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The View From Here: Hallowed Ground

Volodymyr Kish.

In the Shevchenkivskyi district in the northern part of Kyiv, lies a scenic little green space known as Babyn Yar (Grandmother’s Ravine). For most of its recorded history it was owned by a monastery and used at various times as a cemetery and military campground.

Seventy five years ago it also become notorious as the first mass killing ground of Jews by the Nazis after they occupied most of Ukraine and Kyiv in particular. At that time some 160,000 Jews lived in Kyiv, however most of them managed to flee Kyiv before the arrival of the German armies in September of 1941. The Nazis quickly made short work of those that remained...