I saw a crowd of Jews, guarded by four policemen, going along the street. Nartova, described it in her diary on September 29, 1941: In the morning of September 29, Jews of Kiev started to gather in the appointed place.Ī resident of Kiev, teacher L. Arranging the mass executions of the Jews on the days of Soviet or Jewish holidays was a frequent occurrence and had symbolic meaning of triumph for the Germans. It is also worth noting that September 29 was not an accidental choice – in 1941, Yom Kippur fell on that day. It is no wonder, therefore, that many Jews believed it would be safer to comply and come at the appointed time to the meeting point. At the same time, the announcement contains a threat of punishment by death for disobeying. The ban on entering apartments left behind and appropriating Jewish property creates an illusion of protection: ostensibly, Jewish property will be safe and will await the return of its owners. In addition, there were rumors circulating around the city to the effect that the Jews would be sent from Kiev somewhere else. The order to take documents, money, valuables, warm clothes and bed linen seems to mean that it’s about resettlement. It is impossible to understand from the announcement that the Jews are in mortal danger. The text of the announcement deserves special attention: it is a typical example of a trick widely used by the Nazis to deceive and confuse the victims before the execution. Any civilians who enter the dwellings left by Yids and appropriate the things in them will be shot". Any Yids who do not follow this order and are found elsewhere will be shot. Bring documents, money and valuables, and also warm clothing, bed linen etc. at the corner of Melnikova and Dokhterivskaya streets (next to the cemetery). "All the Yids of the city of Kiev and its vicinity must appear on Monday Septemby 8 a.m. Order for Kiev's Jews to assemble near Babi Yar, September 28, 1941 On September 28, the following announcements in Russian, Ukrainian and German were pasted up all over the city: On September 26, at a meeting convened by the field commandant of Kiev, Kurt Eberhard, it was decided that the responsibility and punishment for the explosions should fall on the Jews of Kiev. On September 24, a few days after the occupation of the city by the Germans, NKVD mopping-up detachments left behind the lines blew up the buildings of the army headquarters, commandant’s office and visiting officers’ quarters in Kiev’s main street – Kreschatik, which had been rigged with explosives even before the retreat of the Red Army. Most of them were women, children and the elderly. After many Jews were drafted to the front, evacuated or escaped, at the time when the city was taken by the German troops on 19 September 1941, 60 to 70 thousand, according to various estimates, still remained in the city. On the eve of Operation Barbarossa, about 230,000 Jews lived in Kiev, including refugees from the Polish territories occupied by Germany. Thus, in Kiev, only 10 days – from 19 to 29 September 1941 – passed between the occupation of the city and the start of the physical annihilation of the local Jews in Babi Yar. It took around 10 minutes.In the territories that belonged to the Soviet Union before 1939, mass extermination of the Jews was usually organized very soon after the occupation of a locality. I injected them with morphine - the eldest daughters first, then the son, then the other daughters. 'The doctor here is going to give you an injection of the sort that all children and soldiers get.' She left the room. On the evening of May 1, 1945, he was forced to carry out his grim duty. She said he must return or ''you will be a dead man''. He told the court he escaped the bunker but was tracked down by Magda Goebbels hours later. Kunz was originally a dentist with the SS Death's Head division but became a trusted friend of Hitler after being wounded in the field and transferred to a desk job in the Chancellery. ''But Magda Goebbels insisted and shortly afterwards declared to me that it was no longer a request for help but a direct order from Hitler.'' In Kunz's evidence before the Hamm Upper State Court, he said: ''Towards the end of April, Magda came up to me and said, 'I need your help in the killing of the children.' I refused her, saying that was not my responsibility.
0 kommentar(er)
