Newsgroups: alt.revisionism
Subject: Holocaust Almanac: Babi Yar & The Jews of Kiev...            
Organization: The Nizkor Project, Vancouver Island, CANADA
Keywords: Babi Yar,Kiev,Radomski,Syrets

Archive: places/poland/kiev babi-yar.01 
Last-modified: 22 Feb 93. knm.
XRef: einsatzgruppen/babi-yar.02 einsatzgruppen/blobel.01

"Kiev ... contained a Jewish population of 175,000 on the eve of the Nazi
invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941. The Nazi forces captured the city in
mid-September; within less than a fortnight, on the 29th. and 30th., nearly
34,000 Jews of the ghetto were brought to a suburban ravine known as Babi
Yar, near the Jewish Cemetary, where men, women, and children were
systematically machine-gunned in a two-day orgy of execution. In subsequent
months, most of the remaining population was exterminated.

This, the most appalling massacre of the war, is often alluded to as a
prime example of utter Jewish helplessness in the face of disaster. But
even the few desperate attempts, almost comletely futile, to strike back
served as a reminder that the difference between resistance and submission
depended very largely upon who was in possession of the arms that back up
the will to do or die. The Jews in their thousands, with such pathetic
belongings as they could carry, were herded into barbed-wire areas at the
top of the ravine, guarded by Ukrainian collaborators. There they were
stripped of their clothes and beaten, then led in irregular squads down the
side of the ravine. The first groups were forced to lie on the ground, face
down, and were machine-gunned by the Germans who kept up a steady volley.
The riddled bodies were covered with thin layers of earth and the next
groups were ordered to lie over them, to be similarly despatched. To carry
out the murder of 34,000 human beings in the space of two days could not
assure that all the victims had died. Hence there were a few who survived
and, though badly wounded, managed to crawl from under the corpses and seek
a hiding place.

After the main massacre, the site was converted into a more permanent camp
to which thousands of victims from other parts of the Ukraine could be sent
for extermination. It became known as the Syrets camp, taking its name from
a nearby Kiew neighborhood. Several hundred selected prisoners were
quartered there -- carpenters, showmakers, tailors, and other artisans --
to serve the needs of the SS men and the Ukrainian guards. They were
usually killed within a few weeks and replaced by others who continued
their duties. In charge of the administration and ultimate killing was Paul
von Radomski, who seemed to crace a reputation for outdoing his sadist
colleagues in other camps."

Extracted from--------------------------------------------------- 
"THE REDEMPTION OF THE UNWANTED", Abram L.  Sachar (New York: St.
Martin's/Marek, 1983.

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