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THE MIRIAM WEINER ARCHIVAL COLLECTION

BABI YAR (in Kiev), September 29-30, 1941

From the United States Memorial Museum https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/kiev-and-babi-yar

"On September 29-30, 1941, SS and German police units and their auxiliaries, under guidance of members of Einsatzgruppe C, murdered a large portion of the Jewish population of Kiev at Babi Yar, a ravine northwest of the city. As the victims moved into the ravine, detachments from Sonderkommando 4a under SS- Standartenführer shot them in small groups. According to reports by the Einsatzgruppe to headquarters, 33,771 were massacred in this two-day period. This was one of the largest mass killings at an individual location during World War II. It was surpassed only by the massacre of 50,000 Jews at Odessa by German and Romanian units in October 1941 and by the two-day shooting operation Operation Harvest Festival in early November 1943, which claimed 42,000-43,000 Jewish victims." From Wikipedia.org https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babi_Yar According to the testimony of a truck driver named Hofer, victims were ordered to undress and were beaten if they resisted: "I watched what happened when the Jews—men, women and children—arrived. The Ukrainians[b] led them past a number of different places where one after the other they had to give up their luggage, then their coats, shoes and over- garments and also underwear. They also had to leave their valuables in a designated place. There was a special pile for each article of clothing. It all happened very quickly and anyone who hesitated was kicked or pushed by the Ukrainians [sic][b] to keep them moving."

—� Michael Berenbaum: "Statement of Truck-Driver Hofer describing the murder of Jews at Babi Yar"[26] "

Note from Miriam Weiner: The foregoing Michael Berenbaum wrote the Foreword for my book, Jewish Roots in Ukraine and Moldova. Click here for more information.

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There is extensive documentation, articles, photographs and other material about this horrific event and you can learn more about this at the above-referenced Wikipedia article which leads to numerous references and sources.

During one of my early trips to Ukraine, I was in Kiev and was introduced to Ilya M. Levitas (1931-2014) who at that time was Vice-President of the Jewish Confederation of Ukraine. In addition, he was a journalist, a historian, and a public figure.

According to the Babyn Yar National Historical Memorial Preserve: " Since the age of 15, I.M. Levitas engaged in gathering evidence and documents on the history and culture of the Jewish nation. On this subject he picked one of the best collections in the former - books, photographs, military relics, badges, cards, front letters, memoirs. The collection became the basis for the creation of a number of regular and commemorative exhibitions. Personal belongings of those, who were killed in Babyn Yar were collected in spring in 1946 by 7th grade pupil I.M. Levitas - - are the only ones in the world, unique exhibits for the memorial museum of the victims of Babyn Yar. The Collection, which was created by Ilya Mikhailovich became the basis for the establishment of permanent, on-going exhibition "Babyn Yar," which has 60 booths and exhibits." Click here for more information. Babi Yar / Page 2

Miriam Weiner presents copy of her book, "Jewish Roots in Ukraine and Moldova" to Ilya Levitas, then Vice-President of the Jewish Confederation of Ukraine, 1991

A few minutes prior to this presentation, Mr. Levitas presented me with a copy of his book "Book of Memory" – Babi Yar (shown below).

Book of Memory – Babi Yar Author: Ilya M. Levitas Published in Kiev, Ukraine, 1999 Babi Yar / Page 3

The Levitas book includes:

1. A lengthy Introduction including historical background leading up to the Babi Yar killings, photographs of memorial events through the ensuing years including prominent public and political figures, local clergy representatives, photos of surviving relatives of victims, a photo of (then) President Bill Clinton and another photo of President Clinton and his wife, Hillary at these events; along with Mr. Levitas and Rabbi Yakov Bleich ( of Kiev) and people who traveled from around the world for these memorial events. 2. Section entitled "Righteous at Babi Yar" including a name list and numerous photographs 3. Section of photos entitled "Children of Babi Yar" (victims) – heartbreaking to see. 4. The main section entitled "Sacrificed at Babi Yar" consisting of 108 pages of approximately 70 names per page, totaling about 7,668 names. The names are separated into family groupings so that you can easily see the names of the parents, their ages and address along with names of their children and other family members, along with their ages. 5. Section consisting of about 67 pages of photos of victims, with about 8-9 photos per page. 6. Section listing 33 survivors, followed by photographs of each of the survivors.

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If you wish to search your surname(s) to determine if you had relatives who perished at Babi Yar, search the Surname Database on this website and it will provide you with any entries for that surname and the number of family members who also perished at Babi Yar.

To see the actual page from the Levitas book (in the ), search the Database of Shoah Victims click here and the search results lead you to the translated entry and an image of the actual page.

I am very appreciative and grateful to Serafima Velkovich of the Reference & Information Department at Yad Vashem who provided me with the indexed Babi Yar surname list with permission to include this list on the RTRF website.

President William J. Clinton with Rabbi Yakov Bleich (chief Rabbi of Ukraine) at the second Babi Yar memorial in Kiev, 1995

Photo Source: Rabbi Yakov Bleich

For more information about Babi Yar, see: https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/kiev-and-babi-yar https://www.ushmm.org/search/results/?q=Babi+yar https://www.yadvashem.org/education/learning-environment/babi-yar/historical-background3.html