Babyn Yar, Kyiv

In the north-western outskirts of the capital of Ukraine between Cyril`s Church and the street Elena Teligi is the tract Babi Yar.

The name dates back to ancient Middle Ages: in the documentary sources it is mentioned that in 1401 a woman Hostess of the Inn ("woman") sold the land Dominican Monastery. From ages 15-17 reached other names: Crazy woman, Devil woman. Babi Yar is notorious as a place of mass executions during the Second World War and the occupation of Kiev Nazis. Advantageously, the Nazis exterminated the Jews, not only men, but women and children. People stripped naked, led up to the pit and shot. Not all died from bullets - some buried alive.

Two years lasted mass executions at Babi Yar - until the liberation of Kiev from invaders. Here killed and soldiers of the Soviet Army. Were killed at the hands of the Nazis and more than 600 soldiers and members of the UPA, among them the famous Ukrainian poet Elena Teliga and her husband. According to various estimates, only at Babi Yar destroyed from 70 to 200 thousand people.

In the 50s decided to fill the gully waste production and make the park. In Yar built a dam and began to pump the pulp (liquid wastes in cement production). However, March 13, 1961 was a tragedy: the dam gave way and pulp flooded residential area Kurenivka. Historians estimate that the number of victims was about one and a half thousand. Kiyani said that Babi Yar revenge t.

Currently, there are several monuments here: Jews shot - in the form of a menorah; OUN immortalized wooden cross. Another cross is on the site of the execution of the priests. The first was a monument to Soviet soldiers, officers, prisoners of war and civilians killed by fascists. Now there`s a monument to the victims of Nazism with the symbolic representation of the concentration camp, the monument shot children. Perpetuated and victims later Kurynivska tragedy.