Jewish Prisoners Executed at the Babi Yar Ravine
Yesterday, I posted a thread here regarding Patrick J. Buchanan’s new book, the controversy surrounding it and included a photo taken at Babi Yar near the city of Kiev, Ukraine. This was the site of a horrific slaughter by Hitler’s Einsatzgruppen officers of 34,000 Jewish men, women and children in September of 1941. Accompanying my text was a photograph I mistakenly described as a mass of corpses. On further research this morning, spurred by commenter Bantam, I discovered the photo had been miscaptioned at the site where it was originally found. The photo in question is of Nazi soldiers looting through clothing of Jewish victims who were forced to strip naked before they were mowed down by machine gun fire. It was not enough to murder these defenseless people - the Germans found it necessary to humiliate them in their final moments of life on this earth.
A Jewish Woman Being Shot Trying To Stand Up
I am posting here graphic photos taken by Nazis at the time of the mass murders at Babi Yar. It is important to note Babi Yar had remained somewhat of a mystery until after the war and the few survivors had been located and interviewed. The German army was retreating from Russian territory and very unsure of their ability to hold the Kiev area. It was decided serious measures to hide evidence of the mass murders were required.
Hundreds of Jewish slave laborers from the nearby Syrezk Camp were brought in September, 1943 to the ravine at Babi Yar. The prisoners were forced to bring headstones and iron fence railing from the adjacent Jewish cemetary to the ravine and construct enormous pyres. The SS officers then ordered the laborers to excavate the 100,000 corpses and pile them onto the pyres and set them afire. Special details of prisoners were assigned to hand sift throught the ashes to retrieve any traces of gold or silver from jewelry or dental work. The remaining bones were hand crushed and pulverized on the gravestones, mixed with the ashes and asphalt to be used in paving area roads. The slave laborers were then ordered to clean up and smooth out the enormous ravine to conceal what had happened there.
This project served to conceal from casual investigation the circumstances of the Nazi’s actions. It was only the fact there were survivors who witnessed this barbarism that led to the following testimony being entered into the record at Nuremberg on February 18, 1946 by Colonel L. N. Smirnov, a Russian prosecutor in the trials.
‘As prisoners of war we were interned in the Syrezk concentration camp, in the outskirts of Kiev. On 18 August, 100 of us were sent to Babi-Yar. There were we shackled in chains and ordered to exhume and burn the corpses of Soviet citizens who had been murdered by the Germans. Here the Germans brought granite monuments and iron railings from the cemetery. From these monuments we made platforms on which we placed rails, and on top of these rails we laid the iron grills to act as fire bars. On the iron grills a layer of fire wood was placed, and on top of the firewood we placed a layer of corpses. On the corpses we placed a further layer of firewood and poured paraffin over the whole. Following this order the corpses were piled up in several layers and then ignited. 2,500 to 3,000 corpses were placed in each of these “ovens”. The Germans detailed special gangs for the removal of earrings, rings, and also gold teeth from the dead.
When all the corpses were burned, new “ovens” were built, and so on. The bones were crushed into small particles by bulldozers and the ashes strewn over the Yar, so that no traces should be left. The men worked from twelve to fifteen hours a day.
The Germans used excavators in order to expedite the work. From 18 August until the day of our escape - 29 September - approximately 7,000 corpses were burned.’ “
Jewish Women Forced To Disrobe Before Execution
Jewish Prisoners Waiting To Be Shot
I would not want there to be any misunderstanding of my original article or, most certainly, of the events which occurred in 1941 and 1943 in a ravine called Babi Yar near the city of Kiev in the Ukraine.
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Thanks, Texpat.
Never, ever, again.
I believe it is essential that we are reminded of what atrocities can happen if we are not vigilante and proactive.
Thank you for the post.
I think that Buchanan and other “holocaust deniers” should be required to review the available data before any more of their work can be published. The entire saga should be required course material in all US high schools.
So you are advocating 1st amendment restrictions, #3?
#4 gadboy
Nice try, but it would be great if we could get MSNBC to fire Buchanan. Of course, they would probably replace him with whackjob Chuck Hagel and represent him as a typical conservative, too.
It is amazing (not in a good way) what people can do to their fellow humans once they are convinced that their victims are not really human. The Nazis in WWII vs. Jews, homosexuals, gypsies, etc.; many (most?) Arabs vs. Jews today; Islamofascists vs. “infidels” today. The list is, quite unfortunately very long.
