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Summary: A document in the form of a novel
Review: babi yar is a book written by a young boy from the rememberances of his time in a concentration camp. I first read the book in 1972. Although years and years have past it is a book that I guarantee will never leave your mind and your heart. This is the kind of bok that should be required reading in every highschool Yet tragically I find it is out of print. Continue your search when found and read you will be well rewarded for your persistance.
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Summary: amazing book
Review: Babi Yar is easily the best book I have ever read; the prose is wonderful, the perspective refreshing. Never have I enjoyed a book so much, or was so deeply affected. Some argue that
"Night" portrays the Holocaust better, or that the age of the author at the time of the events portrayed undermines their validity- I must disagree. Seeing the horrors so young and describing them with the eyes of a child gives a much different view of the Holocaust than that of an adult, which is typically the perspective we see. This, however, was a child's life and appropriately there is no talk of politics-it is raw emotion, it is hunger, it is the innocent eyes of a child in the most horrible environment. It is truly an amazing book.
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Summary: Interesting and horrifying at the same time
Review: Babi Yar is one of the best books I have ever read, the truth in this book is phenomenal. This documentary made me both laugh and cry and made me furious beyond belief. Coming from grandparents who were forced to spend years of their lives in concentration camps during the Holocaust for the mere reason that they were Jewish, made me really understand how the Jews felt during the book. I definitly recomment this book to everyone!
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Summary: I finished it in two days!
Review: Horrific. The inserts by the author himself, in his own words, add a wonderful touch to a completely true story that will shock and move you. I couldn't put the book down. It is an absorbing tale about a young boy forced to suffer unbelievable knowledge of horrors and to live amidst these horrors, all the while trying to grow up. The author's description of the hunger experienced by himself (he is the young boy the story is about) is graphic and poignant. I doubt I will ever be completely free of the memory of this story. Many thanks to the author for a truly memorable experience - I highly recommend this book, but not for the squeamish.
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Summary: Excellent story of Babi Yar's horrors and Kiev's occupation
Review: I am surprised this book is not more well known. It should be more readily available in print. There are three works I've read which leave me in awe of the writer's insight into surrounding events and mankind. The first two are The Federalist Papers and Democracy in America. Babi Yar is the third. I have read over a hundred books on the Holocaust and Babi Yar left a particularly lasting impression.
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Summary: Excellent story of Babi Yar's horrors and Kiev's occupation
Review: I have been looking for a copy of "Babi Yar" by Anatoly Kuznetsov for several years. I'm not sure this is the same book, but the fact that both books describe the occupation of Kiev during World War II from the eyes of a 12-year-old, including the horrible massacre of Jews and Ukrainians at Babi Yar, lead me to believe that this might be a rewrite of my copy of "Babi Yar" I have been unable to find in circulation. In my copy, printed by Dell in 1966, the protagonist is not Jewish, but Ukrainian-Russian, although many of his friends at the time were Jewish as were many of the survivors the author interviewed after the war whose stories were included in the documentary. Having lived in Kiev for five years in the early 90s, Babi Yar is not only a book of the atrocities that took place in Ukraine during the war, but a glimpse at the survival skills by ordinary Kievites during the occupation. In this way, it chronicles the plight of all citizens of Nazi occupation, not just those of the Jewish residents of this wonderful city. It also describes the way in which the Nazis rounded up young Ukrainians for shipment to farms and factories in Germany, which is the prelude to the stories of thousands of Ukrainians, many of whom returned home after the war and became Soviet citizens I met in Kiev fifty years later. But many of these young Ukrainains who found themselves in the West upon the German defeat immigrated all over the world, comprising the Ukrainian diaspora, who also returned to Kiev after independence to help build this new nation. If anyone knows whether these are the same stories or if the original has been rewritten and expanded, please post this information at this site. In any event, it is unfortunate that both copies of this book are out-of-print because the story of the citizens of Kiev and the atrocities of Babi Yar need to be told.
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Summary: Babi yar
Review: This book is a documented portrait of barbaric inhumanity that took place during the holocaust at a ravine called Babi Yar. It is a place that over 33,000 jews were murdered and buried dead or alive. This book is told from the eyes of a young non- jewish boy who lived in Kiev and witnessed the inhumane massacre that took place outside of his city. The book is well written and imposibble to put down. After reading this book, one can understand more about the holocaust and about the chilling and incomprehensible behavior against the jewish nation.
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Summary: A wonderful book on life in Ukraine under Nazi occupation.
Review: This is an extremely fascinating and well-written book. It tells the story of not just the horrible massacre of Jews and other "undesireables" by the Nazis in WWII occupied Kyiv, but also of life in Kyiv under Nazi occupation. Equally fascinating is the account of Babyn Yar (its Ukrainian name) long AFTER the Germans had been pushed out. It is the personal, first-hand account of the author who is a 12-year old boy at the time of the German entrance into Kyiv. One correction to a previous review here - according to the editions I have seen of this book, the author is not Jewish, but half-Ukrainian and half-Russian. This is of minor importance other than for those who might be inclined to reject this book as "Jewish Propoganda". It is a very honest work, portraying everyone involved as all-too-human; sharing all characteristics from the noble to the obscence.
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Summary: A Must for everyone's library
Review: This is an important book which I hope will be put back in print soon. The story of the Ukrainian occupation during WWII, as well as Babi Yar death camp are fascinating, if also horrifying. The book covers a theatre of the war that is seldom covered in such detail.The honesty is the most interesting part. The author, a 12-year-old boy at the time, (and NOT Jewish), had no reason to fabricate, and with an innocence that makes it clear he isn't trying to propogandize, just reports the horrors he sees. The book also includes some later gathered (when the author was grown up) interviews with survivors of Babi Yar death camp which are even more harrowing. The most fascinating part of the copy that I have is that it BOLDs the portions of the book that were edited out by the Russian censors, before the book was published in the Soviet Union. It is interesting to notice what the censors chose to cut out, as much as what they chose to leave in! Well worth finding in a used book store, if you can.
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