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Babi Yar
Babi Yar is a place on the outskirts of Kiev where more than 100,000 people were machine gunned to death in a deep ravine by occupying German forces from 1941 to 1943. Of these souls, 33,771 Jews were murdered in the two-day period September 29-30, 1941.
The ravine became a burial place for Jews, Russians, Ukrainians, Hungarians, Czechs, Gypsies, prisoners of war, patriots, mentally handicapped and ill people. The Nazis did not even spare children, old people, pregnant women. Many were shot and buried alive. When the Russian army eventually reclaimed Kiev two years later, German forces did their best to unearth the tens of thousands of rotting corpses and incinerate them, in an attempt to destroy any evidence of their crimes. The fires were so great, the light could be seen from downtown Kiev.
before we lay down together
under gray autumnal skies
we grasp for loving hands
tendons braced with fear
at the random intersection of
Melnikova and Dokhturova streets
we queue for non-existent trains
shed clothes and dignity
before faceless Einsatzgruppen
clipboards and counting machines
our cold feet wet with dew
a boy-faced, Waffen-SS guard
sporting wooden baton
and blood-soaked pistol, smiles
then strikes dancing children
shivering, we gaze beyond
the steep, wooded ravine
and unexplained hatred
of exhausted MG 34s
to the turquoise Dnieper
wrapping a caressing arm
around Podil's shanty rooftops
and our fractured innocence
while Andreevskaya's golden domes
spin heavenward ambivalence
to Juden seeking protection
*****
today, I stand in Babi Yar
scraped clean and manicured
transformed by time and shame
a winter soul touches my face
monuments and microwave towers
mark forgotten bones and anger
generations have since lapsed
daily living replaces daily dying
a statue of Babi Yar children
cheated of life, frozen in bronze
broken necked dolls, uplifted arms
quieted by horror, bereft of love
they seek to reconcile their
obscene, indefensible demise
perhaps it is simple:
hatred is easy, love is difficult
Randy Hurst
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