29/09/2026
On 29–30 September 1941, approximately 33,771 Jewish men, women and children from Kiev and the surrounding areas were murdered at Babi Yar by the Einsatzgruppe C, with the assistance of local collaborators.
On 28 September, German authorities posted notices ordering Kiev’s Jews to assemble the following morning, 29 September, bringing their documents, money and valuables. They were warned that those who failed to appear would be executed. On 29 September, thousands of Jews gathered at the designated meeting point. They were forced to hand over their valuables and clothing before being murdered and taken in groups to Babi Yar. Many of the victims only realized what was about to happen as they approached the ravine. They were then murdered by German forces with the help of local collaborators.
In the months that followed, tens of thousands of other Jews and non-Jews were killed in Babi Yar, including Soviet prisoners of war and Roma people. With time, the place became a memorial and a symbol of the Holocaust of the Jews of the Soviet Union.
Over the past month, we have shared some of the photographs and stories of Jewish victims of Babi Yar, based on Pages of Testimony submitted to Yad Vashem. Each person represents a life, a family and a story that was destroyed. Together, their stories offer a glimpse into an entire Jewish community - doctors and housewives, teachers and pupils, engineers and craftsmen, religious people and atheists — men, women, children, and babies.
