Babi Yar Requiem

[Bosirant]

The killing at Babi Yar went on for a long time and included over 100,000 victims, even up to150,000, including Red Army soldiers taken prisoner, many of whom were Ukrainian, and Ukrainian patriots who opposed the Nazi German occupation.

Bolshevik Russia's NKVD used this site first to kill Ukrainian patriots and others opposed to Russian Bolshevism and Stalinism--even before the Nazi Germans did-- so Babi Yar is really a place where both Nazi Germany and Bolshevik Russia committed genocides.

[vomit49894]

UNBELIEVABLE! Let this stand as a testament to the rotteness & evil that happened during WWII.

[WarPictures]

Hi, can you please tell me where the meorial is placed?

Is it in kiyv?, because I don't know any memorials like that here.

I hope for an answer as soon as possible. Thanks!

[lovesRodin]

It needs to be on site in Kyiv. We've talked to some dignitaries there, but I haven't been able to make the connections to get approval yet. In the meantime, through the US-Ukraine Foundation, I am raising money to fund this as a traveling exhibition, complete with a whole supporting modular show, to go to Jewish History Museums. It is my hope that this will raise awareness of this genocide and bring this work to the attention of those in Ukraine who can help us get it there. It must be on site

[elhellful]

@lovesRodin

the music .... is it shostacovich's requiem for babi yar ? if not, what is it ?

thanx

[lovesRodin]

Albinoni Adagio in G Minor

[lovesRodin]

Thanks for asking. It's Albinoni Adagio in G minor

[Shoshana01]

Not trying to be funny but have the people been exhumed and reburied decently?

[lovesRodin]

No. There was nothing decent about this genocide. Before the Nazis retreated from Kiev, they attempted to conceal their atrocities. Paul Blobel, who was in control of the mass murders in Babi Yar two years earlier, supervised the Sonderaktion 1005 in eliminating its traces. For six weeks from August to September 1943, more than 300 chained prisoners were forced to exhume and burn the corpses (using local headstones as bricks to build ovens) and scatter the ashes on farmland in the vicinity.

[Shoshana01]

@lovesRodin I know that the nazis hired local help for these 'Aktions', but were any of these helpers brought to trial after the war. I'm led to believe that there might have been an einsatzgruppen trial , I don't know.

[lovesRodin]

That I do not know. I do know that one survivor, Dina Pronichiva, did testify at the war crimes trial, though I do not know the outcome of that trial. I do know now that there are many in Ukraine who deny that it ever happened. There's a lot of messiness over whether there was Ukrainian and Russian complicitness in helping the Nazi's.

[Shoshana01]

@lovesRodin Thank you for answering me. I just found out this morning That the Commander of EinsatzKommando 4a, Paul Blobel was actually tried and sentenced to death by a War Crimes Tribunal at Nuremberg in 1946. It was trial No9, I think that was the trial that Dina may have testified at.

[lovesRodin]

We are now sponsored (May 2010) by the US-Ukraine Foundation and in the process of raising money to make this the centerpiece of a traveling exhibition to donate for circuiting Jewish History Museums. You can go to the website at babynYarRequiem or watch its progress on the blog. All donations are tax-deductible through the foundation. Call 202-223-2228 and specify that it is for this project. Every bit helps. Thanks so very much!

[Shoshana01]

@lovesRodin I know that there was an einsatzgruppen trial after the war, but were any local collaborators who may have taken part in the murders brought to trial?

[lovesRodin]

It is estimated that 35,000 Jews lost their lives within two days in Sept 1941. After that the ravine was used for killing and dumping all others that displeased the Nazis. That estimate, over a three year period, brings the total up to the possible max. of 100,000. Regardless of numbers, many,many needless lives were lost to this horrible massacre.

[PaulKursey]

I have already submitted a donation to this important cause. I hope to assist where possible, many documents about this crime are within our private study. This must not be forgotten. The bronze survivors are the best of all! John-Rochester NY