Ukraine on Sept. 29 marked the 68th anniversary if mass executions conducted by the Nazis in Babyn Yar district of Kyiv.
Ukraine on Sept. 29 marked the 68th anniversary of mass executions conducted by the Nazis in Kyiv’s Babyn Yar district. The site turned into a mass grave for more than 100,000 people during two years of Nazi occupation in Kyiv, starting in 1941.
Most of the victims buried in Babyn Yar were Jews, but other ethnic minorities and resistance movement fighters were also executed and buried there. The commemoration came the same week that Kyiv city officials backed off an idea to build a hotel near the grave.
A new memorial [2] was opened at the crossroads of Frunze and Petropavlivska streets. Its inauguration ceremony included actors dressed up as Nazi soldiers [4]. But some of the visitors were bewildered by the performance [3]. President Victor Yushchenko and other state officials [5] laid flowers in Babyn Yar on the same day.
