September 1941, on the outskirts of Kyiv. In just two days, inside a ravine called Babi Yar, one of the fastest and most brutal massacres of the Holocaust unfolded.

 When hatred turn to poison what can human being do to another 

So that we never forget what man is capable of.

September 1941, on the outskirts of Kyiv. In just two days, inside a ravine called Babi Yar, one of the fastest and most brutal massacres of the Holocaust unfolded.

After the Nazi occupation of the city, Jewish residents were ordered to report with their identification papers and suitcases. Many believed they were being deported. They were wrong. It was a carefully planned trap.

On September 29 and 30, nearly 34,000 men, women, and children were marched to the edge of the ravine.

There, the Einsatzgruppen—mobile Nazi killing units—assisted by local collaborators, forced them to undress. Family after family was lined up and shot. Their bodies fell into the ravine, piling layer upon layer, until the earth itself seemed to disappear beneath them.

There were no gas chambers.

No concentration camps.

Only rifles, ammunition, and silence.

Babi Yar was not an exception. It was part of the “Holocaust by bullets”—the early phase of Nazi extermination in Eastern Europe, before industrialized death camps were built. In the months and years that followed, the ravine continued to swallow lives: Roma people, Soviet prisoners of war, political opponents, Ukrainian nationalists.

The total number of victims exceeds 100,000.

For decades, this place was erased from memory. The Soviet authorities banned any memorial that explicitly mentioned Jews. The ravine was filled in and turned into a park—as if covering the ground could bury the truth.

Today, Babi Yar is more than a location.

It is a symbol.

A reminder.

A warning.

Of what happens when hatred is normalized, when silence replaces conscience, and when poison is allowed to spread—human to human.d becomes poison.