I pray for the souls of the victims of these horrific crimes. I also pray for the souls of those who committed them; that they realized the evil of their actions in time to repent and seek forgiveness from the only one who can completely forgive them.
#4 Gadfly: What I am suggesting is that the obvious error of his perceptions be remedied by the facts. If he still refuses or continues on as before after thorough review; then all will know that he is the poster child for holocaust deniers and treat him accordingly. It places him in the same category as the wack-job in Iran.
“after thorough review” By whom?
#7 crusher & #5 texpat
Much as it pains me to say, gadboy might be straying perilously close to a good point. If the requirements for PJB et al. to review are from the publishers, fine. If, however, they were to be from the government, they would be clearly extra-constitutional.
Babi Yar by Yevgeny Yevtushenko
Translated by Ben Okopnik
No monument stands over Babi Yar.
A steep cliff only, like the rudest headstone.
I am afraid.
Today, I am as old
As the entire Jewish race itself.
I see myself an ancient Israelite.
I wander o’er the roads of ancient Egypt
And here, upon the cross, I perish, tortured
And even now, I bear the marks of nails.
It seems to me that Dreyfus is myself.
The Philistines betrayed me - and now judge.
I’m in a cage. Surrounded and trapped,
I’m persecuted, spat on, slandered, and
The dainty dollies in their Brussels frills
Squeal, as they stab umbrellas at my face.
I see myself a boy in Belostok
Blood spills, and runs upon the floors,
The chiefs of bar and pub rage unimpeded
And reek of vodka and of onion, half and half.
I’m thrown back by a boot, I have no strength left,
In vain I beg the rabble of pogrom,
To jeers of “Kill the Jews, and save our Russia!”
My mother’s being beaten by a clerk.
O, Russia of my heart, I know that you
Are international, by inner nature.
But often those whose hands are steeped in filth
Abused your purest name, in name of hatred.
I know the kindness of my native land.
How vile, that without the slightest quiver
The antisemites have proclaimed themselves
The “Union of the Russian People!”
It seems to me that I am Anna Frank,
Transparent, as the thinnest branch in April,
And I’m in love, and have no need of phrases,
But only that we gaze into each other’s eyes.
How little one can see, or even sense!
Leaves are forbidden, so is sky,
But much is still allowed - very gently
In darkened rooms each other to embrace.
-”They come!”
-”No, fear not - those are sounds
Of spring itself. She’s coming soon.
Quickly, your lips!”
-”They break the door!”
-”No, river ice is breaking…”
Wild grasses rustle over Babi Yar,
The trees look sternly, as if passing judgement.
Here, silently, all screams, and, hat in hand,
I feel my hair changing shade to gray.
And I myself, like one long soundless scream
Above the thousands of thousands interred,
I’m every old man executed here,
As I am every child murdered here.
No fiber of my body will forget this.
May “Internationale” thunder and ring
When, for all time, is buried and forgotten
The last of antisemites on this earth.
There is no Jewish blood that’s blood of mine,
But, hated with a passion that’s corrosive
Am I by antisemites like a Jew.
And that is why I call myself a Russian!
http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/genocide/yevtushenko.htm
#9 thank you for making my point. “Thorough review” done by any one other than his publishers or his editors at MSNBC ould be considered censorship or prior restarint.
#11 gadboy
We are grateful you are here to protect the First Amendment from the mouth-breathing, knuckle-dragging Pleistocene atavists of Lone Star Times. How very thoughtful of you.
I am of the opinion Buchanan and his cohort should be encouraged to print up all the nonsense and garbage they can. The more they reveal their base crudity and primitive falsehoods, the more we can ridicule and humiliate them.
#8 Gadboy: My point was to have PJB completely review the documented evidence. If, after he, PJB, reviewed the evidence, still chose to espouse his non-holocaust viewpoint, we, the people, will be able to view him in the proper light. He, PJB, is a wackjob.
This is the same argument for making those who want abortions to view a 3d image of the baby in the womb; that way they will be forced to face the face of the one for whom they are contemplating murder.
Gadboy, I don’t see where anyone suggested Buchanan not be allowed to write whatever he feels. The 1st Amendment guarantees him the right to say what he wants. It does not guarantee him the right to have it published. However, there is always some whackjob publishing house willing to take on any lunatic’s rantings. Pat’s constitutional rights are safe.
