only looking, and [Mania and I] held hands; the whole time [the German] was pointing at my head. [25]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

The above incident did not mark the end of that dreadful day, 29 September. The girls were let out of the car on the corner of Melnikova and Pugacheva streets, and at first they did not even comprehend that they were being released. They got out of the car timidly and stood there in a state of semi-awareness. Neither girl \u2014 one was seventeen, the other thirteen \u2014 remembers how they got home. They did not dare go through the front entrance because next to it they saw a lot of people who were discussing the events of that day. They managed to knock on the semi-basement windows of the Lushcheiev family, whose daughter, Olia, was a close friend of Genia's sister Liza. The window opened, and Genia and Mania did not jump but literally fell [26]<\/sup><\/a> into the arms of Olha (Olia) and her mother, Hanna Lushcheieva. [27]<\/sup><\/a> \"Uncle Kolia\" came in the evening, and he questioned the girls and soothed them. They spent the night at the Lushcheievs, and in the morning they heard Germans outside looking for the Chernetsky girls. Batashova offers an interesting explanation for this search: \"They did not doubt that we are Russians. But very often the Russians whom they had saved, who had been caught in some extreme situation, they saved them in order to exploit them in certain situations. They needed such people. And here they had come to the courtyard to look for the Chernetsky girls.\" [28]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

No one betrayed the girls, and during the search they hid in a small closet. After a while Mykola Soroka brought them a certificate stating that they were students, Halyna and Mariia Kovalchuk, who were studying at a trade school. He said that the girls had to leave Kyiv, head in the direction of Kharkiv, and cross the front. For their journey they were given some clothing and a bit of money, fifteen rubles, and a map of Ukraine torn out of a school atlas, on which Soroka had indicated their route. \"Incidentally, Olia still has this atlas. She showed it to me; one time I even said to her: 'Olechka, give it to me as a present.' But she told me: 'No, this will be for little Zoia', for her daughter. 'Once we are gone', she says, 'this will be for Zoiechka'.\" [29]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

This concludes Genia Batashova's account of the events of 29 September and her departure from Kyiv. What follows is a lengthy, detailed story of the two girls' journey to Kharkiv then farther east to Saratov, Tashkent, and Barnaul, where she lived until the end of the war. Genia returned to Kyiv in 1946 and immigrated to Israel in the 1990s, where died in 2002.<\/p>\n

\"I was not crying out of fear, I was wailing in this hell; it was a real hell!\" [30]<\/sup><\/a><\/strong>
\n<\/em>The oral history of Mariia\/Mania Zusivna Grinberg, n\u00e9e Palti, was recorded on 2 August 1994 in Kyiv and sent to the archives of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in March 1995. This interview is much shorter and, in contrast to the one given by Genia Batashova, it was recorded in several places: in Grinberg's home; on the street near the place where their two families had lived; near and outside the building where Olha Lushcheieva had lived; and on the way to the Babyn Yar site. Below are fragments from the first uninterrupted recording, which lasts approximately one hour. It was very difficult for Grinberg to speak. She often interrupted her account to wipe away tears or seek help from Olha Lushcheieva, who was also present when the interview was recorded (although she does not speak on tape). At first, Grinberg talks briefly about her family, including her father, who was a very devout man. Very soon the interviewer asks questions about the beginning of the war and whether the Palti family tried to join the evacuation operation. From that point the narrator begins talking about the war and about Babyn Yar.<\/p>\n

In the first days of the war Mania's father was sent to the front, and before his departure he told his wife to take the family and leave Kyiv. The mood among the Jews, as the narrator emphasizes, was that the Germans were not feared. Their arguments were the traditional ones: the Germans had been in Ukraine during World War I, and at that time they had not done anything bad to the Jews. Before the Germans entered Kyiv in September 1941, some Jewish families were still living in the building, among them Genia Batashova's family. The mothers of Mania and Genia, despite the difference in their ages (Mania's mother Gita Palti was ten years younger than Genia's mother), were great friends. Mania says that her mother was always saying, \"We'll go away,\" but Genia's mother would say, \"We have to wait.\"<\/p>\n

