Herbert Tiedemann: Babi Yar: Critical Questions and Comments

4. On December 31, 1941, the JTA wrote:[14]

"[...] the latest report from Kyiv which reached here today through secret channels gives a horrible picture of what has happened to the Jews in that city since the Nazi occupation. The report reveals that in addition to executing practically the entire Jewish male population of Kyiv on the charge that the Jews who remained in the city were 'Soviet spies and guerrillas', the Nazi military command ordered thousands of Jews confined in mined cemetery grounds. The victims, most of them women, were blown up by the exploding mines. Those who survived were machine-gunned to death by the German soldiers. (Earlier reports estimate that 52,000 Jews were murdered in Kyiv when the Nazis first occupied the city.)"

And in the following paragraph:

"[...] the Nazi military forces [...] issued an order in the middle of December requesting all the remaining Jews in Kyiv to report to the occupation authorities on a certain date. Aware of the fact that the order meant a new Jewish massacre, many Jewish mothers killed their children and committed suicide, while elderly Jews threw themselves to death by jumping from open windows [...]."

• Did the armed forces commit the atrocities?

• The men were shot. Where? When? The women were blown up by exploding mines, and in a cemetery. What happened to the children?

• The latter would have required many tens of thousands of anti-personnel mines, which would then have been unavailable for more important use in the war. It takes a considerable amount of time and work to mine an area. And how were the bodies removed from the mined area afterwards?

• How does the story of the Jews remaining in Kyiv fit in with the other reports?

• How likely are the infanticides and suicides? Any witnesses?

5. On January 6, 1942, Vyacheslav Molotov, the Soviet People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs, announced to the governments allied with the Soviet Union:[15]

"A large number of Jews, including women and children of all ages, was gathered in the Jewish Cemetery of Kyiv. Before they were shot, all were stripped naked and beaten. The first persons selected for shooting were forced to lie face down at the bottom of a ditch and were shot with automatic rifles. Then the Germans threw a little earth on them. The next group of people selected was forced to lie on top of them, and shot, and so on."

• It takes many workers and a great deal of time to strip and beat up tens of thousands of people. And how long would it take to force as many people as constitute the entire population of a medium-sized city, to lie down in groups at the bottom of a ditch? How many people would it take to shovel a layer of earth over each layer of bodies?

• To shoot people with automatic rifles, one needs at least twice as many bullets as there are people to be shot. 100,000 rifle bullets weigh about 2,820 pounds. Since especially their lead core survives for practically forever, finding them ought to be an easy matter. Why have no investigations ever been conducted? Why do none of Kyiv's inhabitants mention the noise of firing?

• Automatic rifles?

• About 1,060,000 cu.ft. of soil must be excavated to accommodate 50,000 bodies. When was this excavation done, and by whom? Even given a mass grave depth of about 16 ft., the graves would have taken up more than 64,500 sq.ft. of space. Excavation problems, and the resultant time required?

• Why do the needle-sharp air photos show not even the slightest trace of any disturbances of the ground?[16]

• Molotov's alleged location contradicts other testimony.

6. The JTA report of March 15, 1942:[17]

"240,000 Jews executed by Gestapo in Ukraine"

and

"burying Jewish victims at one great tract of land, near Kyiv, by Germans even before life left them [...] ground moving in waves."

Patek also comments on this:[18]

"S. Bertrand Jakobsen, chief representative of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, [...] quoted one Hungarian soldier declaring that [at] one great tract of land, near Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, he saw the ground move in waves. The Germans, he said, had just conducted mass executions of Jews and had buried their victims even before life had left them."

• Place?

• Date?

• Murder weapons?

• How can a ground move in waves?

• Were spectators admitted - Hungarian soldiers, for example?

7. On July 20, 1942, the Podziemna Obsluga Prasy Pozagettowej, the Warsaw ghetto's underground press agency, claimed:[19]

"Not a single Jew is left in Kyiv because Germans have thrown the entire Jewish population in Kyiv into the river Dnjepr."

• Was there not one among all those tens of thousands who could swim? This killing method would have endangered the troops' own water supply, while also causing a very considerable danger of epidemic - a nightmare for any troop commander.

• The bodies would have drifted downstream and been noticed by countless witnesses. Why are there no such witnesses?

8. On October 28, 1942, it was reported:[20]

"[...] killing the Jewish victims by Germans on the site of the former Zaitsev's brick factory in Kyiv, followed by carting and dumping of bodies into the Dnjepr river."

• Another version of the murder and the murder site!

• How were they killed? Why are there no witnesses?

9. The same issue adds yet another variant on the murder:[20]

"[...] 32 Jewish orphans in the woods who were lined up and then the Nazis deliberately drove their tanks over these children, crushing all of them, and compelled the accompanying 118 non-Jewish orphans to bury them."

• Did the German armed forces have nothing more pressing to do than to engage in murderous tank maneuvers in the woods? The German tanks of that time were not very well motorized and quite slow, and poorly suited for use in the woods and for such a task. Their chains were only about 12 inches wide, while the ground clearance was large, approximately 18 inches. Close-range visibility out of tanks was very poor.

• Where are the witnesses from among the 118 non-Jewish orphans?

• How credible is it that the murderers would let 118 witnesses (children!) watch?

10. W. H. Lawrence reports from Kyiv:[21]

"50,000 Kyiv Jews Reported Killed."

• Instead of specifics regarding the place, date, murder weapons and further evidence, the New York Times wrote:

"The evidence remaining is sparse."

11. On the evening of February 28, 1944, Radio Moscow reported about German atrocities in Kyiv. They come up with another method of murder:[22]

"More than 195,000 Soviet citizens were tortured to death, shot, or poisoned in murder vans by the Germans during the occupation of Kyiv."

• Date? Place? The number of victims has grown to almost 200,000, which would make it even easier to secure evidence. Why was this not done?

• 'Gas vans' are a very questionable killing method and are absent in later sources.[4],[5]

1. In November 1943, one "Aloshin" told W. H. Lawrence, reporter for the New York Times:[21],[23]

"[...] German troops [...] ordered them into the ravine, where they were directed to give up their valuables. Part of their clothing also was removed. Then [...] they were placed on a platform, machine-gunned and thrown into the ravine."

• So now it was the Wehrmacht who were the killers. Does this fit in with the other reports, for example the 'Event Reports'?[24]

• How were the clothing and the valuables removed from the ravine?

• Mass murder on a platform? Why? And if so, then it would be possible for groups at most, not all at once. When was the platform built, and by whom?

• In a narrow, winding ravine, the line-ups of people to be executed cannot be very long. One cannot simply swing the machine gun/s in any large angle one might wish to, without endangering one's own people, without losing accuracy and penetration at oblique angles, and without facilitating the escape of some of the victims.