For the sake of disclosure before some nut complains, the second photo is from an Einsatzgruppe action in Vinnitsa, Ukraine, where 28,000 Jews were murdered on or about September 22, 1941.
In the recently released documentary, The Unknown Soldier, there is a brief clip of a ravine in the Ukraine where about a thousand people are in various stages of undress. A soldier starts shooting people with his pistol while 10 soldiers with machine guns advance mowing people down. It’s hard to believe what you are seeing.
That people will try to deny or alter the history of what the Nazi’s so thoroughly documented amazes me. I have not read many of Buchanan’s writings for a while, nor will I give him any credibility now.
While looking for an article I found this, about a Japanese diplomat who helped save 6,000 Jews from the Nazis. All before 1942. Never heard about this before, thought others may find it interesting.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/sugihara.html
#16 gto
I found the story of the Japanese man months ago researching righteous Gentiles at Yad Vashem. Thanks for reminding me because I want to front page his story.
There once was a poster on LST
Whose comments inane proved to be
He couldn’t quite grasp the thought
That public censorship could be taught
Confused by logic and reason
No matter the subject or season
That government censorship not be a toy
Can’t you understand, Good Gad Boy!
What always sickens me is that the vast majority of these murderers got away with it. Sure they hung a small percentage of the leaders in the beginning, but in the early 50s Germany abolished the death penalty and didn’t actively hunt for these killers. Stangl, the commandant of Treblinka where a million people were murdered escapes justice for 25 years and is sentenced to life and drops dead a year later. Franz, who was the second in command at Treblinka, escapes justice for 20 years, is sentenced to life, allowed leave to go visit his wife while serving his sentence, is released for medical reasons, but manages to live for another 5 years, and drops dead at the ripe old age of 84. No one was forced to murder. They did it for the perks and because they loved their job.
Once again, those commenting on Buchanan’s book would be advised to read it. In his book he discusses the Einsatzgruppen killings and quotes with approval Ian Kershaw’s description of those killings as “genocidal.” Suggesting that Buchanan is denying that those killings occurred is, quite simply, false.
#16 & #17: Virtues and Visas — a film about the Sugiharas won an academy award for short film. There is a famous photo of him being forced to leave his post and hanging out the train window still signing visas.
19, Dave, you can rest assured that all those monsters will get the justice they deserve, guaranteed.
#22 One can hope so, TexKraut, but I am constantly told by people who profess to be religious that if you accept Christ before you drop dead, you go to heaven. And to believe otherwise or to not “forgive” makes one worse than the murderers.
Few people understand the psychosis that gripped the Nazi regime. There were German military music units who were volunteering to participate in executions. The Nazi mindset thought itself as the top of the food chain, and anybody else was a mere object, lacking humanity.
This is the EXACT same mindset of radical Islam. And since those adherents of Islam who do not fall into this category choose not to defy this evil, then they themselves are supporting it by their silence.
We have only three ways we can deal with this.
Destroy Islam
Isolate Islam completely
Change Islam
We are certainly not going to nuke Islam off the face of the earth.
It would be impractical to embargo every Islamic port, and we can’t cut off their land bound borders unless we are willing to take over every bordering country.
The last is simply the most practical. It will take a long time. We will have to insinuate ourselves into their culture so they can see there is another way, and train them in that other way.
Keep in mind, 5 years into the American Revolution, we lost 1/3 of our Army at Charleston. This was not very impressive to our allies. A little over a year later, Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown. It still took us another six years go come up with our own Constitution, and another 74 years later we managed to start a war amongst ourselves that lasted 4 years and killed more Americans than all our other wars combined, right through to today. As Churchill said, “Democracy is the worst form of government possible, except for all the rest”.
#20 Tom Piatak
I have never written that Buchanan denied these events happened and anyone commenting here to that effect is wrong. I do dispute Buchanan assertion these mass murders were somehow unrelated to and only incidental to the Nazi plan for the Final Solution.
#23 dave
If you accept Christ, repent, and live according to His principles before you drop dead, you will go to heaven. I pray that these people who have done these evil deeds do exactly that. I would dearly love to see bin Laden, Hitler, Stalin, et al. in heaven when I get there (assuming I make it), because that would mean that they accepted Christ and repented before they dropped dead. I also make this same prayer for you and everybody else; heaven is a very big place.