On 29 September the two families headed in the direction designated in the Germans announcement. Mania Grinberg's account lacks the details present in Batashova's. Instead, she offers a more general, panoramic picture of what happened on the way to Babyn Yar and at the place where she was saved. In response to the interviewer's question about what people were thinking when they were getting ready to leave their homes, she says that everyone thought they were being evacuated, that they would be transported from Kyiv, that the Germans themselves were circulating these rumors. These stories were believed by the Jews themselves and by those who saw them off. Grinberg soon mentions Melnykov Street, the beginning of the cemetery, and her realization of what was going on because shots could be heard:<\/p>\n

There were people all around . . . some who were seeing [people] off were standing and looking, and they too did believe that the Jews would be transported somewhere. But once they began approaching Melnykov Street, closer to the cemetery, people there now realized what this was connected with, because shots were heard; you understand, people now realized that they were doomed. [31]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

What Grinberg describes next is a reverberation of people's shouts and fear concentrated into a few sentences, compressed into a dreadful, infernal clump, and filled with pain and tears stemming from the tragedy that in an instant, as the narrator states, took everything from her \u2014 her mother, her family, and her home. Her profound loneliness and helplessness was expressed in the following:<\/p>\n

I was undressed, and maybe I was standing close to the field of vision, I think this was an interpreter; I will close my eyes, and if I were shown what he looked like then, I would recognize him instantly because this was a boy, a Russian or a Ukrainian, I don't know, in civilian clothing, and ... maybe I was standing within the field of vision, not far from him, so he obviously turned his attention to me; I was undressed, with a blond braid, and perhaps he did not recognize me as a Jewish girl; I was not crying out of fear \u2014 I was wailing in this hell; it was a real hell. And suddenly in this hell I heard a human word; he asked me: 'Little girl, how did you end up here?' Right there I grabbed his hand, and to this day \u0406 think that no force on earth could have pried my arm from his, I was trembling so much; he asked me how I had ended up here; he began patting me on the head, saying: 'Calm down, we will drive you home'. [32]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

According to Grinberg, at this very moment she saw Genia Batashova, who came up to her and asked her to say that she was her sister. They were led to a group of women who had accidentally stumbled into the area past the fence, and told to wait there. The girls waited with this group until evening and arrived home very late, after curfew. Grinberg often says that she was so frightened and confused that she does not remember many details, such as telling her name and address to the German, or waiting until evening, or how they managed to make their way home. She also talks about the coat that the German put over her before she was driven from Babyn Yar, and it is mentioned again in connection with the Germans who came looking for her and Genia the next day. Unlike Batashova, Grinberg had no idea why they came, but the coat could have given her away, which, fortunately, did not happen: \"Oliunia's mother [Hanna Lushcheieva] and aunt took me and Genia and hid [us] in a closet; everyone was very frightened, you understand, and this coat had been left on the bed; Oliunia remembered the coat; she ran home and grabbed this coat and threw it under the bed. He [the German officer] was running there and he saw a girl and says that she was this kind of girl, he says, but not this one, a different one, fair-haired, but no one in the courtyard knew that we had survived, so he ran and ran, and left.\" [33]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

According to Grinberg's recollections, she and Genia Batashova left the Lushcheiev family not the next day but several days later, and she devotes the second part of her interview to the journey to Kharkiv. It was a very complicated route, and Grinberg says that it was the mothers' souls \u2014 her mother's and Rakhil Batashova's \u2014 that protected them on their journey. After Kyiv was liberated, Mariia Grinberg came back home. At first, she lived with her father and later with her aunt, until she got married and had her own family. She recalls bitterly that the long journey on foot from Kyiv to Kharkiv, which took place in the cold and rainy autumn, damaged her health, and that neither she nor Genia Batashova ever had children.<\/p>\n

