Babi Yar

a large ravine in the northern part of Kiev, between the suburbs of Luk’ianovka and Syrets.

At the end of September 1941 the German fascist occupiers shot 50,000–70,000 persons—mainly Jews—in Babi Yar; for the next two years the so-called Syrets death camp operated there. Communists, komsomol members, members of the underground, prisoners of war, and others were imprisoned there. In August-September 1943 the fascists, retreating from Kiev and trying to cover the traces of their crimes, destroyed the camp and exhumed and burned hundreds of thousands of corpses in ovens; the ashes were scattered in the vicinity of Babi Yar. At the end of September 1943 there was a revolt of 330 condemned prisoners who were working at the ovens; 15 survived. In October 1966 a granite obelisk was erected at the site of the mass executions.