What is Babyn Yar, the bombed site that Zelensky spoke of?

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(CNN Spanish) --

 A Russian bomb fell on Babyn Yar on Tuesday, an area on the outskirts of Kyiv where one of the largest massacres perpetrated by the Nazis during World War II occurred.

After confirming the attack in which 5 people died and 5 others were injured, the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, sent a strong message to the world referring to what happened in this ravine 80 years ago.

"To the world: what is the use of saying 'never again' for 80 years, if the world remains silent when a bomb falls on the same spot in Babyn Yar? At least 5 dead. History repeats itself..." he wrote Zelensky on his Twitter account.

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The airstrikes targeted this area on Ukrainian territory where the Babyn Yar Holocaust memorial site is located, according to the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Andriy Yermak.

The monument is located near the Kyiv TV Tower, which was also damaged on Tuesday.

The memorial remembers the 33,771 Ukrainian Jews who were murdered in two days by members of Einsatzgruppe C, supported by the German police and the SS, in the Babyn Yar ravine in 1941, according to Encyclopedia Britannica.

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Here's a look at what happened in this ravine outside Kyiv that in the decades after the war "symbolized the fight for the memory of World War II and the Holocaust in the Soviet Union."

What happened in Babyn Yar?

Nazi German troops, advancing into the Soviet Union in 1941, took Kyiv on September 19.

A few days later, on September 29-30, members of Einsatzgruppe C, supported by the German police and the SS, murdered a significant number of Kyiv's Jewish population in the Babyn Yar ravine, which was then on the outskirts of Kyiv. the Ukrainian capital and today is part of the city.

The Nazis summoned the victims to the outskirts of Kyiv to commit the massacre.

They had to undress and were forced to go into the ravine.

Sonderkommando 4a, a special detachment of Einsatzgruppe C commanded by the SS, fired on them in small groups.

According to reports sent to Einsatzgruppen headquarters, 33,771 Jews were killed during this two-day period.

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According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, before the invasion some 160,000 Jews resided in Kyiv, that is, approximately 20% of the total population of the Ukrainian capital.

Nazi Germans continued to carry out mass murder at this killing site until just before the Soviets retook control of Kyiv in 1943. During this period, the Germans killed mostly Jews, but also Gypsies, Ukrainian civilians, and prisoners. Soviet war.

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A postwar memorial and efforts to hide the massacre

Babyn Yar holds a special place in history, in part because the act of remembering the victims was suppressed and hidden for decades.

Despite many efforts, there was no memorial at the site until the Soviets installed one in 1976. But the plaque on the memorial downplayed the tragedy that occurred at Babyn Yar and referred to thousands of civilian casualties without indicating that the vast majority were Jews.

As the Soviet Union was dissolving in the wake of Ukraine's declaration of independence in August 1991, a monument in the shape of a menorah was erected on September 29 to remember the Jewish victims of Babyn Yar during the 50th anniversary.

Eighty years later, the memory of Babyn Yar is recovering with a series of recently inaugurated monuments that remember the victims, created among other artists by the Serbian Marina Abramovic. 

In this photo provided by the German Government Press Office (BPA), German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier visits the "Crystal Wall of Crying" created by Serbian artist Marina Abramovic at the Babyn Jar memorial on October 6, 2021 in Kyiv, Ukraine.

(Sandra Steins/Bundesregierung via Getty Images)

In 2001, two more memorials were unveiled during a ceremony in which ministers, parliamentarians, diplomats and dozens of Kyiv residents laid offerings of flowers to pay tribute to Jews killed over a two-year period since September 1941.

"This site will always be a sad reminder of a massacre of animals," Kyiv's then-mayor Olexander Omelchenko said during the unveiling of the bronze monument depicting three broken dolls to more than 40,000 shot dead children.

"We should do everything to prevent this from happening again, to allow our children to grow up in peace, enjoy this blue sky and this warm sun," Omelchenko said.

Near the end of their occupation of Kyiv, the Nazis ordered the bodies exhumed and burned, but were unable to remove the evidence.

Attendees at the mourning ceremony marking the 78th anniversary of the start of the mass execution of Jews in September 1941 in front of the Minorah Monument at the Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial in Kyiv, on September 29, 2019. (SERGEI SUPINSKY/AFP via Getty Images)

The museum plans

In 2001 leaders of Kyiv's 100,000-strong Jewish community laid the cornerstone for a new memorial museum and Jewish Community Center to be built in Babyn Yar.

On the website they explain that the construction of the museum would begin "in the near future", that at the end of 2020 the concept of this enclosure would be presented and that during 2021 they would develop "the design of the detailed architectural concept".

"Materials on the tragedy, the history of the place, the current state of Babyn Yar and the society's attitude towards crimes against humanity will be collected, processed and presented to the public at the Museum," it read.

The museum is scheduled to open in 2025 or 2026, according to the website. 

War in UkraineHolocaustHolocaust Memorial