\"There were even some Germans who rescued Jews\u2026\" [34]<\/sup><\/a>
\n<\/strong>The interview with Ruvim Shtein was recorded on 14 November 1999 for a documentary film entitled Who<\/em> Destroyed<\/em> Kiev<\/em>?<\/em> (1999). Two years later it was transferred to the archives of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. Shtein recounts his story at the very spot where he managed to escape from Babyn Yar. Here and there he replies to questions, but for the most part he constructs his own narrative. After complying with the interviewer's request to provide some information about himself and his family, he begins talking about the beginning of the war, the destruction of Khreshchatyk Boulevard with mines, the accusations that the Jews were responsible for this, and about his personal attitude to the German announcement ordering the Jews of Kyiv to assemble on the morning of 29 September.<\/p>\n

I watched many films before the war, and newsreels were already showing that the Germans were doing away with the Jews. And I told my mother that we did not have to go anywhere in compliance with this announcement because we would be shot. But rumors were circulating continuously in the city, and many people said that we would be sent to Palestine, that perhaps we would be sent to a ghetto somewhere, that we would simply be transported out of the city and settled somewhere else. And no one believed that we would be shot and that we would be tortured to death. And we were hoping that somehow we would survive, that they could not [kill] thousands of people, women, children, elderly people \u2014 because the men were all at the front \u2014 that such a thing could happen to us! [35]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

But Shtein's mother did not believe him, and he was unable to convince her. So, \"where the mother goes, there go the children.\" On 29 September, obeying the Germans' order, the Shtein family set out with a few suitcases, leaving behind some valuables, furniture and dishes. [36]<\/sup><\/a> He says that they walked in the direction of the Syrets rail spur, because<\/p>\n

there was a rumor that we are being brought to the [Lukianivka freight] station; it is obvious that they are going to load us into train cars and transport us. That's what. And no one was talking, but some said: 'Where are you going? They are shooting there.' Some local people, Ukrainians by nationality or Russians, who were living [in the vicinity] also spoke, maybe they knew. But none of the Jews believed they could all be killed. And here was this crowd of many thousands, which had been walking since morning, and we went at around 11\u201312. [37]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Continuing his account, Shtein says that when the street along which they were walking ended and the cemetery appeared, there was already a barrier in this spot, the road was blocked off, and people were being counted off in columns of 150\u2013200 and assembled for the next part of the journey. Then the road curved in another direction, and those who were walking at the back did not see where the ones walking up front had disappeared. There was another curve,<\/p>\n

and a terrible picture opened up there, and we realized instantly that it would be bad for us as soon as we were brought there. They began to take all this away, well, these German occupation troops, who were obviously the field gendarmerie, obviously the SS, Nazis, special troops, you understand, which dealt with this. In one place they were taking documents, and what is interesting is that they were instantly throwing the documents that they were confiscating onto a bonfire. And passports, and photographs, and documents that people had. They were already depersonalizing the people, you understand. We were brought to another spot; there they were confiscating belongings. Suitcases: there was such a mountain of these suitcases already; a huge one, you understand! As though half the world had brought those things there; like a mountain, you understand. In a third area, valuables that people had on them [were being confiscated]: wedding rings, earrings, bracelets, chains. Well, everything that people valued most; they were confiscated there, and all this was placed in chests. In a fourth area, outer clothing was removed: coats, jackets, woolen things, well, whatever people were wearing. They were left only in their underclothing: underwear, such light clothing, you understand.<\/p>\n

And they began sorting the people: women and children, including infants, were placed into a vehicle with closed bodywork, and the doors were shut tightly. What was this, were these mobile gas chambers or were these simply closed doors, so that nothing could be seen? That is why great horror, crying began; people were screaming for help, mothers were tearing out their hair. Everyone realized now that if everything is being seized and you are left with nothing, then you are only being led away somewhere to be exterminated. And columns of teenagers, men and teenagers, were formed, and they were sent under escort on the road to Babyn Yar. Because in the place where everything was being confiscated, there was nothing there; no one was even being beaten. That is, they did not create a panic, so that there would be no panic. So there. [38]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Shtein says that this was where he was separated from his mother and led to a column guarded by armed soldiers. Then he realized that he had not even managed to say goodbye to her. Despite the fact that they were walking under escort, he decided to escape. He edged over to one side of the column and saw water drainage ditches on both sides of the road, under which lay metal pipes half a meter in diameter. In one spot he could not get his bearings and could not escape. But in another spot, he managed to jump into the ditch and hide inside a pipe.<\/p>\n

