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The Riddle Of Babi Yar: The True Story Told by a Survivor of the Mass Murders in Kiev, 1941-1943
His name was Ziama – a beautiful Jewish name which he had to change to Russian ‘Zakhar’ in order to conceal his origins. When all Jews were ordered to appear at a gathering point, he didn’t go and persuaded others not to go either. Pretending to be a collaborator for the occupation authorities, he kept on saving lives. He rode his bike to nearby villages to barter goods for his family, at the same time trying to get in touch with partisan units. Like a true ‘blade runner’, he always had a narrow escape until a traitor denounced him. Even then, in the concentration camp, forced to exhume and burn the corpses of those massacred in the first months of the occupation, he didn’t think of death – he thought of freedom. And he led others with him - out from the camp, towards life and a happy future – just a day before their scheduled execution. In the night streets of Kiev, hiding from patrols, they made their way home, to reunite with their families.
A dreamlike story, but a true one.
Some say, Ziama never existed and the story is a fiction. To contradict this statement and to prove the authenticity of the described events, I found transcripts of the KGB interrogations of the witnesses and of those guilty of the crimes committed in Babi Yar, Kiev, in 1941-1943.
This is the truth the world needs to know. The further in time we are from the Holocaust, the more denial and more lies we encounter.
So that no Jew would ever have to hide under a Gentile name, so that no Jew would ever have his life threatened for the mere fact that he is a Jew – read and spread Ziama’s message to the world. And if the worst happens and History repeats itself – let Ziama’s heroism be an example to all of us how to fight back and not allow anything to destroy us.
Here at last, after 70 years, the final truth about Babi Yar.
A dreamlike story, but a true one.
Some say, Ziama never existed and the story is a fiction. To contradict this statement and to prove the authenticity of the described events, I found transcripts of the KGB interrogations of the witnesses and of those guilty of the crimes committed in Babi Yar, Kiev, in 1941-1943.
This is the truth the world needs to know. The further in time we are from the Holocaust, the more denial and more lies we encounter.
So that no Jew would ever have to hide under a Gentile name, so that no Jew would ever have his life threatened for the mere fact that he is a Jew – read and spread Ziama’s message to the world. And if the worst happens and History repeats itself – let Ziama’s heroism be an example to all of us how to fight back and not allow anything to destroy us.
Here at last, after 70 years, the final truth about Babi Yar.
381 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 10, 2013
266 people are currently reading
370 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
May 7, 2020
It's amazing what we choose to see and what we choose not to see, regardless of its proximity.
December 31, 2013
This is a very difficult book to read. Even I, who have read many holocaust books, found this one horrifying and I had to take breaks while reading it. It is the story of Ziama Trubakov, a Russian Jew who ended up at Babi Yar to destroy all evidence of the Nazi massacre. All bodies were to be exhumed and burned. What a horror it was for him, but he continues to think positively and plan his escape. He knew that someone had to live to tell this story, The part I loved was when he was asleep and awoke with something crawling on his neck. he grabbed it and it turned out to be a wee field mouse. Rather than eat her, he talked to her and petted her and then released her saying, "I pray you will bring hope to another." A highly recommended book.
December 7, 2020
The introduction sounds slightly familiar, but after reading over a dozen memoirs by holocaust survivors, that isn't surprising.
"His name was Ziama – a beautiful Jewish name which he had to change to the Russian ‘Zakhar’ in order to conceal his origins. When all Jews were ordered to appear at a gathering point, he didn’t go and persuaded others not to go either. Pretending to be a collaborator for the occupation authorities, he kept on saving lives. He rode his bike to nearby villages to barter goods for his family, at the same time trying to get in touch with partisan units. Like a real ‘superhero’, he always had a narrow escape until denounced by a traitor. Even then, in the concentration camp, forced to exhume and burn the corpses of those massacred in the first months of the occupation, he didn’t think of death – he thought of freedom. And he led others with him - out from the camp, towards life and a happy future – just a day before their scheduled execution. In the night-time streets of Kiev, hiding from patrols, they made their way home, to reunite with their families.
"A dreamlike story, but a true one.
"Some say, Ziama never existed and the story is fiction. To contradict this statement and to prove the authenticity of the described events, I found transcripts of interrogations by the KGB of the witnesses and of those guilty of the crimes committed in Babi Yar, Kiev, in 1941-1943.
"This is the truth the world needs to know. The further away in time we are from the Holocaust, the more denial and the more lies we encounter.
"So that no Jew should ever have to hide under a Gentile name, so that no Jew should ever have his life threatened for the mere fact that he is a Jew – read and spread Ziama’s message throughout the world. And if the worst happens and History repeats itself – let Ziama’s heroism be an example to all of us on how to fight back and not allow anything to destroy us.
"Here at last, after 70 years, is the final truth about Babi Yar."
No, the name is familiar from general osmosis over several decades, more specifically since the late seventies and eighties, known to those of the colleagues who were either more aware - as in European colleagues in Boston - or others of fashionable intelligentsia elsewhere who follow trends to be in with the crowd.
So one begins this with trepidation, expecting horrors familiar from other memoirs, or worse.
........
"To a large degree I was inspired by the writer Anatoly Kuznetsov whom I met many times and whose brilliant book “Babi Yar” vividly depicts many events of those terrible years."
That explains the name being in atmosphere of the colleagues aspiring to belong amongst fashionable intelligentsia. They professed love for all writers and writings Russian. And, of course, for the ideology.
One not so easily taken in wondered, hearing them, why they spent a considerable proportion of their money on tape recorders and cassette tapes, if they weren't lying about beliefs of economic equalisation, instead of feeding the poor, who were all too plentiful around in the great metropolis crowded so very much. They had only to find the next suburban train station, if not next road intersection, to find street urchins.
But of course, one had only contempt for their false professing for the ideology, which had nothing to do with the Russian literature, much less with the facts of Babi Yar - or other similar victims. One knew that much.
........
"The numerous Ukrainian publishers that I approached couldn’t have cared less about Babi Yar and the Jews who perished there."
Perhaps it had to do with history of collaboration by Ukrainians, not all but some, and the general antisemitism prevalent? What one reads in the memoirs of holocaust survivors from various East Europe countries of that era, has one common theme amongst many others - the Ukrainian helpers of Nazi guards or police, the former far worse than latter, whether by degree of sadism being higher or by necessity of proving themselves to the German masters.
Somewhere along the line one memoir did mention that Ukrainians were of origin from Kazakhstan. That would explain much, since history of Kazakhstan is of Mongols pushing eastwards and attempting to occupy lands West, of which Kazakhstan is smack in the middle on the road to Europe - which they did occupy for a while, more than once.
........
From introduction by translator:-
"Anti-Semitism is as strong as it has always been, and so are all kinds of racial and religious hatred. What happened back then during WWII may happen again, and not just to us Jews, but to any other racial or ethnic group. We should keep reminding the people of the world to stay alert and fight with all their strength against those who deem themselves racially superior and therefore authorized to dehumanize and annihilate others.
"Because if we fail to do so, we may find ourselves lined up for another Holocaust.
"Reyzl Yitkin Kiev,
"Sept. 29, 2012"
That he includes every possible race or religion as victims of similar hatred, discrimination or holocaust, and reminds of need to fight against any of it, is valuable.
Even as WWII raged, millions died in India because harvests were expropriated by British, and Churchill thought it was perfectly fine if millions died by starvation in India - so much so, ships filled with grains, sent by FDR to India for aid, were stopped at Australia and not allowed to proceed further by British government.
And that's only one of the many, many manifestations of such attitudes and atrocities suffered by India at hands of conquistadores over a millennium and half, in name of not only race but, separately and compounded together, religion as well.
British who changed the very meaning of the word "caste" so it's equated with India, even though it's an Anglo-saxon word and means box in German, had not only a firm caste system and still do, but had another, complex one they set up in India, just as their predecessors had; this conqueror caste system put their own caste system at top, converts and mixed race in middle, and indigenous, if they were unconverted, at the very bottom, regardless of any question of capability; the British added another rung, in that previous conquerors and their caste system was put in the middle.
