On This Day in Jewish History: September 29-30, 1941
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#onthisday, 1941, Nazi Einsatzgruppen killing squads commenced the murder of 33,371 Jews in Babi Yar, Ukraine. By the next day, they were all murdered – shot or buried alive under other bodies. We remember their lives in blessing. This awful tragedy also occurred just 1 day before Yom Kippur, 5702.
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On September 19 the Nazi Army took control of Kiev and the SS prepared to wipe out all of the Jews in the area.
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After the takeover, there were two explosions that destroyed the German headquarters. The Germans blamed this on the Jews and used it as an additional reason to rid the area of its Jews while gaining local Ukrainian sympathy for the “cause.”
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Almost 100,000 Jews fled Kiev as the Germans were approaching leaving behind mostly women, children, the elderly and the weak.
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#onthisday the SS troops marched over 33,371 Jews from Kiev and surrounding areas to the Babi Yar ravine right outside of Kiev. Over the next 2 days, they proceeded to massacre them at point blank range as their bodies fell into massive pits.
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They killed men, women, and children. It was the third largest mass killing in one location by German forces.
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There were only 29 survivors of the massacre. The same ravine was used over the next two years as a mass grave for other Jews and Soviet officials.
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It is estimated that around 100,000 people were killed at Babi Yar by the end of the war. By 1945, when the Soviet Army was closing in on the Germans near Kiev, the Nazis tried to get rid of the evidence of Babi Yar by returning to the site and burning the bodies.
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They were not successful in burning all of the bodies. Together with the other evidence which remained and the eyewitness accounts, we are aware of the atrocities which occurred there.
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In January 1946, there was a trial against 15 members of the German Police for crimes which were committed at Babi Yar.
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#judaism#jewish#history#jewishhistory#onthisday#Holocaust#NeverAgain#BabiYar#massacre#otdjh#ukraine#nazi#ss#deathpits#34000
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Text Source:
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/babi-yar
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