I crawled into the pipe, it was wet there, there was water there, there was water. And I lay there until evening. My legs grew numb, turned blue, it was already getting dark. When I saw that no one was walking on the road, I crawled through the fence of this old Lukianivka cemetery, through this fence, and through the old graves, through the old cemetery I came out onto Parkhomenko Street, that is, to the freight station. And from there, already late in the evening, through this old cemetery and freight station, I came home to my house.<\/p>\n

I had the key to the building, I opened [the door], entered my apartment, and shut myself in. I lived at home for seven days, for seven days I lived in the building without going out. Pardon the word, but there wasn't even any place to relieve myself because we did not have a lavatory in the room; there was a general room. It was separated from the corridor, and I would go on a piece of paper and hide it in the oven. And when, after these seven days, I heard \u2014 we had crackers at home, some food was left over \u2014 whatever there was I ate it. And when I heard someone opening the door and trying to come in, I went out of the second-story window down the drainpipe and fled. [39]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Shtein recalls how he spent the night in various parts of the city: in an attic, an abandoned shed, and cellars in old buildings, where no one lived except rats. But there was nothing to eat, so he decided to go to his friends' house, with whom he had gone to school and was on very good terms. When he arrived at their place, their mother fed him quickly and hid him. This was the Bobrovsky family \u2014 \"These are my righteous ones,\" says Shtein: the mother, Mariia Panasivna, her children Mykhailo, Mykola, and Olha, as well as Yurii Tansky, who later helped Shtein acquire documents.<\/p>\n

This concludes Shtein's account of his escape from Babyn Yar. Next, he talks about his departure from Kyiv and the journey to Briansk oblast (Russia), being drafted in 1943, the end of the war in the Baltic republics, his temporary residence in Baku [in the Caucasus], his return to Kyiv, and his postwar life in the Ukrainian capital.<\/p>\n

\"That is my short biography,\" says Shtein, after which the interviewer asked him some questions for the purpose of clarification. In replying to them, the narrator cited several new details and explanations of what happened to him on 29 September. For example, in response to a question about whether there were Ukrainian policemen and translators, besides Germans, in the place where people's belongings were being confiscated, he said:<\/p>\n

There were. And the Ukrainian police was there. But they did not play a main role. They were like auxiliaries, you understand. There were even some Germans who rescued Jews. There were some Germans, officers who took a child away, you know, children. The mothers would leave, but they would give their children away in order to save them. This was on the street where we were walking, when, you understand, it was no longer possible to go, so you only had to hand [a child] over to someone.<\/p>\n

This was still on Melnikova Street<\/em><\/strong>?<\/em><\/strong>
\n<\/em><\/strong>This was still on Melnikova Street, yes. Well, at the end of Melnikova already there people were stopping, everyone was stopping, people had already begun to be agitated; they saw that they would die, and gave their children away.<\/p>\n

And later you went to the left<\/em><\/strong>? Where the things were, the clothing<\/em><\/strong>?<\/em><\/strong>
\n<\/em><\/strong>Yes.<\/p>\n

And [people] from the Einsatzgruppe were there and ordinary German soldiers, and the Ukrainian police<\/em><\/strong>? Or just German soldiers and the Ukrainian police<\/em><\/strong>?<\/em><\/strong>
\n<\/em><\/strong>Yes, there were only German soldiers there, those special detachments, the special unit, that one. Well, there were policemen because they had armbands; they were dressed worse than the Germans, you understand. But this was evident because they spoke Russian; this was evidently the police.<\/p>\n

