Ukraine marks 75th anniversary of Babi Yar tragedy

Today Ukraine commemorates the 75th anniversary of the tragedy in Babi Yar.

The troops of Nazi German, which occupied Kyiv during the World War II, used the area of Babi Yar in the northwestern part of Kyiv as a place of mass executions of civilians, mainly Jews.

September 29, 1941, the entire Jewish population was obliged to appear in Babi Yar at the order of the occupation administration.

The groups of people were led through the checkpoint, then driven to the edge of the ravine and shot dead. 33,771 Jews were killed until September 30.

The massacres continued in the following days: according to official data, more than 100,000 residents of Kyiv were shot dead in Babi Yar.

Not only Jews were killed and buried in Babi Yar during the war.

Within two years of the German occupation until November 1943, the entire groups of people, who were also considered to be the enemies of the Nazi, were shot and buried there – Roma, Ukrainian nationalists, the Kyiv Psychiatric Hospital patients and others. The total death toll is 100,000 people at least, more than two-thirds of whom were Jews.

In the winter of 1941-1942, the members of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists were killed in Babi Yar. Late winter 1942 – September 1943, the prisoners of the Syrets concentration camp prisoners, mostly the undergrounders (Ukrainian nationalists and Soviet partisans) were killed there.

The mourning ceremony will be held in Babi Yar today: memorial service and laying of flowers to the monuments of the National Historical and Memorial Complex “Babi Yar.”