Pamela Mountbatten mentions her dad being concerned about not only his muslim servants but about general safety of muslims; and yet he did witness Lahore after partition, was aware of massacre of Hindus and Sikhs and others in Northwest, was aware that the only reason India could help Kashmir, before the marauders had control of Srinagar, was that they had stopped to rape nuns in a convent outside Srinagar first. But in the subconscious caste system, abrahmic adherents were superior for him, just as they were for another learned visitor from U.S. who described Buddhist monks in derogatory terms while describing muslim tribals of the same regions as noble.
And all this after the very moderate estimate by a historian of West who estimates the holocaust suffered by Hindus of India to be to the tune of over a hundred million over the millennium and half of attempted subjugation by a religion bent on the kill-or-convert ideology.
........
"One of the inmates, a tailor by trade, was especially agitated. Most of all he was afraid to be left behind during the escape. Long before this moment he shared his fear with me, and now he was thoughtlessly trying to get ahead of all of us.
"The noise drew the guards’ attention; they ran up to the dugout.
“Was passiert ist? (What happened?) – the senior guard asked loudly. "“Was für ein Lärm? (What is this noise?)
"We all froze. One more second and our plan would fall through.
"The interpreter Yakov Steyuk saved the situation. He explained in German that there was a fight over boiled potatoes. The guards roared with laughter. They were amused. They had known for a long time that the following morning we were going to be shot dead. That was why all the leftovers from the guards’ dinner were sent to our dugout – it was supposed to be our last supper.
"Luckily for us, they didn’t show any desire to come in (that would have revealed that the door had been unlocked) and talked to us through the bars while illuminating the area with their powerful flashlights."
He was amonst those who managed to escape. Several were shot dead.
"All this happened during the early morning hours of an autumn day. Only after I had found myself outside of the fence, in relative security, did I think that if I were to survive, I must remember this date: September 29, 1943. Much later, after the war had ended, it occurred to me that our escape took place exactly two years after the start of the mass shooting of Jews in Baby Yar on September 29, 1941. And then, much much later, when I was already living in Israel, I unexpectedly received in the mail a weighty tome. It came from Germany, from Professor Erhard Wien who had interviewed me in Kiev. From this book I learned about the existence of an official German document containing information about how many Jews had been shot on the outskirts of Kiev, in the ravine called Babi Yar. In the collection of documents “Die Schoah von Babij Jar”, edited by professor E.R.Wien, it says:
"“….a classified review #6 had been sent to Berlin titled ‘On the situation and the activity of police task force and security service (SB) in Kiev and Kiev region’. We can learn from it in particular that: ‘All the Jews of Kiev had been arrested and on September 29 and 30 were executed the total of 33,771 persons. Gold, valuables, and clothes have been confiscated and transferred to the charge of the National Socialist organization.’ ”
"By the end of the 778-day Nazi occupation of Kiev this place had become a mass grave for over 100,000 people. This appalling figure has also been cited by Soviet historians. However, I’m inclined to believe that this number is both underestimated and vague. It doesn’t emphasize the fact that the majority of the victims were Jews. Regardless of this, the truth is that all the executed had been swallowed up by the 3-kilometer long ravine in an out-of-the-way suburb of Kiev. Alas! Nowadays this place is called the Syrets housing development; the fact that it was built literally on the bones of innocent victims is carefully avoided."
Startling to have a chapter in the Russian visit volume of Don Camillo series confirmed, although here he says housing development, and there it was a field, which too might be factual for all one knows.
........
He writes briefly, succinctly and well, about the antisemitism prevalent in Russia, the atmosphere before WWI and the consequent belief of Jews of Kiev that Germans were decent, until it was too late.
"Those days the weather was very windy. Because of it, fires were raging all over the city, while there was no water either in hydrants or in apartments. Besides, no one was going to put the fires out anyway.
"Such was the scene of the first days of occupation. The radio was silent, and the only news available was the word on the street.
"About one week later, on lampposts and fences, the new authorities pasted an order that has been burning my soul since I first saw it. It didn’t have a heading or a signature, and it was typewritten on low quality paper. In addition, the names of streets were distorted. In Kiev there aren’t any streets named Melnika and Dokterivska; they are called Melnikova and Degtiariovskaya. The order was in Russian, Ukrainian, and German. I tore one of them down and saved it. Here are its contents:
"“All the Yids of Kiev and its environs are to appear at 8 am on Monday September 29 1941 at the corner of Melnika and Dokterivska Streets (next to the cemeteries).
"Bring documents, money, and valuables, also warm clothes, underwear, etc.
"If any Yids do not obey this regulation and are found elsewhere, they will be shot…
"If any citizens break into the apartments abandoned by the Yids and appropriate their possessions, they will be shot…”
"There is an opinion that all the Jews went to the given address, and from there – to Babi Yar. I disagree. I didn’t go and, as best as I could, I persuaded others not to go. I would tell them about the massacres of Jews by Nazis in Minsk, the capital of Byelorussia. People listened but, as it often happens, didn’t hear. They would usually reply that they didn’t have a choice, especially those with small children. And many simply didn’t believe that the worst could happen.
"Once in the street I held a conversation with a refined-looking Jewish woman. She turned out to be a pediatrician. I advised her to run for dear life, away from this barbarity. Said a few encouraging words to her. Someday she would save the lives of children, but not those here. With an upward glance I directed her attention to the heinous order pasted on the pole…"
........
"My wife was Ukrainian. In this respect she was at ease with the new authorities. We had to figure out what to do about my Jewish origin. According to the order pasted all over the city I was subject to death by shooting because I hadn’t shown up at the corner of Melnikova next to the cemeteries!
"We thought up one possible way out, although not a foolproof solution. The official document (the certificate) procured by Anya, stamped with a swastika, had a magical effect on everyone. To this we added Anya’s ‘forgery’: on my trade union ticket she skillfully changed the name ‘Ziama’ to ‘Zakhar’, neatly transformed letter Я into A and letter M into X, and then added the letter P. (ЗЯМА = ЗАХАР). From my military ID she dexterously cut out the page where my nationality was recorded. As for my passport, according to her version, it was confiscated by the Bolsheviks when they sent me to dig trenches. I was better off without my passport because it contained a record of one more fact I couldn’t really tell the Germans: that before they came I had worked at a classified factory, frantically welding rails and converting them into ‘hedge-hogs,’ anti-tank devices of iron bars en-tangled with barbed wire.
"So, armed with this new adaptation of my life story, we began to adjust ourselves to the new order. Despite the long waiting lists for those who wished to move into some living quarters abandoned by Jews, we were promptly given a very good apartment at 69, Saksaganskogo St:"
"The only thing I strictly cautioned Anya against was telling anyone that I was in Kiev. Many of our acquaintances knew that I was Jewish. Just one careless word would be enough to send me to the Gestapo for interrogation.
"Nevertheless, the very thing I was afraid of happened. One day Anya ran into her old friend Lyalya Tomskaya and, forgetting my warning, brought her home. When Lyalya saw me, her eyes got big: “Ziama, so you are hiding here in Kiev! Isn’t it dangerous?”
"There was nothing else to do but plead with her: “Please, keep quiet ....
"His name was Ziama – a beautiful Jewish name which he had to change to the Russian ‘Zakhar’ in order to conceal his origins. When all Jews were ordered to appear at a gathering point, he didn’t go and persuaded others not to go either. Pretending to be a collaborator for the occupation authorities, he kept on saving lives. He rode his bike to nearby villages to barter goods for his family, at the same time trying to get in touch with partisan units. Like a real ‘superhero’, he always had a narrow escape until denounced by a traitor. Even then, in the concentration camp, forced to exhume and burn the corpses of those massacred in the first months of the occupation, he didn’t think of death – he thought of freedom. And he led others with him - out from the camp, towards life and a happy future – just a day before their scheduled execution. In the night-time streets of Kiev, hiding from patrols, they made their way home, to reunite with their families.
"A dreamlike story, but a true one.
