A recent op-ed piece in the Washington Post concerning the crisis in the Ukraine referred to the massacre of more than thirty thousand Jews at Babi Yar in Kiev during World War II. I have written of this incident in my book The Taurus Express: Double Cross Gone Wrong. I tried to recreate what the experience must have been like for the victims.

The scene is Kiev in late September 1941 and the Germans have driven the Red Army out of the city. The SS has ordered all Jewish citizens of Kiev to assemble for transportation to "resettlement" facilities.

Sabrina had been ten years old. When her mother told her they were taking a train to be resettled and to pack those things she would need when they moved into a new house, she was upset and fearful about their future. Her mother had tried to feign optimism, smiling and laughing nervously as she delivered the news of the move to her daughters, but Sabrina could see through the facade. She knew her mother was deeply worried. Her sister Tamara flitted about the house with the same disingenuous smile on her face picking out those things she would take on the train. Tamara was fifteen and was beginning to think of herself as a woman, but Sabrina could see that she too was just a scared young girl.

Tears came to Sabrina’s eyes when her mother began removing items Sabrina wanted to take on the journey. “We will have a long walk to the train,” she told Sabrina gently, “and God knows how far we will have to walk when we arrive at wherever they are taking us. We can only take what we can carry and what they will allow us to take on the train.” Sabrina’s mother was trying to calm her, but the fact that her mother did not even know their destination deepened the sense of dread that was building in Sabrina’s mind.

Some in the Jewish community of Kiev thought it a positive sign that they had been ordered to assemble for relocation on the day before Yom Kippur, that no harm would come to them over the sacred holiday. Sabrina saw it as a sign of disrespect to their religion and took no solace from it.

They arose early that morning. Their mother had insisted they arrive at the designated intersection of Melnikova and Doktorivska streets early so they could get a good seat on the train. They walked in darkness to the intersection where they were to assemble and found there was already a large crowd of Jews waiting for instructions. Sabrina shivered as they waited. Her coat and sweater were insufficient to keep her warm in the pre-dawn chill. She found some comfort in snuggling between her mother and her sister but was miserable and frightened.

After the sun came up, they were ordered by the Germans to form a line and begin walking to the gate of Kiev’s Jewish cemetery. It was no longer quite so cold, but the mood in the line seemed to darken as they moved toward the cemetery. As they came close enough to see the gate, Sabrina could see that the Germans had set up a checkpoint, and that the carefully packed bags and bundles were being taken from the Jews and piled up behind Wehrmacht guards. “Maybe they are going to load them into baggage cars for us,” Tamara said hopefully.

“Yes, I’m sure that’s it,” their mother reassured them, but none of them really believed it. Sabrina knew her mother had brought their documents and valuables, as they had been told to do, and that she had jewelry and the family money concealed in her coat.

As they approached the checkpoint, Sabrina asked in a quavering voice, “Why aren’t they taking the luggage to the train, mama? They are just stacking it and there is no way to tell whose luggage is whose anyway.”

“I don’t know, Sabrina. I’m sure they have a plan,”