Babi Yar Massacre
Title
Babi Yar Massacre
Description
A mass execution of Jews is taking place whilst fierce fires are burning in the background. To the front of the crowd, many have been killed and are lying on the ground. Others are being herded into the mass of people being killed, some holding up their arms. Blood covers many of the figures. Nine figures dressed in green uniforms are in a line in front of the crowd. Four are firing their guns, whilst the others are loading or aiming their guns. In the left foreground, four figures dressed in blue shorts and white shirts are visible. One figure has his arm in a sling. In the right foreground stands a person in blue and white striped clothing, with a yellow Star of David badge on the right lapel. In the central foreground, a large square stone stands on a plinth, with writing engraved on the facing side.
Label reads “37”; signed by the author; caption reads “29 SETTEMBRE 1941 KIEV BABY YAR, dove i nazisti uccisero piu di 100.000 ebrei. Il poeta russo Jevtuscenco scrisse: su Babi Yar sussurrano le erbe selvagge - gli alberi stanno a guardare severi come giudici - tutto silenziosamente quì grida. Jlia Ehenburg nel 1944 aveva scritto: io sento come da ogni fossa - mi state chiamando - non ci sforziamo ad alzarci – con le ossa bussiamo la - dove odorano di pane e profumi - le citta ancora vive. Nel burrone di Baby Yar avevano mandato soltanto gli ebrei, la popolazione Ucraina e russa li vide passare, incollonnati la sera stessa. Ancora Ehenburg: in questo ghetto non arriva gente - la gente c’era, là nelle fosse in un posto qualsiasi dove addesso scorrono i giorni – noi non aspettiamo risposta, siamo soli. Dalla montagna di cadaveri, qualcuno si salvò, Dina Promiceva [Dina Pronicheva], zingari, perfino una squadra di calcio che nonostante la intimazione del commando Tedesco avevano stravinto un paio di incontri amichevoli. Pioppi e saline, e l’erba alta di Baby Yar custodiscono ancora oggi i resti della strage, un masso di granito li ricorda, sul sasso stà scritto: qui verrà edificato un monumento dei crimini fascisti nel tempo dell‘occupazione tedesca di Kiev - 1941-43 gente sovietica ma ebrei perche portavano la stella di Davide.”
Caption translates as: “29 September 1941 Kiev, Baby Yar, where the Nazis killed more than 100,000 Jews. The Russian poet Yevtushenko wrote: “Wild grasses rustle over Babi Yar - The trees look sternly, as if passing judgement - Here, silently, all screams”. In 1944, Ilya Ehrenburg wrote: “Your screams my ears assault in rushes
From every pit their echoes mount. Our strength we’ll gather, then ascending with rattling bones we’ll start to knock — Where breath, with bread and fragrance blending, The cities where still people flock”.
The Nazis only sent Jewish people to the ravine of Baby Yar. That same night, Ukrainian and Russian people saw them passing in columns. Ehrenburg again: “no one arrives in this ghetto – people were there, in the ditches – in a place like any other where, now, days go by – we are not waiting for an answer, we are alone”. Someone survived from the heap of corpses; Dina Pronicheva, gypsies, even a football team that, despite the order of the German headquarters, triumphed in a couple of non-competitive matches. Poplars and salt marshes, and the tall grass in Baby Yar still look after the relics of the massacre. A granite rock remembers them, it reads: “here a monument, remembering the fascist crimes during the German occupation of Kiev will be built - 1941-1943. They were Soviet people, but Jews because they wore the Star of David.”
Label reads “37”; signed by the author; caption reads “29 SETTEMBRE 1941 KIEV BABY YAR, dove i nazisti uccisero piu di 100.000 ebrei. Il poeta russo Jevtuscenco scrisse: su Babi Yar sussurrano le erbe selvagge - gli alberi stanno a guardare severi come giudici - tutto silenziosamente quì grida. Jlia Ehenburg nel 1944 aveva scritto: io sento come da ogni fossa - mi state chiamando - non ci sforziamo ad alzarci – con le ossa bussiamo la - dove odorano di pane e profumi - le citta ancora vive. Nel burrone di Baby Yar avevano mandato soltanto gli ebrei, la popolazione Ucraina e russa li vide passare, incollonnati la sera stessa. Ancora Ehenburg: in questo ghetto non arriva gente - la gente c’era, là nelle fosse in un posto qualsiasi dove addesso scorrono i giorni – noi non aspettiamo risposta, siamo soli. Dalla montagna di cadaveri, qualcuno si salvò, Dina Promiceva [Dina Pronicheva], zingari, perfino una squadra di calcio che nonostante la intimazione del commando Tedesco avevano stravinto un paio di incontri amichevoli. Pioppi e saline, e l’erba alta di Baby Yar custodiscono ancora oggi i resti della strage, un masso di granito li ricorda, sul sasso stà scritto: qui verrà edificato un monumento dei crimini fascisti nel tempo dell‘occupazione tedesca di Kiev - 1941-43 gente sovietica ma ebrei perche portavano la stella di Davide.”
Caption translates as: “29 September 1941 Kiev, Baby Yar, where the Nazis killed more than 100,000 Jews. The Russian poet Yevtushenko wrote: “Wild grasses rustle over Babi Yar - The trees look sternly, as if passing judgement - Here, silently, all screams”. In 1944, Ilya Ehrenburg wrote: “Your screams my ears assault in rushes
From every pit their echoes mount. Our strength we’ll gather, then ascending with rattling bones we’ll start to knock — Where breath, with bread and fragrance blending, The cities where still people flock”.
The Nazis only sent Jewish people to the ravine of Baby Yar. That same night, Ukrainian and Russian people saw them passing in columns. Ehrenburg again: “no one arrives in this ghetto – people were there, in the ditches – in a place like any other where, now, days go by – we are not waiting for an answer, we are alone”. Someone survived from the heap of corpses; Dina Pronicheva, gypsies, even a football team that, despite the order of the German headquarters, triumphed in a couple of non-competitive matches. Poplars and salt marshes, and the tall grass in Baby Yar still look after the relics of the massacre. A granite rock remembers them, it reads: “here a monument, remembering the fascist crimes during the German occupation of Kiev will be built - 1941-1943. They were Soviet people, but Jews because they wore the Star of David.”
Creator
Temporal Coverage
Language
Type
Format
One tempera on paper, pasted on mount board
Publisher
Rights
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
PFilliputtiA16010021
Collection
Citation
Angiolino Filiputti, “Babi Yar Massacre,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed May 13, 2025, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/111.
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