German police look through the clothing of people killed  at Babi Yar (#19078)

Date: September 29, 1941 – September 30, 1941

Photo credit: Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv Wiesbaden, courtesy of  USHMM Photo Archives

Photographer: not recorded

German police look through the clothing of people killed during a shooting action, presumably at Babi Yar.  According to Operational Situational Report USSR No. 106 of 7 October 1941, elements of Einsatzgruppe C, including Sonderkommando 4a and two Kommandos of Police Regiment South, participated in the execution of 33,771 Jews at the Babi Yar ravine on the outskirts of Kiev. The author of the report claims that the action was carried out in response to complaints about Jews by the local population and the Wehrmacht which "approved the measures taken." The report also states that both the local population and the Jews were told the action involved the relocation, not the extermination of local Jews. Orders for Jews to assemble at 6:00pm at an unidentified location were posted throughout the city by Ukrainian collaborators on September 29 and the Jews were then brought to the ravine where everyone removed their clothing before being shot.   

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