City of Kiev to Memorialize Jewish Victims of Babi Yar Massacre

The Soviet Embassy made known here today receipt of official information that the City Soviet of Kiev has decided to erect a monument to Jews and other victims of Nazi mass murders at Babi Yar, on the outskirts of the Ukrainian capital.

Information sent by the official Novosti Press Agency said that Mikhail Burka, chairman of the Kiev City Soviet, made the announcement to a Novosti correspondent. He was quoted as stating: “It is known that, at the time of World War II, the German Fascist invaders shot in Babi Yar tens of thousands of Soviet citizens, Jews, Ukrainians, Russians, men, women, old folks, and children, The monument to the victims of Fascism will be erected on the spot of the mass slaughter. It will remind future generations not only of the horrors of war but of the savage ferocity and bestial deeds of German Fascists.”

The monument will be erected next year. A competition has been authorized for the most suitable and graceful dosign. The memorial will stand at the entrance to the park which is being laid out in the elevated section of Babi Yar, on the spot of the mass shooting.

For a number of years, heavy criticism has been voiced throughout the Western world against the unwillingness of Soviet authorities to mark the Babi Yar site suitably. In most instances, Soviet denunciations of German atrocities during World War II have avoided mentioning that Jews were among Hitler’s principal civilian victims. Novosti is a feature service under Government control in Moscow, catering only to the foreign press. Its dispatches are not published in the Soviet Union.