ERHARD ROY WIEHN
Jewish Fates in Kiev 1941-1943
Nothing is forgotten.
Nothing is forgotten. But even the fiftieth anniversary in 1991 of the massacre of Kiev-Babi Yar appears not to have increased public awareness of it in Germany. The German army began its attack on the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941, and the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, fell on September 1941. Ten days later on the 29th and 30th of September 1941 German special units ( "Einsatzgruppen " ) shot 33,771 persons, Jewish men, women and children from Kiev in the ravine of Babi Yar-about six miles from the center of the city, at that time still on the edge of Kiev, but long since extensively built around.
Only a few were fortunate enough to escape the inferno. The mass murder of Babi Yar was certainly not the first of National Socialism’s crimes against humanity, but in its inconceivable cruelty it may indeed have been the real beginning of the Shoàh, the Holocaust, the Jewish catastrophe of the twentieth century. Until the liberation of Kiev by the Red Army on 5 November 1943, almost 150, 000 persons may have been murdered in Babi Yar, among them at least 80, 000 Jews from Kiev and its surroundings, Ukrainian citizens of both sexes, prisoners of war, sailors from the Dnieper fleet, gypsies.
Nothing is forgotten. In spring 1942 on the north-west edge of Kiev a concentration camp was respectively established and expanded, named by the Germans "Syrets " after a nearly part of city. Hundreds of persons were imprisoned there: men and women, Jews, Russians, Ukrainians; the commandant SS Sturmbannführer (Major) Paul von Radomski, a killer and sadist who had the prisoners brutally tortured and ordered many to be shot. SS Standartenfürer (Colonel) Paul Blobel testified in a sworn statement dated 18 June 1947, which was read on 8 April 1948 before the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg, that he had in June been assigned the task of destroying all evidence of the executions carried out by German task forces in the East. According to a file identification number of the Reich’s Central Security Agency, the Action received the designation "1005 ", was supervised by its Department IV and was begun in early summer 1942.
Nothing is forgotten. In Concentration Camp Syrets 327 persons were imprisoned in sod huts, above all the Jews who had since 1941 lived through unspeakable horrors. These prisoners were now given the task of exhuming the thousands of persons executed at Babi Yar since fall 1941, searching them for valuables and burning their corpses. An eye-witness report of October 1945 by a member of the militia (Schutzpolizei) stated among other things: "Every prisoner was shackled on both legs with a 2-4 meter long chain… The piles of corpses were not set on fire at regular intervals, but whenever one or more piles were ready, they were covered with wood and soaked with oil and gasoline and then ignited ". In Blobel’s sworn statement of 18 June 1947 we read: "During my visit in August I myself witnessed the burning of corpses in a mass grave near Kiev. This grave was approximately 55 meters long, 3 meters wide and 2.5 meters deep. After the cover had been removed, the corpses were covered with inflammable materials and set on fire. About two days passed before the fire had burned down to the bottom of the trench. Afterwards the grave was filled in and all traces thereby virtually obliterated. Because of the advance of the front it not possible to destroy the mass graves located in the South and East which had resulted from execution by the task groups. " (Cf. E.R. Wiehn, Die Shoàh von Babij Yar, Konstanz 1991, pp. 103ff.). Since the inmates of Concentration Camp Syrez themselves could well fear being shot, they broke out of the camp on 29 September 1943, but most were shot down in the act of fleeing. Only 14 managed to survive, of whom two still live in Kiev, David Budnik and Jakov Kaper.
Nothing is forgotten. In an anthology edited by myself, Due Shoàh von Babij Jar-Das Massaker deutcher Sonderkommandos an der jüdischen Bevölkerung von Kiew 1941 fünfzing Jahre danach zum Gedenken [The Shoàh of Babi Yar - In Memory of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Massacre by German Special Units of the Jewish Population of Kiev in 1941](Hartung-Gorre Verlag, Konstanz 1991), I attempted to honor David Budnik and Yakov Kaper, although I did not know them personally. In the fall of 1991 I was able to present both of them with copies of my Babi Yar documentation, and during a further meeting in fall 1992 the idea arose of publishing in 1993 the account of their ordeal, which was, however, easier said than done. In the solution of various organizational and particularly translation problems, significant help was provided above all by Dmitry Peysakhov, but also by Andrey Dragan, Dr. Jury Serebrennikov, and Susanne Schütz from the German Embassy Kiev. Dmitry Peysakhov, who in the meantime has published the impressive photo-documentation Jewish Life in Kiev (Hartung-Gorre Verlag, Kiev and Konstanz 1992/1993), has in addition made available the photos for this publication. Gratitude is due to the translators G.M. Dyma (German of D. Budnik), W. Kusnezowa (German of Y. Kaper), I.V. Griliches (English of D.Budnik and Y. Kaper), to Izolda Parchomovskaya (compiler of the text of D. Budnik), to Heide Fehringer for word processing, Henning Frank for text formatting, Miriam Wiehn for proofreading the German texts and Jed Sunden for proofreading the English texts.
Nothing is forgotten: "My generation did everything for the defeat of fascist Germany ", wrote David Budnik at the end of his account: "Fascism was defeated, but it has not been totally destroyed. Today it is attempting to rise up again and threatens mankind with new catastrophes. I believe, however, that our children and grandchildren will not let that happen. " Hopefully. This book by two unique witnesses to history had to be written in order that future generations will still be able to learn what comes of hate and nationalistic hostility. Not least of all, however, this publication is dedicated to David Budnik and Yakov Kaper, who on 29 September 1993 will celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of their liberation.Tischa be-Aw-July, 1993
Translated by James S. Brice,
University of Konstanz, Germany.