In Russian or Ukrainian or both<\/em><\/strong>?<\/em><\/strong>
\n<\/em><\/strong>Either Ukrainian or Russian, well, some spoke one or the other. Well, the speech was understandable. So, what did they do? They did as they were ordered, they...<\/p>\n

And later, when the people went farther, then there was this special group<\/em><\/strong>?<\/em><\/strong>
\n<\/em><\/strong>And farther away, where people were already being shot, those cut-throats, yes, those real fascists, the Nazis, who were armed with machine guns. Even in the evening, the evening, when I was still sitting in the pipe, I peered out [and saw] vehicles, vehicles were arriving and delivering lime. They poured lime so that when the killed Jews fell into the pit, after some time, an interval, the vehicles poured out the lime. Well, so that there would be no...so that the corpses did not decompose or something, you understand.<\/p>\n

And you were sitting inside the pipe and heard everything<\/em><\/strong>?<\/em><\/strong>
\n<\/em><\/strong>Yes, I was sitting inside this pipe. I heard people screaming and I heard the shots. This was very close, well, it may have been 300 meters; 300\u2013400 meters at the most. [40]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Ruvim Shtein is one of a handful of narrators who talks about having had to conceal this dreadful experience for the rest of his life. He never spoke about his escape from Babyn Yar until 1991, and when he was accepted into the Communist party he was forced, in his own words, to \"gloss over\" certain information about his life.<\/p>\n

\"I know [that] at the site of the shootings loud music was put on so that the voices would not be heard and to muffle the shots\"
\n<\/strong>The story that Mykhailo Sidko recounted for the documentary film The Last Witness of Babyn Yar<\/em> is about 30 September and the amazing rescue of the six-year-old Mykhailo. [41]<\/sup><\/a> He and other children were set free either by a policeman or a German, but to this day Sidko does not know who it was. \"Mama was taken away, and I was standing with this crowd until we were given the order, 'Disperse!' Well, you know what a bunch of children is like; they ran like hares in all directions. This [man] \u2014 I still can't remember, don't understand \u2014 was a policeman or a German, but when we began to scatter, he fired his submachine gun into the air and killed a couple of children. Well, clearly this was so that he would be able to justify himself: You can't kill all of them, they're scattering.\" [42]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

He begins his story with an account of how his family was supposed to evacuate Kyiv and was already on the train. But his brother suddenly remembered that he had not let the pigeons out of their cage, and he jumped out of the train car. At this very moment the train began moving. \"Like every Jewish mother,\" Sidko says, \"how can she go anywhere without her son? She threw all three out of the train car, and the train departed. And we went home.\" [43]<\/sup><\/a> Their father left on the train with their belongings, and Sidko's mother and siblings returned to Kyiv, where they lived quietly until the Germans arrived.<\/p>\n

His family reacted in the following way to the order for the Jews to assemble at a designated spot on 29 collections. Sidko's uncle harnessed the small horse with which he earned a living as a private carter; his neighbor, Uncle Vasyl, also decided to go with him because he wanted to take the horse and cart later for himself. Both of them died in Babyn Yar, says Sidko. But his mother up and returned from Babyn Yar that day. Her neighbors told her: \"Berta, where are you going, you have Russian children and a Russian surname.\" [44]<\/sup><\/a> But the next day, 30 September, \"Lushka, the caretaker's wife,\" yelling, \"Hey, you Jews, get ready, let's be off!,\" led two policemen into the building, who forced Sidko's mother to go back to Babyn Yar. [45]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Sidko's account is the only one that describes the events of 30 September, instead of 29 September. Therefore, I am citing it below with some minor excisions:<\/p>\n