That said, it is not always an easy prayer to make or an easy thing to ask for. I’m only trying to follow what I believe God is trying to tell us in Scripture and through the Holy Spirit.
Simply because you may disagree with me on what I just wrote does not make me equate you by any stretch with those people.
#15 Dave5
It is a little confusing with the photos on some of the Holocaust websites. I may have taken the photo from an array that was not labeled properly. I have been writing today in between doing many other things so I plead guilty if, indeed, the photo is from Vinnitsa.
NA, #26, I understand what you are saying. But I would like to believe that the justice of hell awaiting those who are truly evil. Unless one were to confess the sin and ask forgiveness from all aggrieved parties, I wouldn’t take too much stock in their finding God/Christ at the last minute. That could just be another attempt to escape justice in the hearafter. I’ll give you an example of where I believe that there was true repentence. Sometime over the last 20 years ago, there was a young white man convicted of a random hate crime. He lynched a young black student who was of very good character. The white man stopped appeals for his crime saying he did the crime and deserved his sentence. He also made very close friends of the victim’s family, particulary the mother, who visited him regularly in prison. This is when I know somebody is truly sorry for their sins. It doesn’t happen often.
#15 TexPat: I think I caused the confusion by linking the photo earlier in your first article without proper labeling. I only brought it up so the usual suspects wouldn’t complain.
#28 b45
But that’s the thing: only God will know how sincere they are in their repentance. He knows everything in your heart and your motivations. Jailhouse conversions for the sake of reduced sentences, etc. won’t cut it. It’s not up to you, me, or anyone else but God to decide whether someone is sincere.
The justice of Hell certainly exists and awaits those who do not repent.
Like I said, it’s often a very difficult prayer for me to make that these evil people find Christ and repent as I in my imperfection often think there is a special circle of Hell for people responsible for such evil. I try to forgive in what very limited way I can manage, but the forgiveness that truly counts is God’s.
The best way to remind people, is just what Texpat is doing. Show and tell. The pictures speak volumes. I do think, however, mass execution could happen again, by people who accept some lie as truth, and who agree to believe, those they kill, are less than human. ORRRRRR those who are killed have performed atrocious acts against children.
NativeAmerican, you are right. Heaven is a very big place, and none of us gets to decide who gets in and who is rejected. Only God is the ultimate judge who knows the deepest thoughts in our hearts, and He will be the one to dispense perfect justice accordingly. Truth is we are all sinners and God cannot tolerate any sin. Only when He sees that we are covered by the blood shed by Jesus when He made the New Covenant on the Cross will He forgive any of us. The truth is Jesus is able to see into our hearts and can see whether or not we are truly His.
There is no doubt the Nazis were horribly evil. I don’t know how it would be possible for that kind of evil to find the Lord. I hope there were some, though. However, I do believe that most of them were so far gone that there was no recovery, and that there is a special place in hell reserved for them. I’m just thankful that I don’t have to be the one to judge them, because certainly I am far from perfect. I have enough to worry about just trying to keep myself straight, I’ll leave these monsters to the Lord to deal with.
It is indeed up to God to judge the Nazis, but as someone once said, sometimes it is up to us to arrange the meeting.
(That quote has been attributed to Schwarzkopf but according to Snopes it did not originate with him)
#33 hamous
That’s one of the reasons they always have a priest/minister/rabbi/imam when they execute someone. If we’re arranging the meeting, we want to give them every chance possible to prepare themselves. In other words, giving the condemned every opportunity to repent before he meets his maker. And that’s why they don’t execute the mentally deficient; if the condemned doesn’t understand that they are being put to death or even what “death” means, they may not avail themselves of their final opportunity to repent.
I like the idea of those murdered by fiends having a large open window to hell where they can view the suffering while they sit in massage recliners under a warm sun with a cool breeze while drinking mai tais, and the denizens of hell can hear them laughing and having a good time.
Native, they knew enough to commit the crime. They knew enough to hide for committing the crime. They knew right from wrong. If they didn’t, they wouldn’t try and hide the crime.
#36 b45
All true. I just think it humane to give someone one final opportunity to repent. It’s then up to them to do the right thing (or not as they see fit).
33, Hamous, totally agree. That’s called standing up for what is right.