"Some say, Ziama never existed and the story is fiction. To contradict this statement and to prove the authenticity of the described events, I found transcripts of interrogations by the KGB of the witnesses and of those guilty of the crimes committed in Babi Yar, Kiev, in 1941-1943.
"This is the truth the world needs to know. The further away in time we are from the Holocaust, the more denial and the more lies we encounter.
"So that no Jew should ever have to hide under a Gentile name, so that no Jew should ever have his life threatened for the mere fact that he is a Jew – read and spread Ziama’s message throughout the world. And if the worst happens and History repeats itself – let Ziama’s heroism be an example to all of us on how to fight back and not allow anything to destroy us.
"Here at last, after 70 years, is the final truth about Babi Yar."
No, the name is familiar from general osmosis over several decades, more specifically since the late seventies and eighties, known to those of the colleagues who were either more aware - as in European colleagues in Boston - or others of fashionable intelligentsia elsewhere who follow trends to be in with the crowd.
So one begins this with trepidation, expecting horrors familiar from other memoirs, or worse.
........
"To a large degree I was inspired by the writer Anatoly Kuznetsov whom I met many times and whose brilliant book “Babi Yar” vividly depicts many events of those terrible years."
That explains the name being in atmosphere of the colleagues aspiring to belong amongst fashionable intelligentsia. They professed love for all writers and writings Russian. And, of course, for the ideology.
One not so easily taken in wondered, hearing them, why they spent a considerable proportion of their money on tape recorders and cassette tapes, if they weren't lying about beliefs of economic equalisation, instead of feeding the poor, who were all too plentiful around in the great metropolis crowded so very much. They had only to find the next suburban train station, if not next road intersection, to find street urchins.
But of course, one had only contempt for their false professing for the ideology, which had nothing to do with the Russian literature, much less with the facts of Babi Yar - or other similar victims. One knew that much.
........
"The numerous Ukrainian publishers that I approached couldn’t have cared less about Babi Yar and the Jews who perished there."
Perhaps it had to do with history of collaboration by Ukrainians, not all but some, and the general antisemitism prevalent? What one reads in the memoirs of holocaust survivors from various East Europe countries of that era, has one common theme amongst many others - the Ukrainian helpers of Nazi guards or police, the former far worse than latter, whether by degree of sadism being higher or by necessity of proving themselves to the German masters.
Somewhere along the line one memoir did mention that Ukrainians were of origin from Kazakhstan. That would explain much, since history of Kazakhstan is of Mongols pushing eastwards and attempting to occupy lands West, of which Kazakhstan is smack in the middle on the road to Europe - which they did occupy for a while, more than once.
........
From introduction by translator:-
"Anti-Semitism is as strong as it has always been, and so are all kinds of racial and religious hatred. What happened back then during WWII may happen again, and not just to us Jews, but to any other racial or ethnic group. We should keep reminding the people of the world to stay alert and fight with all their strength against those who deem themselves racially superior and therefore authorized to dehumanize and annihilate others.
"Because if we fail to do so, we may find ourselves lined up for another Holocaust.
"Reyzl Yitkin Kiev,
"Sept. 29, 2012"
That he includes every possible race or religion as victims of similar hatred, discrimination or holocaust, and reminds of need to fight against any of it, is valuable.
Even as WWII raged, millions died in India because harvests were expropriated by British, and Churchill thought it was perfectly fine if millions died by starvation in India - so much so, ships filled with grains, sent by FDR to India for aid, were stopped at Australia and not allowed to proceed further by British government.
And that's only one of the many, many manifestations of such attitudes and atrocities suffered by India at hands of conquistadores over a millennium and half, in name of not only race but, separately and compounded together, religion as well.
British who changed the very meaning of the word "caste" so it's equated with India, even though it's an Anglo-saxon word and means box in German, had not only a firm caste system and still do, but had another, complex one they set up in India, just as their predecessors had; this conqueror caste system put their own caste system at top, converts and mixed race in middle, and indigenous, if they were unconverted, at the very bottom, regardless of any question of capability; the British added another rung, in that previous conquerors and their caste system was put in the middle.
Pamela Mountbatten mentions her dad being concerned about not only his muslim servants but about general safety of muslims; and yet he did witness Lahore after partition, was aware of massacre of Hindus and Sikhs and others in Northwest, was aware that the only reason India could help Kashmir, before the marauders had control of Srinagar, was that they had stopped to rape nuns in a convent outside Srinagar first. But in the subconscious caste system, abrahmic adherents were superior for him, just as they were for another learned visitor from U.S. who described Buddhist monks in derogatory terms while describing muslim tribals of the same regions as noble.
And all this after the very moderate estimate by a historian of West who estimates the holocaust suffered by Hindus of India to be to the tune of over a hundred million over the millennium and half of attempted subjugation by a religion bent on the kill-or-convert ideology.
........
"One of the inmates, a tailor by trade, was especially agitated. Most of all he was afraid to be left behind during the escape. Long before this moment he shared his fear with me, and now he was thoughtlessly trying to get ahead of all of us.
"The noise drew the guards’ attention; they ran up to the dugout.
“Was passiert ist? (What happened?) – the senior guard asked loudly. "“Was für ein Lärm? (What is this noise?)
"We all froze. One more second and our plan would fall through.
"The interpreter Yakov Steyuk saved the situation. He explained in German that there was a fight over boiled potatoes. The guards roared with laughter. They were amused. They had known for a long time that the following morning we were going to be shot dead. That was why all the leftovers from the guards’ dinner were sent to our dugout – it was supposed to be our last supper.
"Luckily for us, they didn’t show any desire to come in (that would have revealed that the door had been unlocked) and talked to us through the bars while illuminating the area with their powerful flashlights."
He was amonst those who managed to escape. Several were shot dead.
"All this happened during the early morning hours of an autumn day. Only after I had found myself outside of the fence, in relative security, did I think that if I were to survive, I must remember this date: September 29, 1943. Much later, after the war had ended, it occurred to me that our escape took place exactly two years after the start of the mass shooting of Jews in Baby Yar on September 29, 1941. And then, much much later, when I was already living in Israel, I unexpectedly received in the mail a weighty tome. It came from Germany, from Professor Erhard Wien who had interviewed me in Kiev. From this book I learned about the existence of an official German document containing information about how many Jews had been shot on the outskirts of Kiev, in the ravine called Babi Yar. In the collection of documents “Die Schoah von Babij Jar”, edited by professor E.R.Wien, it says:
"“….a classified review #6 had been sent to Berlin titled ‘On the situation and the activity of police task force and security service (SB) in Kiev and Kiev region’. We can learn from it in particular that: ‘All the Jews of Kiev had been arrested and on September 29 and 30 were executed the total of 33,771 persons. Gold, valuables, and clothes have been confiscated and transferred to the charge of the National Socialist organization.’ ”
"By the end of the 778-day Nazi occupation of Kiev this place had become a mass grave for over 100,000 people. This appalling figure has also been cited by Soviet historians. However, I’m inclined to believe that this number is both underestimated and vague. It doesn’t emphasize the fact that the majority of the victims were Jews. Regardless of this, the truth is that all the executed had been swallowed up by the 3-kilometer long ravine in an out-of-the-way suburb of Kiev. Alas! Nowadays this place is called the Syrets housing development; the fact that it was built literally on the bones of innocent victims is carefully avoided."
Startling to have a chapter in the Russian visit volume of Don Camillo series confirmed, although here he says housing development, and there it was a field, which too might be factual for all one knows.
........
He writes briefly, succinctly and well, about the antisemitism prevalent in Russia, the atmosphere before WWI and the consequent belief of Jews of Kiev that Germans were decent, until it was too late.
"Those days the weather was very windy. Because of it, fires were raging all over the city, while there was no water either in hydrants or in apartments. Besides, no one was going to put the fires out anyway.
"Such was the scene of the first days of occupation. The radio was silent, and the only news available was the word on the street.
