` Holocaust. Truth about Babyn Yar. (Part eight)

© Tatiana TUR (USA), “Vechirniy Kyiv”(“Evening Kyiv”), March 16th, 1996

 

Holocaust. Truth about Babyn Yar

Documental research

(Part eight)

 

A month later

 

A month later in the article “Hitlerites will answer for their crimes” the editor-in-chief of “Krasnaya zvezda” in Kuybyshev basing on the secret English-language edition of Molotov’s note, hinted at the military shooting in Kyiv with only one sentence about the shooting of 25 000 in Kyiv, not mentioning about Babyn Yar or Jewish cemetery.

In a month and a half after this publication - 19.Ő˛˛.1942 – “Krasnaya zvezda” published another article – “About the existence of Hitlerite plan of annihilation of the Jewish population in Europe”, signed by “Informbureau of Narkomindyel”. It is described in detail in it where, when and how Germans slaughter – by military shootings, electricity, gas – Jews, especially in Poland.

The third part of the article is devoted to annihilation of Jews in an occupied territory of the Soviet Union, but it is not talked about Babyn Yar. Nevertheless there is a hint at the victims of Kyiv, which are “mixed” with the victims in Dnipropetrovsk - 60 000 victims in general. Molotov’s Narkomindyel wasn’t ready about the annihilation of Kyivans and consistently avoided to use the name Babyn Yar.

In “Krasnaya zvezda” of 23.Ő˛˛.1942 was published the report about the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Soviet Ukraine in… Ufa. The same day this military newspaper quotes the very long report of “President of SNK of Soviet Ukraine” L.Korniets, where we read:

Who doesn’t know about the monstrous atrocities of Hitlerites in Ukraine! German beasts in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv organized monstrous pogroms. Only in the first months the German bandits destroyed 85 thousand males, females, old men and children.

So there is no mention about the place in Kyiv, where this slaughter took its place. However here occurred a “mistake” – the number of 85 000 victims instead of 5 000 is given.

In May 1943 Germans found 10 000 Ukrainian victims of Cheka/NKVD in Vinnytsia. NKVD became frightened, that Germans will dig out common graves of Ukrainian victims of Cheka/NKVD, killed from 30es in Babyn Yar. Sovinform with Solomon Lozovksiy was involved into the work, I.Ehrenburg and V.Grossman as correspondents and writers headed it. In “Krasnaya zvezda” of 12.V.1943 in the article “Another provocation of fascist man-eaters”, signed by Sovinform, authors providently mention: “A great number of corpses of Soviet people, killed by fascist man-eaters, Germans can find out in Babyn Yar of Kyiv.”

One more sentence in that propagandist article consummates the surveying of the Soviet press, which before the liberation of Kyiv from fascists didn’t hint with a word at that terrible event in the third the most important city of the Soviet Union. And though Ehrenburg published an article on the occasion of the first anniversaty of the occupation of Kyiv, in summer 1943 Soviet Union was so alarmed because of the German action of opening the common graves of victims Cheka/NKVD, that decided to be silent in the press about the second anniversary of occupation and “atrocities of Germans in Kyiv”. Moreover, Sovinform gives in this article a long chain of places, where the victims of German crimes can be found. In reality it is an indication where we can search not Jewish bones and graves, but victims of mainly Jewish Cheka/NKVD.

We can only guess that USSR didn’t want to mention Babyn Yar. However NKVD, frightened by opening of graves of their victims in Vinnytsia, which was provoked by Ehrenburg’s trick, decided to sidetrack attention from the true graves of 30es and concentrated on the ravines near the Jewish cemetery. For there were none graves. NKVD invented a legend that Germans burnt the corpses of victims in September 1943, and scattered ashes and bones over fields.

From viewing of Soviet press it follows that the propagandist canard of Narkomindyel about annihilation of Kyivan inhabitants by Germans was from the very beginning destined only for America and Great Britain. Some time later in summer 1943 it was carefully spread in the USSR. Otherwise the “slaughter» of 52 000 inhabitants of Kyiv, and later more than 200 000, would have been forgotten in the same way as drowning of 200 000 inhabitants of the Crimea, the stake of 200 000 inhabitants of Odesa and annihilation of 600 000 inhabitants of Lviv.

 

(To be continued)