On January 29, 1946, in front of thousands of onlookers in Kiev, 12 former members of the German police were led to gallows constructed specifically for their execution. Their crime: involvement in one of the most horrific massacres of World War II, the Babi Yar massacre. For the Ukrainian people, this execution was justice for the atrocities committed by the Nazis during their occupation, and it marked a significant moment in the post-war reckoning of Nazi war crimes.
The German forces occupied Kiev on September 19, 1941. In retaliation for bombings and sabotage carried out by Soviet secret police, the Nazi leadership, led by SS and police leaders like Friedrich Jeckeln, ordered the extermination of the Jewish population of Kiev. Over two deadly days, September 29 and 30, 1941, more than 33,000 Jews were slaughtered at the Babi Yar ravine, in what became one of the largest single massacres of Jews during the Holocaust. It is believed that by the end of the Nazi occupation, between 100,000 and 150,000 people, including Jews, Soviet prisoners of war, and Ukrainian civilians, had been murdered at Babi Yar.
Victims were ordered to gather with their valuables and clothing, falsely believing they would be resettled. Instead, they were stripped of their belongings, led to the edge of the ravine, and shot in groups. As one eyewitness described, the bodies were layered in the ravine, with German marksmen methodically shooting each victim in the neck. Those who survived the initial shootings were buried alive, and the valuables of the victims were distributed among ethnic Germans and the Nazi administration in the city.
In the months following, thousands more were sent to Babi Yar and killed. A concentration camp was later established nearby, and the site became a graveyard for many more victims of Nazi atrocities. Some of the Nazi commanders involved in the massacre, such as Otto Rasch and Friedrich Jeckeln, were tried and executed for their crimes. Others, like Paul Blobel, who oversaw the massacre, showed no remorse, even boasting about the number of Jews killed.
In January 1946, 15 former members of the German police were put on trial in Kiev for their roles in the Babi Yar massacre and other war crimes. Evidence presented in court included testimonies from witnesses and survivors. Of the 15, 12 were sentenced to death. These men, including Fritz Backenhoff, Carl Berthold, and Wilhelm Hellaforth, were held responsible for their participation in the mass executions. On January 29, 1946, they were brought to the town square of Kiev, where a large gallows had been erected. Thousands of spectators watched from the surrounding hills as the condemned men were driven to the site in trucks.
The executioners placed nooses around the necks of the men, and after the death sentences were read aloud, the trucks pulled away, leaving the men to hang. The crowd witnessed the final moments of these war criminals, whose deaths were seen as retribution for the horrific events at Babi Yar. The executions served as a powerful symbol of justice for the tens of thousands who had perished at the hands of the Nazis during the occupation of Ukraine.