"About one week later, on lampposts and fences, the new authorities pasted an order that has been burning my soul since I first saw it. It didn’t have a heading or a signature, and it was typewritten on low quality paper. In addition, the names of streets were distorted. In Kiev there aren’t any streets named Melnika and Dokterivska; they are called Melnikova and Degtiariovskaya. The order was in Russian, Ukrainian, and German. I tore one of them down and saved it. Here are its contents:
"“All the Yids of Kiev and its environs are to appear at 8 am on Monday September 29 1941 at the corner of Melnika and Dokterivska Streets (next to the cemeteries).
"Bring documents, money, and valuables, also warm clothes, underwear, etc.
"If any Yids do not obey this regulation and are found elsewhere, they will be shot…
"If any citizens break into the apartments abandoned by the Yids and appropriate their possessions, they will be shot…”
"There is an opinion that all the Jews went to the given address, and from there – to Babi Yar. I disagree. I didn’t go and, as best as I could, I persuaded others not to go. I would tell them about the massacres of Jews by Nazis in Minsk, the capital of Byelorussia. People listened but, as it often happens, didn’t hear. They would usually reply that they didn’t have a choice, especially those with small children. And many simply didn’t believe that the worst could happen.
"Once in the street I held a conversation with a refined-looking Jewish woman. She turned out to be a pediatrician. I advised her to run for dear life, away from this barbarity. Said a few encouraging words to her. Someday she would save the lives of children, but not those here. With an upward glance I directed her attention to the heinous order pasted on the pole…"
........
"My wife was Ukrainian. In this respect she was at ease with the new authorities. We had to figure out what to do about my Jewish origin. According to the order pasted all over the city I was subject to death by shooting because I hadn’t shown up at the corner of Melnikova next to the cemeteries!
"We thought up one possible way out, although not a foolproof solution. The official document (the certificate) procured by Anya, stamped with a swastika, had a magical effect on everyone. To this we added Anya’s ‘forgery’: on my trade union ticket she skillfully changed the name ‘Ziama’ to ‘Zakhar’, neatly transformed letter Я into A and letter M into X, and then added the letter P. (ЗЯМА = ЗАХАР). From my military ID she dexterously cut out the page where my nationality was recorded. As for my passport, according to her version, it was confiscated by the Bolsheviks when they sent me to dig trenches. I was better off without my passport because it contained a record of one more fact I couldn’t really tell the Germans: that before they came I had worked at a classified factory, frantically welding rails and converting them into ‘hedge-hogs,’ anti-tank devices of iron bars en-tangled with barbed wire.
"So, armed with this new adaptation of my life story, we began to adjust ourselves to the new order. Despite the long waiting lists for those who wished to move into some living quarters abandoned by Jews, we were promptly given a very good apartment at 69, Saksaganskogo St:"
"The only thing I strictly cautioned Anya against was telling anyone that I was in Kiev. Many of our acquaintances knew that I was Jewish. Just one careless word would be enough to send me to the Gestapo for interrogation.
"Nevertheless, the very thing I was afraid of happened. One day Anya ran into her old friend Lyalya Tomskaya and, forgetting my warning, brought her home. When Lyalya saw me, her eyes got big: “Ziama, so you are hiding here in Kiev! Isn’t it dangerous?”
"There was nothing else to do but plead with her: “Please, keep quiet ....
September 2, 2014
Humbling and Sad
For those of you who can't read enough regarding the atrocities of the Holocaust, you must read this. What man can become is indeed horrific and this account reminds me of the very brutal slaughter of many Jews and Christians going on in our world today.
For those of you who can't read enough regarding the atrocities of the Holocaust, you must read this. What man can become is indeed horrific and this account reminds me of the very brutal slaughter of many Jews and Christians going on in our world today.
December 7, 2020
The introduction sounds slightly familiar, but after reading over a dozen memoirs by holocaust survivors, that isn't surprising.
"His name was Ziama – a beautiful Jewish name which he had to change to the Russian ‘Zakhar’ in order to conceal his origins. When all Jews were ordered to appear at a gathering point, he didn’t go and persuaded others not to go either. Pretending to be a collaborator for the occupation authorities, he kept on saving lives. He rode his bike to nearby villages to barter goods for his family, at the same time trying to get in touch with partisan units. Like a real ‘superhero’, he always had a narrow escape until denounced by a traitor. Even then, in the concentration camp, forced to exhume and burn the corpses of those massacred in the first months of the occupation, he didn’t think of death – he thought of freedom. And he led others with him - out from the camp, towards life and a happy future – just a day before their scheduled execution. In the night-time streets of Kiev, hiding from patrols, they made their way home, to reunite with their families.
"A dreamlike story, but a true one.
"Some say, Ziama never existed and the story is fiction. To contradict this statement and to prove the authenticity of the described events, I found transcripts of interrogations by the KGB of the witnesses and of those guilty of the crimes committed in Babi Yar, Kiev, in 1941-1943.
"This is the truth the world needs to know. The further away in time we are from the Holocaust, the more denial and the more lies we encounter.
"So that no Jew should ever have to hide under a Gentile name, so that no Jew should ever have his life threatened for the mere fact that he is a Jew – read and spread Ziama’s message throughout the world. And if the worst happens and History repeats itself – let Ziama’s heroism be an example to all of us on how to fight back and not allow anything to destroy us.
"Here at last, after 70 years, is the final truth about Babi Yar."
No, the name is familiar from general osmosis over several decades, more specifically since the late seventies and eighties, known to those of the colleagues who were either more aware - as in European colleagues in Boston - or others of fashionable intelligentsia elsewhere who follow trends to be in with the crowd.
So one begins this with trepidation, expecting horrors familiar from other memoirs, or worse.
........
"To a large degree I was inspired by the writer Anatoly Kuznetsov whom I met many times and whose brilliant book “Babi Yar” vividly depicts many events of those terrible years."
That explains the name being in atmosphere of the colleagues aspiring to belong amongst fashionable intelligentsia. They professed love for all writers and writings Russian. And, of course, for the ideology.
One not so easily taken in wondered, hearing them, why they spent a considerable proportion of their money on tape recorders and cassette tapes, if they weren't lying about beliefs of economic equalisation, instead of feeding the poor, who were all too plentiful around in the great metropolis crowded so very much. They had only to find the next suburban train station, if not next road intersection, to find street urchins.
But of course, one had only contempt for their false professing for the ideology, which had nothing to do with the Russian literature, much less with the facts of Babi Yar - or other similar victims. One knew that much.
........
"The numerous Ukrainian publishers that I approached couldn’t have cared less about Babi Yar and the Jews who perished there."
Perhaps it had to do with history of collaboration by Ukrainians, not all but some, and the general antisemitism prevalent? What one reads in the memoirs of holocaust survivors from various East Europe countries of that era, has one common theme amongst many others - the Ukrainian helpers of Nazi guards or police, the former far worse than latter, whether by degree of sadism being higher or by necessity of proving themselves to the German masters.
Somewhere along the line one memoir did mention that Ukrainians were of origin from Kazakhstan. That would explain much, since history of Kazakhstan is of Mongols pushing eastwards and attempting to occupy lands West, of which Kazakhstan is smack in the middle on the road to Europe - which they did occupy for a while, more than once.
........
From introduction by translator:-
"Anti-Semitism is as strong as it has always been, and so are all kinds of racial and religious hatred. What happened back then during WWII may happen again, and not just to us Jews, but to any other racial or ethnic group. We should keep reminding the people of the world to stay alert and fight with all their strength against those who deem themselves racially superior and therefore authorized to dehumanize and annihilate others.
"Because if we fail to do so, we may find ourselves lined up for another Holocaust.
"Reyzl Yitkin Kiev,
"Sept. 29, 2012"
That he includes every possible race or religion as victims of similar hatred, discrimination or holocaust, and reminds of need to fight against any of it, is valuable.
Even as WWII raged, millions died in India because harvests were expropriated by British, and Churchill thought it was perfectly fine if millions died by starvation in India - so much so, ships filled with grains, sent by FDR to India for aid, were stopped at Australia and not allowed to proceed further by British government.
