Ljudmila Zavorotnaja
I saw it firsthand.
Today I received the next issue of "Jewish News." I have read it and could not sleep, because I was excited about the article “The monument for children, who where shot at Babyn Yar”. Children were not only killed. I remember, how they were herded together - a lot of little and elder children, who were covered with a tarpaulin and poisoned with something in a few minutes!!!
I remember one more story. It was already cold, because winter approached. Near the Jewish cemetery I was outrun by 15-20 people, who went quickly and silently. They were attended by the Germans with machine guns. I stopped , because it was terrible to move on. I came on the Karaite cemetery, and people were moved to Banyn Yar. Then were gunfire, but screams were not heard. One woman sunk into my mind – she was in a large plaid scarf, as worn in the villages, and the boy about 6-7 years. He clung to the woman and cried. Some time later the soldiers were in a crowd and were talking animatedly.
Not far from me, near Babyn Yar, was a woman from Kurenevka , whose name was Dasha, and several guys about 12-14 years. If any of them is alive, let them tell. Perhaps among those guys were Anatolij Kuznecov . All my life, nearly 75 years, I lived on Babyn Yar street, whose name was changed. But why? We, the residents of this street , will be grateful, if you will give back the historical name of our street “Babyn Yar”. I and my neighbors feel hurt.
One of the first settlers on Babyn Yar street was my grandfather Kucherovskij Vasilij Anisimovich. He was at war for eight years before the Revolution, then he received the George Cross and several medals. When he arrived home, his parents had already divided the land between their children, so my grandfather went to Babyn Yar, dug a dug-out, then planted a garden and built a house. His son, Grigorij Vasil'evich, graduated from the military academy. His surname was changed (then there was such time). Also he was at war from 1941 to 1945. After the war he became a lieutenant- colonel. He had a lot of awards, but he was wounded and lost his eye. Soon he died.
From each house on our street went to the front and were killed about 2-4 people: Shlapakov Il'ja, Mihail Pavel - were killed, Andrew returned crippled and died. Danilenko Anton Evgen'evich, my stepfather Evgen'ev Mihail, Lysenko Mihail - my cousin, Bozhenko Mihail, Il'chenko Savelij and Vasilij, Shcherbina Sergej.
Bystrickij Ivan, Oksanjuk Misha, Zhigulenko Ivan and Dmitrij returned wounded. My cousin Tkachenko Vasilij went on the war as volunteer at the age of 17. He was on the war for 8 long years, then he came back and died.
Many cherished, darlings and familiars people were killed!
But the death of innocent children is the most terrible. We can not forget about it. Let people decide what should be a monument for the children of Babyn Yar.