New center sheds light on previously unknown details of Holocaust’s Babyn Yar massacre

Raisa Maistrenko will never forget Sept. 29, 1941 — the day Nazi troops rounded up the Jewish residents of Kyiv, Ukraine, and marched them to the Babyn Yar ravine on the city’s outskirts.

“Leaflets were posted saying that all the Jews had to gather in one place,” recalled Maistrenko, who was just 3 at the time. “But we didn’t think it was to execute us. We thought they would transport us to Palestine.”

Victor Pronichev added: “With brass knuckles and with sticks and chains, they beat us as badly as they could. The Jews were forced to undress completely.”

A third survivor, Vasyl Mykhailovsky, said, “I thought I wouldn’t make it out alive. But God saved me.”