And that's only one of the many, many manifestations of such attitudes and atrocities suffered by India at hands of conquistadores over a millennium and half, in name of not only race but, separately and compounded together, religion as well.
British who changed the very meaning of the word "caste" so it's equated with India, even though it's an Anglo-saxon word and means box in German, had not only a firm caste system and still do, but had another, complex one they set up in India, just as their predecessors had; this conqueror caste system put their own caste system at top, converts and mixed race in middle, and indigenous, if they were unconverted, at the very bottom, regardless of any question of capability; the British added another rung, in that previous conquerors and their caste system was put in the middle.
Pamela Mountbatten mentions her dad being concerned about not only his muslim servants but about general safety of muslims; and yet he did witness Lahore after partition, was aware of massacre of Hindus and Sikhs and others in Northwest, was aware that the only reason India could help Kashmir, before the marauders had control of Srinagar, was that they had stopped to rape nuns in a convent outside Srinagar first. But in the subconscious caste system, abrahmic adherents were superior for him, just as they were for another learned visitor from U.S. who described Buddhist monks in derogatory terms while describing muslim tribals of the same regions as noble.
And all this after the very moderate estimate by a historian of West who estimates the holocaust suffered by Hindus of India to be to the tune of over a hundred million over the millennium and half of attempted subjugation by a religion bent on the kill-or-convert ideology.
........
"One of the inmates, a tailor by trade, was especially agitated. Most of all he was afraid to be left behind during the escape. Long before this moment he shared his fear with me, and now he was thoughtlessly trying to get ahead of all of us.
"The noise drew the guards’ attention; they ran up to the dugout.
“Was passiert ist? (What happened?) – the senior guard asked loudly. "“Was für ein Lärm? (What is this noise?)
"We all froze. One more second and our plan would fall through.
"The interpreter Yakov Steyuk saved the situation. He explained in German that there was a fight over boiled potatoes. The guards roared with laughter. They were amused. They had known for a long time that the following morning we were going to be shot dead. That was why all the leftovers from the guards’ dinner were sent to our dugout – it was supposed to be our last supper.
"Luckily for us, they didn’t show any desire to come in (that would have revealed that the door had been unlocked) and talked to us through the bars while illuminating the area with their powerful flashlights."
He was amonst those who managed to escape. Several were shot dead.
"All this happened during the early morning hours of an autumn day. Only after I had found myself outside of the fence, in relative security, did I think that if I were to survive, I must remember this date: September 29, 1943. Much later, after the war had ended, it occurred to me that our escape took place exactly two years after the start of the mass shooting of Jews in Baby Yar on September 29, 1941. And then, much much later, when I was already living in Israel, I unexpectedly received in the mail a weighty tome. It came from Germany, from Professor Erhard Wien who had interviewed me in Kiev. From this book I learned about the existence of an official German document containing information about how many Jews had been shot on the outskirts of Kiev, in the ravine called Babi Yar. In the collection of documents “Die Schoah von Babij Jar”, edited by professor E.R.Wien, it says:
"“….a classified review #6 had been sent to Berlin titled ‘On the situation and the activity of police task force and security service (SB) in Kiev and Kiev region’. We can learn from it in particular that: ‘All the Jews of Kiev had been arrested and on September 29 and 30 were executed the total of 33,771 persons. Gold, valuables, and clothes have been confiscated and transferred to the charge of the National Socialist organization.’ ”
"By the end of the 778-day Nazi occupation of Kiev this place had become a mass grave for over 100,000 people. This appalling figure has also been cited by Soviet historians. However, I’m inclined to believe that this number is both underestimated and vague. It doesn’t emphasize the fact that the majority of the victims were Jews. Regardless of this, the truth is that all the executed had been swallowed up by the 3-kilometer long ravine in an out-of-the-way suburb of Kiev. Alas! Nowadays this place is called the Syrets housing development; the fact that it was built literally on the bones of innocent victims is carefully avoided."
Startling to have a chapter in the Russian visit volume of Don Camillo series confirmed, although here he says housing development, and there it was a field, which too might be factual for all one knows.
........
He writes briefly, succinctly and well, about the antisemitism prevalent in Russia, the atmosphere before WWI and the consequent belief of Jews of Kiev that Germans were decent, until it was too late.
"Those days the weather was very windy. Because of it, fires were raging all over the city, while there was no water either in hydrants or in apartments. Besides, no one was going to put the fires out anyway.
"Such was the scene of the first days of occupation. The radio was silent, and the only news available was the word on the street.
"About one week later, on lampposts and fences, the new authorities pasted an order that has been burning my soul since I first saw it. It didn’t have a heading or a signature, and it was typewritten on low quality paper. In addition, the names of streets were distorted. In Kiev there aren’t any streets named Melnika and Dokterivska; they are called Melnikova and Degtiariovskaya. The order was in Russian, Ukrainian, and German. I tore one of them down and saved it. Here are its contents:
"“All the Yids of Kiev and its environs are to appear at 8 am on Monday September 29 1941 at the corner of Melnika and Dokterivska Streets (next to the cemeteries).
"Bring documents, money, and valuables, also warm clothes, underwear, etc.
"If any Yids do not obey this regulation and are found elsewhere, they will be shot…
"If any citizens break into the apartments abandoned by the Yids and appropriate their possessions, they will be shot…”
"There is an opinion that all the Jews went to the given address, and from there – to Babi Yar. I disagree. I didn’t go and, as best as I could, I persuaded others not to go. I would tell them about the massacres of Jews by Nazis in Minsk, the capital of Byelorussia. People listened but, as it often happens, didn’t hear. They would usually reply that they didn’t have a choice, especially those with small children. And many simply didn’t believe that the worst could happen.
"Once in the street I held a conversation with a refined-looking Jewish woman. She turned out to be a pediatrician. I advised her to run for dear life, away from this barbarity. Said a few encouraging words to her. Someday she would save the lives of children, but not those here. With an upward glance I directed her attention to the heinous order pasted on the pole…"
........
"My wife was Ukrainian. In this respect she was at ease with the new authorities. We had to figure out what to do about my Jewish origin. According to the order pasted all over the city I was subject to death by shooting because I hadn’t shown up at the corner of Melnikova next to the cemeteries!
"We thought up one possible way out, although not a foolproof solution. The official document (the certificate) procured by Anya, stamped with a swastika, had a magical effect on everyone. To this we added Anya’s ‘forgery’: on my trade union ticket she skillfully changed the name ‘Ziama’ to ‘Zakhar’, neatly transformed letter Я into A and letter M into X, and then added the letter P. (ЗЯМА = ЗАХАР). From my military ID she dexterously cut out the page where my nationality was recorded. As for my passport, according to her version, it was confiscated by the Bolsheviks when they sent me to dig trenches. I was better off without my passport because it contained a record of one more fact I couldn’t really tell the Germans: that before they came I had worked at a classified factory, frantically welding rails and converting them into ‘hedge-hogs,’ anti-tank devices of iron bars en-tangled with barbed wire.
"So, armed with this new adaptation of my life story, we began to adjust ourselves to the new order. Despite the long waiting lists for those who wished to move into some living quarters abandoned by Jews, we were promptly given a very good apartment at 69, Saksaganskogo St:"
"The only thing I strictly cautioned Anya against was telling anyone that I was in Kiev. Many of our acquaintances knew that I was Jewish. Just one careless word would be enough to send me to the Gestapo for interrogation.
"Nevertheless, the very thing I was afraid of happened. One day Anya ran into her old friend Lyalya Tomskaya and, forgetting my warning, brought her home. When Lyalya saw me, her eyes got big: “Ziama, so you are hiding here in Kiev! Isn’t it dangerous?”
"There was nothing else to do but plead with her: “Please, keep quiet ....