So, we walked along Zhylianskyi Street, we came out onto the Yevbaz, now called the Ploshcha Peremohy [Victory Square]; and as soon as the road began below, on Yevbaz, this is Poltavska Street, where guards appeared right away \u2014 policemen mixed with Germans. And that way there was already a corridor to the very place of the shootings, all the way to Syrets. There was no return for anyone who ended up in this current, in this flow of people; at this point, everyone was supposed to walk only to Syrets. After the Zhytnii marketplace, on Artem Street, there was dense encirclement. In front of this place, where the assembly was designated in the order, a barrier had been erected because many people are on the move; a crowd is walking, as though during a demonstration. True, the weather was [bad], some rain, sleet with snow; it was raw and cold. But the people were walking nonetheless; one had a bag tucked under an arm, another had children. In a word, they were going straight there, without reaching the barrier; the column was stopped, 300\u2013400 people were let through to the second barrier. Those standing here were waiting next to the first [group of people], and those are already being led to the place of execution. This means that in this second zone people were being stripped of belongings, money, documents. Everything that they had \u2014 all of it was taken away. And if someone had beautiful clothing, they were made to undress, and the person went practically naked there, to the pit, to the place of execution. And so that they would not come back, not scream, and not be agitated\u2026the Germans did this: There, in the place where they were shooting, I know, at the execution site, they put on loud music so that the voices would not be heard, they muffled the shots. [46]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Mykhailo Sidko says that on 30 September the Germans began sorting people for several purposes, something that had not happened on 29 September, and he ended up with a group of children who were probably selected for medical experiments. His brother, Grisha, also ended up in this group. Sidko recalls his mother's farewell cry: \"Mishka, take care of Grisha, you are of one blood!\" Then she went to the ravine with her three-year-old daughter Klara and four-month-old Volodia.\u2026 His mother and the children were led away, while Mykhailo continued standing with the group of children until he heard the order, \"Disperse!\" [47]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

He came back home, where once again he was betrayed by the same caretaker's wife, Lushka, after which he was arrested by the Gestapo, and then sent to a children's barrack called the Prytulok (Refuge) at the Syrets concentration camp, where medical experiments were conducted on him. Further misery in occupied Kyiv awaited him. In 1944 his father returned to Kyiv, and Mykhailo went to live with him.<\/p>\n

According to the leading researcher in the field of memory studies, Aleida Assmann, contemporary society is living in a time of transition from the political to the moral paradigm of examining the past. This transition lies in the displacement of the commemoration of heroes, who were active fighters and gave up their lives for certain ideals, by the commemoration of passive and defenseless victims of violence, who experienced collective persecution and extermination.<\/p>\n

In this ethical and moral shift from heroization to victimization in the discourse of memory, oral histories of the Holocaust occupy a leading place. They heighten society's moral sensitivity, define new legal and ethical standards, make history emotional, and place emphasis on suffering and trauma as the main object of the work of memory. It is my view that in this work of memory, which does not permit us to forget about suffering and trauma and teaches us to have sympathy and empathy and be attentive to another's pain, the study of the oral histories of survivors and witnesses of tragic events offer the best opportunities for constructing a commemoration policy based on the conscious decision to prevent the reoccurrence of similar events in the future.<\/p>\n

NOTES<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> All quotations in the chapter are taken from materials held in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (hereafter: USHMM), Washington, D.C., and the USC Shoah Foundation Institute.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Serhii Ivanov, USC Shoah Foundation Institute, interview code no. 47287\u201355, 18 August 1998, Kyiv, Ukraine.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Victor Berezin, USC Shoah Foundation Institute, interview code no. 45743\u201355, 12 June 1998 Kyiv, Ukraine.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Kostiantyn Miroshnyk, USC Shoah Foundation Institute, interview code no. 21998\u201313, 31 October 1996, Jerusalem, Israel.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Kateryna Kovalenko, USC Shoah Foundation Institute, interview code no. 38314, 25 November 1997, Kyiv, Ukraine.<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> Vira Lukanina, USC Shoah Foundation Institute, interview code no. 36456\u201348, 1 September 1997, Kyiv, Ukraine.<\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> Valentyna Berezliova, USC Shoah Foundation Institute, interview code no. 38234\u201348, 5 September 1997, Kyiv, Ukraine.<\/p>\n

