If you aren't familiar with the events at Babi Yar (I wasn't), you should look it up. This is the site of the Nazi massacre of 50,000 Russian Jews between 1941 and '43. The Soviet Union didn't publicize the existence of concentration camps here till the early 60s (they didn't even mark the site until much later), which is as if the Polish people weren't told about Auschwitz. Babi Yar was Treblinka on Soviet soil. Victims were lined up along the ravine edge and shot so that their bodies fell into the creek below. The ravine extends much further than you can see in the pics and it was all filled in much later to cover the ashes and remains of the victims. But to this day respectful visitors refuse to step foot on the grassy lawn below the monument. The looming sculpture does a fantastic job of capturing the agony and suffering of the events that took place here. I started reading the book "Babi Yar" by Anatoly Kuznetsov (Alan recommended it) who was a witness and reports the events as he experienced them. Check it out, "Lest we forget man's infinite ability to do harm to his fellow man...."
If you aren't familiar with the events at Babi Yar (I wasn't), you should look it up. This is the site of the Nazi massacre of 50,000 Russian Jews between 1941 and '43. The Soviet Union didn't publicize the existence of concentration camps here till the early 60s (they didn't even mark the site until much later), which is as if the Polish people weren't told about Auschwitz. Babi Yar was Treblinka on Soviet soil. Victims were lined up along the ravine edge and shot so that their bodies fell into the creek below. The ravine extends much further than you can see in the pics and it was all filled in much later to cover the ashes and remains of the victims. But to this day respectful visitors refuse to step foot on the grassy lawn below the monument. The looming sculpture does a fantastic job of capturing the agony and suffering of the events that took place here. I started reading the book "Babi Yar" by Anatoly Kuznetsov (Alan recommended it) who was a witness and reports the events as he experienced them. Check it out, "Lest we forget man's infinite ability to do harm to his fellow man...."
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