"His name was Ziama – a beautiful Jewish name which he had to change to the Russian ‘Zakhar’ in order to conceal his origins. When all Jews were ordered to appear at a gathering point, he didn’t go and persuaded others not to go either. Pretending to be a collaborator for the occupation authorities, he kept on saving lives. He rode his bike to nearby villages to barter goods for his family, at the same time trying to get in touch with partisan units. Like a real ‘superhero’, he always had a narrow escape until denounced by a traitor. Even then, in the concentration camp, forced to exhume and burn the corpses of those massacred in the first months of the occupation, he didn’t think of death – he thought of freedom. And he led others with him - out from the camp, towards life and a happy future – just a day before their scheduled execution. In the night-time streets of Kiev, hiding from patrols, they made their way home, to reunite with their families.
"A dreamlike story, but a true one.
"Some say, Ziama never existed and the story is fiction. To contradict this statement and to prove the authenticity of the described events, I found transcripts of interrogations by the KGB of the witnesses and of those guilty of the crimes committed in Babi Yar, Kiev, in 1941-1943.
"This is the truth the world needs to know. The further away in time we are from the Holocaust, the more denial and the more lies we encounter.
"So that no Jew should ever have to hide under a Gentile name, so that no Jew should ever have his life threatened for the mere fact that he is a Jew – read and spread Ziama’s message throughout the world. And if the worst happens and History repeats itself – let Ziama’s heroism be an example to all of us on how to fight back and not allow anything to destroy us.
"Here at last, after 70 years, is the final truth about Babi Yar."
No, the name is familiar from general osmosis over several decades, more specifically since the late seventies and eighties, known to those of the colleagues who were either more aware - as in European colleagues in Boston - or others of fashionable intelligentsia elsewhere who follow trends to be in with the crowd.
So one begins this with trepidation, expecting horrors familiar from other memoirs, or worse.
........
"To a large degree I was inspired by the writer Anatoly Kuznetsov whom I met many times and whose brilliant book “Babi Yar” vividly depicts many events of those terrible years."
That explains the name being in atmosphere of the colleagues aspiring to belong amongst fashionable intelligentsia. They professed love for all writers and writings Russian. And, of course, for the ideology.
One not so easily taken in wondered, hearing them, why they spent a considerable proportion of their money on tape recorders and cassette tapes, if they weren't lying about beliefs of economic equalisation, instead of feeding the poor, who were all too plentiful around in the great metropolis crowded so very much. They had only to find the next suburban train station, if not next road intersection, to find street urchins.
But of course, one had only contempt for their false professing for the ideology, which had nothing to do with the Russian literature, much less with the facts of Babi Yar - or other similar victims. One knew that much.
........
"The numerous Ukrainian publishers that I approached couldn’t have cared less about Babi Yar and the Jews who perished there."
Perhaps it had to do with history of collaboration by Ukrainians, not all but some, and the general antisemitism prevalent? What one reads in the memoirs of holocaust survivors from various East Europe countries of that era, has one common theme amongst many others - the Ukrainian helpers of Nazi guards or police, the former far worse than latter, whether by degree of sadism being higher or by necessity of proving themselves to the German masters.
Somewhere along the line one memoir did mention that Ukrainians were of origin from Kazakhstan. That would explain much, since history of Kazakhstan is of Mongols pushing eastwards and attempting to occupy lands West, of which Kazakhstan is smack in the middle on the road to Europe - which they did occupy for a while, more than once.
........
From introduction by translator:-
"Anti-Semitism is as strong as it has always been, and so are all kinds of racial and religious hatred. What happened back then during WWII may happen again, and not just to us Jews, but to any other racial or ethnic group. We should keep reminding the people of the world to stay alert and fight with all their strength against those who deem themselves racially superior and therefore authorized to dehumanize and annihilate others.
"Because if we fail to do so, we may find ourselves lined up for another Holocaust.
"Reyzl Yitkin Kiev,
"Sept. 29, 2012"
That he includes every possible race or religion as victims of similar hatred, discrimination or holocaust, and reminds of need to fight against any of it, is valuable.
Even as WWII raged, millions died in India because harvests were expropriated by British, and Churchill thought it was perfectly fine if millions died by starvation in India - so much so, ships filled with grains, sent by FDR to India for aid, were stopped at Australia and not allowed to proceed further by British government.
And that's only one of the many, many manifestations of such attitudes and atrocities suffered by India at hands of conquistadores over a millennium and half, in name of not only race but, separately and compounded together, religion as well.
British who changed the very meaning of the word "caste" so it's equated with India, even though it's an Anglo-saxon word and means box in German, had not only a firm caste system and still do, but had another, complex one they set up in India, just as their predecessors had; this conqueror caste system put their own caste system at top, converts and mixed race in middle, and indigenous, if they were unconverted, at the very bottom, regardless of any question of capability; the British added another rung, in that previous conquerors and their caste system was put in the middle.
Pamela Mountbatten mentions her dad being concerned about not only his muslim servants but about general safety of muslims; and yet he did witness Lahore after partition, was aware of massacre of Hindus and Sikhs and others in Northwest, was aware that the only reason India could help Kashmir, before the marauders had control of Srinagar, was that they had stopped to rape nuns in a convent outside Srinagar first. But in the subconscious caste system, abrahmic adherents were superior for him, just as they were for another learned visitor from U.S. who described Buddhist monks in derogatory terms while describing muslim tribals of the same regions as noble.
And all this after the very moderate estimate by a historian of West who estimates the holocaust suffered by Hindus of India to be to the tune of over a hundred million over the millennium and half of attempted subjugation by a religion bent on the kill-or-convert ideology.
........
"One of the inmates, a tailor by trade, was especially agitated. Most of all he was afraid to be left behind during the escape. Long before this moment he shared his fear with me, and now he was thoughtlessly trying to get ahead of all of us.
"The noise drew the guards’ attention; they ran up to the dugout.
“Was passiert ist? (What happened?) – the senior guard asked loudly. "“Was für ein Lärm? (What is this noise?)
"We all froze. One more second and our plan would fall through.
"The interpreter Yakov Steyuk saved the situation. He explained in German that there was a fight over boiled potatoes. The guards roared with laughter. They were amused. They had known for a long time that the following morning we were going to be shot dead. That was why all the leftovers from the guards’ dinner were sent to our dugout – it was supposed to be our last supper.
"Luckily for us, they didn’t show any desire to come in (that would have revealed that the door had been unlocked) and talked to us through the bars while illuminating the area with their powerful flashlights."
He was amonst those who managed to escape. Several were shot dead.
"All this happened during the early morning hours of an autumn day. Only after I had found myself outside of the fence, in relative security, did I think that if I were to survive, I must remember this date: September 29, 1943. Much later, after the war had ended, it occurred to me that our escape took place exactly two years after the start of the mass shooting of Jews in Baby Yar on September 29, 1941. And then, much much later, when I was already living in Israel, I unexpectedly received in the mail a weighty tome. It came from Germany, from Professor Erhard Wien who had interviewed me in Kiev. From this book I learned about the existence of an official German document containing information about how many Jews had been shot on the outskirts of Kiev, in the ravine called Babi Yar. In the collection of documents “Die Schoah von Babij Jar”, edited by professor E.R.Wien, it says:
"“….a classified review #6 had been sent to Berlin titled ‘On the situation and the activity of police task force and security service (SB) in Kiev and Kiev region’. We can learn from it in particular that: ‘All the Jews of Kiev had been arrested and on September 29 and 30 were executed the total of 33,771 persons. Gold, valuables, and clothes have been confiscated and transferred to the charge of the National Socialist organization.’ ”
"By the end of the 778-day Nazi occupation of Kiev this place had become a mass grave for over 100,000 people. This appalling figure has also been cited by Soviet historians. However, I’m inclined to believe that this number is both underestimated and vague. It doesn’t emphasize the fact that the majority of the victims were Jews. Regardless of this, the truth is that all the executed had been swallowed up by the 3-kilometer long ravine in an out-of-the-way suburb of Kiev. Alas! Nowadays this place is called the Syrets housing development; the fact that it was built literally on the bones of innocent victims is carefully avoided."
Startling to have a chapter in the Russian visit volume of Don Camillo series confirmed, although here he says housing development, and there it was a field, which too might be factual for all one knows.
........
