In Broad Daylight by Father Desbois

In Broad Daylight by Father Desbois

Author:Father Desbois
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Arcade Publishing
Published: 2017-12-13T05:00:00+00:00


More than ten thousand of them went toward the station, thinking they would be taking the train. The German units corralled them into what could only be called ravines of death. As they approached the valley, the Jews went through a barricade, manned by the Germans, which prevented them from crossing back, like a fish trap. Then they had to leave their baggage, their jewels, their clothing.

Every Jew—man, woman, child—was murdered by a person armed with a gun. More than thirty thousand victims saw their killers, while each killer looked into the eyes of each of his Jewish victims. In broad daylight. Thirty thousand personal crimes.

A long time ago, I interviewed some Ukrainian women from Kiev who lived next to the Babi Yar ravine. They had gone up onto the roofs of their houses, or into their attics, in order to watch. These interviews took place at the beginning of my research. I didn’t know at the time that, at the scene of the crime, there were a lot more people present than the gunmen and the Jews; there were also cooks and suppliers.

Today, more than ten years later, recalling this ravine that I visited so often on days of national mourning, I sift through the archives.

A German, a certain Georg P.,5 was questioned in 1967, because he coordinated the kitchens at Babi Yar. He testified, “I was a fourrier.6 It was a lot of work…. We got to Kiev at five in the morning…. We had to organize a kitchen and dining room. There was no water and no electricity…. My task was to get the kitchen working and to organize the supplies. I didn’t have anything to do with managing the ammunition….

“The Aktion was already prepared…. Everyone had his orders…. I don’t know anything about the executions. I wasn’t outside…. We heard that an action would take place. We had to organize more provisions than usual…. H. came to tell me how much food to organize…. I don’t know who transported the provisions…. It was the same day as the action. Usually, I had to coordinate the feeding of one hundred twenty people. For those two days, it was for four hundred. There was no distribution of alcohol on these days. There was only a little rum in the tea. I learned only afterward why I had to prepare so much. There were open-face sandwiches and tea.”

Thus, I understand that at Babi Yar, beginning at dawn, while the assembling and undressing of Jews for execution has already begun, a man, a German off to the side, is busying himself in improvised kitchens.

For him, a mass shooting is foremost a question of supply, of mouths to feed, the mouths of murderers. He is ordered to prepare food for four hundred, for the killers and their acolytes.

Georg P. seems, in his role as cook, to be used to mass murders. He has already had to do similar work but for smaller executions. In an improvised locale, off to the side of the ravine, he is busy furnishing sandwiches and tea with rum.



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