I will say for Germany, the recognized their crimes, attempted to compensate surviving victim, and taught their children with vigor in their schools the utter brutality that Nazi Germany visited upon the world.
On the other hand, Japan refuses to teach their people about the horror they brought upon Asia and the entire Pacific Ocean area. They alude to some mistakes being made. The emperor NEVER apologized to the world for their wholesale slaughter of millions, which likely far exceeded that of Nazi Germany.
Perhaps we should think of that era of Japanese as undocumented murderers.
Some weren’t listening.
To bear with patience wrongs done to oneself is a mark of perfection, but to bear with patience wrongs done to someone else is a mark of imperfection and even of actual sin. — St. Thomas Aquinas
#12
texpat
GREAT post. I will also agree with you on the
texpat;
A million kudos to you for your due diligence in reminding us and the world what happened under Hitler’s Germany. There should never be any doubt that central to Hitler’s utopian dream was the elimination tof the Jews and all other races deemed “inferior”. Deconstructionists have gravely eroded that fact so again many thanks for this ad your other posts.
#43 Darren10
Thanks, I’m glad you appreciated it.
Big45Iron #39;
You living in an area that is much more densly made up of people from Japan, I’ve no doubt you’re well aquainted with the Japanese culture and mind set. So please redirect any misinformation I place here.
I find modern-day Japan a very positive pace for democracy and freedom in general. Japan is a solid democracy and has been ever since we forced it upon them: Another part of history that should be reminded to the world I say. I have no fear of any “crazy” dictator coming to power in Japan and threaten the world. Nor do I find hear of any threat by their government to jail parents for homeschooling their children. But the German government seems content to do just that.
Then here’s my take on the Japanese military. I’ve no doubt that Japan would be fighting along our side in full-force in Iraq if their constitution prohibitted such military action. When N. Korea launched their faulty nuclear missile and Japanese intelligence traced its trajectory to Hawaii it is my understanding that a clear majority of Japanese people supported to take out that capability in N. Korea (Bush “negotiated” instead). Germany, on the otherhand, strongly condemned US actions in Iraq, though I loudly applaud them not getting in the way to use our bases there, specifically to treat aid severly injured US soldiers. But overall germany seems to be a bunch of pacifists and I even believe that they have strict non-engagement rules in Iraq; or is it Afghanistan where their stationed?
Although correct in condemning their Nazi past, overall I have to give more support to Japan and what they contribute to the world today. Far more than Germany.
I’m very open to your comments and insights.
Thanks for your post.
Well, if the Germans try to resurrect another Reich, they’ll have a tough go of it. Their soldiers are no match for the French anymore, an irony I cannot find the words to quite express.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article2890985.ece
Darren, in 1993 I had dinner in San Antonio with Saburo Sakai, Japan’s leading fighter ace of WW2. Mr. Sakai stated that he feared Japan had learned nothing from WW2, and he said he wouldn’t be surprised in his lifetime to see a second surrender of Japan. Pretty strong statements from someone of his caliber. At the same dinner, former Lt. Shun Nakagawa, who was a commander of one of the dive bomber squadrons from the second wave at Pearl Harbor told my dad that at that time, he was unsure if he was doing the right thing, but as an officer, he performed his duty. After the war he tried to teach Japanese what Japan had done to people during the war. He told my father for that he had been greatly ostracized. He also told my father it would never be right until the Emperor apologized to the world. Well, that never happened. And we can see from this, Japan hasn’t learned, and they haven’t changed.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6229256.stm
Read it carefully. Think about the rape of Nanking and the suffering of the Okinawans at the hands of Japan. Look how they are STILL trying to disown their culpability to this very day. It is disgusting. Nope - ain’t gonna buy no Jap car til they fess up.
Give it up HAL, lol.
We do need reminding. Thanks TEXPAT. I suoose Buchana thinks this was all Winston’s fault too. That anti British bias of his is is quite disturbing.
#46;
Yup, sheer stupidity. No wonder Afghanistan is losing ground to the Taliban attacks. Isn’t Patreus in line to become the head of the entire military within the Joint Chiefs? We need him dearlyu in Afghanistan. Or, at least, a like-minded general there.
And to be less than the French is saying something. The only war they’ve ever won was the French Revolution.
I may be dense but, where has Buchanan denied the holocaust?