He writes briefly, succinctly and well, about the antisemitism prevalent in Russia, the atmosphere before WWI and the consequent belief of Jews of Kiev that Germans were decent, until it was too late.
"Those days the weather was very windy. Because of it, fires were raging all over the city, while there was no water either in hydrants or in apartments. Besides, no one was going to put the fires out anyway.
"Such was the scene of the first days of occupation. The radio was silent, and the only news available was the word on the street.
"About one week later, on lampposts and fences, the new authorities pasted an order that has been burning my soul since I first saw it. It didn’t have a heading or a signature, and it was typewritten on low quality paper. In addition, the names of streets were distorted. In Kiev there aren’t any streets named Melnika and Dokterivska; they are called Melnikova and Degtiariovskaya. The order was in Russian, Ukrainian, and German. I tore one of them down and saved it. Here are its contents:
"“All the Yids of Kiev and its environs are to appear at 8 am on Monday September 29 1941 at the corner of Melnika and Dokterivska Streets (next to the cemeteries).
"Bring documents, money, and valuables, also warm clothes, underwear, etc.
"If any Yids do not obey this regulation and are found elsewhere, they will be shot…
"If any citizens break into the apartments abandoned by the Yids and appropriate their possessions, they will be shot…”
"There is an opinion that all the Jews went to the given address, and from there – to Babi Yar. I disagree. I didn’t go and, as best as I could, I persuaded others not to go. I would tell them about the massacres of Jews by Nazis in Minsk, the capital of Byelorussia. People listened but, as it often happens, didn’t hear. They would usually reply that they didn’t have a choice, especially those with small children. And many simply didn’t believe that the worst could happen.
"Once in the street I held a conversation with a refined-looking Jewish woman. She turned out to be a pediatrician. I advised her to run for dear life, away from this barbarity. Said a few encouraging words to her. Someday she would save the lives of children, but not those here. With an upward glance I directed her attention to the heinous order pasted on the pole…"
........
"My wife was Ukrainian. In this respect she was at ease with the new authorities. We had to figure out what to do about my Jewish origin. According to the order pasted all over the city I was subject to death by shooting because I hadn’t shown up at the corner of Melnikova next to the cemeteries!
"We thought up one possible way out, although not a foolproof solution. The official document (the certificate) procured by Anya, stamped with a swastika, had a magical effect on everyone. To this we added Anya’s ‘forgery’: on my trade union ticket she skillfully changed the name ‘Ziama’ to ‘Zakhar’, neatly transformed letter Я into A and letter M into X, and then added the letter P. (ЗЯМА = ЗАХАР). From my military ID she dexterously cut out the page where my nationality was recorded. As for my passport, according to her version, it was confiscated by the Bolsheviks when they sent me to dig trenches. I was better off without my passport because it contained a record of one more fact I couldn’t really tell the Germans: that before they came I had worked at a classified factory, frantically welding rails and converting them into ‘hedge-hogs,’ anti-tank devices of iron bars en-tangled with barbed wire.
"So, armed with this new adaptation of my life story, we began to adjust ourselves to the new order. Despite the long waiting lists for those who wished to move into some living quarters abandoned by Jews, we were promptly given a very good apartment at 69, Saksaganskogo St:"
"The only thing I strictly cautioned Anya against was telling anyone that I was in Kiev. Many of our acquaintances knew that I was Jewish. Just one careless word would be enough to send me to the Gestapo for interrogation.
"Nevertheless, the very thing I was afraid of happened. One day Anya ran into her old friend Lyalya Tomskaya and, forgetting my warning, brought her home. When Lyalya saw me, her eyes got big: “Ziama, so you are hiding here in Kiev! Isn’t it dangerous?”
"There was nothing else to do but plead with her: “Please, keep quiet ....
Read
March 2, 2022The Holocaust storytellers claim that the reason why there are no bodies to be found at the site—even though the story claims 33,771 people were shot there—is because the Nazis sent a special team back to the site in 1943 to exhume, burn, and crush the bones—using, of all things, tombstones from a nearby Jewish cemetery to smash the last of the bones.
Of course, the time, effort and fuel it would take to exhume, stack on iron rails, burn and then crush 33,000 bodies makes the allegation absurd—but nonetheless, this is the given reason why there are no bodies present. The Soviets even produced a compliant German officer, SS-Standartenfuhrer Paul Blobel, to “confess” to having destroyed all the 33,771 bodies within a period of thirty days, from August 18 to September 19, 1943.
The “confessions” remind the reader of those “obtained” by the Soviets to cover up the Katyn massacre, which was also blamed on the Germans. In fact, the parallels with Katyn offer a further valuable insight into the Babi Yar claims.
The mass graves created for the Soviet massacre and burial of Polish officers and intellectuals at Katyn (a crime that for fifty years was blamed on the Germans), as well as the graves used to accommodate the bodies of some 100,000 innocent residents, including children, of Hamburg, Germany, that were slaughtered by Allied bombing, have proven that it takes about a one acre area of excavation material to bury roughly 10,000 bodies.
Babi Yar would have needed a minimum of three and one half acres for 33,000 bodies. There is, therefore, no possibility that the precision aerial photos available from the period in question would not show such a disturbance in the soil.
Even if the mass grave’s depth is increased to sixteen feet, 50,000 bodies would take up about one and a half acres. Approximately 1,600,000 cubic feet of soil would need to be excavated. This would be a major excavation project even for today’s modern heavy equipment.
https://ww2truth.com/2019/12/29/babi-...
Of course, the time, effort and fuel it would take to exhume, stack on iron rails, burn and then crush 33,000 bodies makes the allegation absurd—but nonetheless, this is the given reason why there are no bodies present. The Soviets even produced a compliant German officer, SS-Standartenfuhrer Paul Blobel, to “confess” to having destroyed all the 33,771 bodies within a period of thirty days, from August 18 to September 19, 1943.
The “confessions” remind the reader of those “obtained” by the Soviets to cover up the Katyn massacre, which was also blamed on the Germans. In fact, the parallels with Katyn offer a further valuable insight into the Babi Yar claims.
The mass graves created for the Soviet massacre and burial of Polish officers and intellectuals at Katyn (a crime that for fifty years was blamed on the Germans), as well as the graves used to accommodate the bodies of some 100,000 innocent residents, including children, of Hamburg, Germany, that were slaughtered by Allied bombing, have proven that it takes about a one acre area of excavation material to bury roughly 10,000 bodies.
Babi Yar would have needed a minimum of three and one half acres for 33,000 bodies. There is, therefore, no possibility that the precision aerial photos available from the period in question would not show such a disturbance in the soil.
Even if the mass grave’s depth is increased to sixteen feet, 50,000 bodies would take up about one and a half acres. Approximately 1,600,000 cubic feet of soil would need to be excavated. This would be a major excavation project even for today’s modern heavy equipment.
https://ww2truth.com/2019/12/29/babi-...
March 27, 2014
The Riddle of Babi Yar by Reyzl Yitkin (narrator) and Ziama Trubakov is an interesting saga into the events surrounding the occupation of Kiev and the horrifying incident at Babi Yar during World War II
Ziama was an eyewitness to the atrocities in Kiev and Babi Yar. When they called for all Jews to assemble in Kiev, Ziama did not go and persuaded others not to go either. Thus neither he nor some of his friends were among the 33,771 Jews who were ruthlessly shot on September 29-20, 1941 and buried in mass graves at Babi Yar. Ziama lived openly as a Ukrainian with false papers and tried his best to help others. He would travel outside the city to the countryside and bring back supplies and food for those who were starving. Eventually he was denounced, arrested and sent to Syrets concentration camp. Here he endured the horrors of a concentration camp with a ruthless commandant. He does not spare the details of these horrors in his book. When possible, he names the perpetrators and the victims. He was extremely lucky to have survived. He was chosen to go to Babi Yar and dig up and burn the bodies of those who were killed there. He and 327 others staged an escape at the end of the war. He lived to tell his story and to live a good life. His Ukrainian wife stayed by his side the entire time.
Documentation from the KGB files show the incidents did indeed happen as he stated. There is plenty of documentation and not only his. It is an interesting book to read.