[8]<\/a> Zoia Popova. USHMM, interview code no. RG-50.575*0046, 1 August 2008, Kyiv, Ukraine.<\/p>\n

[9]<\/a> Kostiantyn Miroshnyk. USC Shoah Foundation Institute, interview code no. 21998\u201313, 31 October 1996, Jerusalem, Israel.<\/p>\n

[10]<\/a> Vira Lukanina, USC Shoah Foundation Institute, interview code no. 36456\u201348, 1 September 1997, Kyiv, Ukraine. This story, written by Nina Kryvoruchko, was published in the newspaper Ievreis\u2032ki visti<\/em> (Jewish News), nos. 17\u201318 (253\u2013254) in September 2002. Olena Chudnovska was the sister of Kryvoruchko's maternal great-grandmother. See\u00a0http:\/\/2queens.ru\/Articles\/Besedka-dlya-Romantikov-Zapiski-romantika\/Mark-i-Elena-ili-Pravda-o-vernosti.aspx?ID=62<\/a><\/p>\n

[11]<\/a> Nelli Baianova. USC Shoah Foundation Institute, interview code no. 44901\u20130, 31 May 1998, Kyiv, Ukraine.<\/p>\n

[12]<\/a> Zoia Popova. USHMM, interview code no. RG-50.575*0046, 1 August 2008, Kyiv, Ukraine.<\/p>\n

[13]<\/a> Kostiantyn Miroshnyk. USC Shoah Foundation Institute, interview code no. 21998\u201313, 31 October 1996, Jerusalem, Israel.<\/p>\n

[14]<\/a> Valentyna Berezliova. USC Shoah Foundation Institute, interview code no. 38234\u201348, 5 September 1997, Kyiv, Ukraine.<\/p>\n

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

[16]<\/a> Mykola Arseniiovych Soroka, b. 1899,\u00a0city of Kyiv, a carpenter employed by Bread-Baking Plant No. 3. He was a member of an underground group helping to free prisoners from jails. He was murdered by the Gestapo on 6 January 1943.<\/p>\n

[17]<\/a> Genia Batashova. USHMM, interview code no. RG-50.120*0008, 30 April 1992.<\/p>\n

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[26]<\/a> Genia Batashova emphasizes this phrase, as uttered by Olia. In an interview recorded in 1995 Olia Rozhchenko (n\u00e9e Lushcheieva) also underscores the fact that the girls literally fell into their arms.<\/p>\n

[27]<\/a> For hiding and saving Genia Batashova and Mania Palti, Hanna and Olha Lushcheieva were recognized as Righteous Among the Nations and Righteous of Babyn Yar.<\/p>\n

[28]<\/a> Genia Batashova. USHMM, interview code no. RG-50.120*0008, 30 April 1992.<\/p>\n

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

[30]<\/a> Mariia Grinberg (Palti). USHMM, interview code no. RG-50.226*0012, 2 August 1994.<\/p>\n

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

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

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

[34]<\/a> Ruvim Shtein. USHMM, interview code no. RG-50.657*0001, 14 November 1999.<\/p>\n

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

[36]<\/a> On the morning of 29 September Ruvim, along with his mother and sister, set out for Babyn Yar. His father died in 1938.<\/p>\n

[37]<\/a> Ruvim Shtein. USHMM, interview code no. RG-50.657*0001, 14 November 1999.<\/p>\n

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

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

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

[41]<\/a> The film is available at: http:\/\/www.agenda-tv.com\/2014\/04\/blog-post.html<\/a><\/p>\n

[42]<\/a> Quoted from ibid.<\/p>\n

[43]<\/a> Quoted from ibid.<\/p>\n

[44]<\/a> Mykhailo Sidko's mother, Berta Yudivna Kohan, was Jewish. His father, Petro Andriiovych Sidko, was Ukrainian.<\/p>\n

[45]<\/a> Quoted from the film The Last Witness of Babyn Yar<\/em><\/p>\n

[46]<\/a> Quoted from ibid.<\/p>\n

[47]<\/a> Quoted from ibid.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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