Ziama was an eyewitness to the atrocities in Kiev and Babi Yar. When they called for all Jews to assemble in Kiev, Ziama did not go and persuaded others not to go either. Thus neither he nor some of his friends were among the 33,771 Jews who were ruthlessly shot on September 29-20, 1941 and buried in mass graves at Babi Yar. Ziama lived openly as a Ukrainian with false papers and tried his best to help others. He would travel outside the city to the countryside and bring back supplies and food for those who were starving. Eventually he was denounced, arrested and sent to Syrets concentration camp. Here he endured the horrors of a concentration camp with a ruthless commandant. He does not spare the details of these horrors in his book. When possible, he names the perpetrators and the victims. He was extremely lucky to have survived. He was chosen to go to Babi Yar and dig up and burn the bodies of those who were killed there. He and 327 others staged an escape at the end of the war. He lived to tell his story and to live a good life. His Ukrainian wife stayed by his side the entire time.
Documentation from the KGB files show the incidents did indeed happen as he stated. There is plenty of documentation and not only his. It is an interesting book to read.
October 6, 2019
A must-read
This book should be required reading for all HS Students and anyone studying the Holocaust. I have read a lot of documentation on the Holocaust, but my knowledge of Baby Yar was very limited. It is not readily discussed as part of Holocaust education but it should be.
It is a stark reminder that humans can become cruel and sick towards each other, and that we need to constantly guard against it. It also serves to remind us of the dangers that unchecked Antisemitism and fascism can lead to. We already see this going on in the push for a socialist government in the US, the current Christian genocide taking place the world over, and the virulent rise of antisemitism. Nazi Germany BEGAN with socialism. We MUST remember the not-so-distant past to save our wirkd...and this book does that exact thing by putting the truth out there for all to see.
This book should be required reading for all HS Students and anyone studying the Holocaust. I have read a lot of documentation on the Holocaust, but my knowledge of Baby Yar was very limited. It is not readily discussed as part of Holocaust education but it should be.
It is a stark reminder that humans can become cruel and sick towards each other, and that we need to constantly guard against it. It also serves to remind us of the dangers that unchecked Antisemitism and fascism can lead to. We already see this going on in the push for a socialist government in the US, the current Christian genocide taking place the world over, and the virulent rise of antisemitism. Nazi Germany BEGAN with socialism. We MUST remember the not-so-distant past to save our wirkd...and this book does that exact thing by putting the truth out there for all to see.
January 22, 2023
Very well written, the horrors that people were subject to because of being born into a religion and the perpetrators fawning to the massive ego of one individual. This period in history should never be forgotten the cruelty of Hitlers Germany still astounds me and how ordinary people can become killers
January 1, 2018
Heartbreaking
This story is a true heartbreaking account of what took place during the holocaust. The things the victims went throughout unimaginable and the fact that some of the victims survived is truly amazing.
This story is a true heartbreaking account of what took place during the holocaust. The things the victims went throughout unimaginable and the fact that some of the victims survived is truly amazing.
June 25, 2019
A difficult read well written and a voice that needs to be heard. As time moves on these biographies become more and more important we must remember this time and the atrocities that were carried out on the orders of one man.
May 24, 2020
The sad story of the survivors of Babi Yar
This is a sad but true story of the heroes ofBabi Yar, and the fact that some try to say it never happened.Thank God that a few brave soles made it to give testimony to the events.
This is a sad but true story of the heroes ofBabi Yar, and the fact that some try to say it never happened.Thank God that a few brave soles made it to give testimony to the events.
September 4, 2020
You need to read this book!
How Ziama survived is a miracle ! This true story is one of the best I have ever read. It was well worth my time to read it. You really want to know about the Jews the Germans and the WWII this is your book!
How Ziama survived is a miracle ! This true story is one of the best I have ever read. It was well worth my time to read it. You really want to know about the Jews the Germans and the WWII this is your book!
April 16, 2023
What an incredible read
This is a very good first person account as told by a Jewish survivor of an extremely ugly event in human history. I cannot imagine what strength it took just to continue living one more day. Please read it a see for yourself.
This is a very good first person account as told by a Jewish survivor of an extremely ugly event in human history. I cannot imagine what strength it took just to continue living one more day. Please read it a see for yourself.
June 3, 2017
Powerful, horrifying book.
November 15, 2017
Great book. Worth the read.
Offers a real in depth story off a tragic time. Sometimes a little pro communist, but those were the times back then.
Offers a real in depth story off a tragic time. Sometimes a little pro communist, but those were the times back then.
July 13, 2018
We cannot forget
The tragic story of babi yar must live forever - as a tribute to those who perished, and as a reminder that evil lives.
The tragic story of babi yar must live forever - as a tribute to those who perished, and as a reminder that evil lives.
January 5, 2021
Good book on this tragic occasion
I have read many books on the Holocaust and this is one of the best. Great descriptions of places and the horrible things that happened here.
I have read many books on the Holocaust and this is one of the best. Great descriptions of places and the horrible things that happened here.
December 29, 2021
I gave this four stars but I am not recommending you read this book. The atrocities it describes are incredibly disturbing.
June 11, 2014
Powerful book about the inmates in Kiev that escaped Babi Yar the night before they were to be executed. The last quarter of the book were translations from KGB interviews with the former prisoners, telling their stories so the perpetrators could be charged with their war crimes. Powerful eye-witness accounts.
January 9, 2015
Very Interesting Non-fiction Book
I chose this high rating because I feel that this book was very well written with an unbelievable degree of difficulty in its completion. I read it because my father was one of the first Americans to liberate a death camp and he told us never to believe that the tales of the camps were not genuine.
I chose this high rating because I feel that this book was very well written with an unbelievable degree of difficulty in its completion. I read it because my father was one of the first Americans to liberate a death camp and he told us never to believe that the tales of the camps were not genuine.
January 4, 2016
Outstanding
Explicit and concise, this authentic record is sometimes difficult to follow. However, the author courageously describes a situation that cannot be understood by a normal person. As hard as I try, I will never be able to appreciate the suffering that the people experienced in Babi Yar.
Explicit and concise, this authentic record is sometimes difficult to follow. However, the author courageously describes a situation that cannot be understood by a normal person. As hard as I try, I will never be able to appreciate the suffering that the people experienced in Babi Yar.
October 8, 2014
A must read
a first person account of Baba Yar that all should read. and, hopefully, never to be repeated. what toll it probably took on the author to recall, recalling and writing of these events, is horrifying to think about. I hope he found some peace in his life. wow!
a first person account of Baba Yar that all should read. and, hopefully, never to be repeated. what toll it probably took on the author to recall, recalling and writing of these events, is horrifying to think about. I hope he found some peace in his life. wow!
June 22, 2016
Must-be-Known History
I marvel how quickly as humans we want to forget (or worse, hide or deny) the ugliest atrocities and crimes toward the Jewish people and other oppressed groups.
I marvel how quickly as humans we want to forget (or worse, hide or deny) the ugliest atrocities and crimes toward the Jewish people and other oppressed groups.
September 19, 2016
A Different Version
It seems odd to have a favorite version of this terrible story, but for me, Kuznetsov's (sp?) remains it. All the same, this story is moving. Better still, Trubakov supplements it with numerous official transcripts and photographs.
It seems odd to have a favorite version of this terrible story, but for me, Kuznetsov's (sp?) remains it. All the same, this story is moving. Better still, Trubakov supplements it with numerous official transcripts and photographs.
March 5, 2014
've r y touching
I chose,my rating based on the content and how detailed the author was. humanity suffered thousands of loses, men, women and children. everyone should read this.
I chose,my rating based on the content and how detailed the author was. humanity suffered thousands of loses, men, women and children. everyone should read this.
July 24, 2014
Of the over 400 books I've read on the Holocaust, this one didn't move me like others have. I would have preferred more information leading up the actual killings, then proceed with after.
September 14, 2014
This book is especially significant for WWII/Holocaust buffs....it was a heart wrenching read I will not forget.
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