Michael Sidko Holocaust by bullets
The last survivor of the ‘Babi Yar’ massacre
“Over the course of two days on September 29-30, 1941, Nazi Germany’s forces and Ukrainian accomplices massacred approximately 33,771 Jews. Among those massacred were my infant brother Volodya, my baby sister Clara and my mother. Even though I was only six years old I still remember every gruesome detail. I wish I dIdn’t but the sights, sounds, and smell of the gun powder still haunt me to this day.
The Nazis moved us through a checkpoint, took our documents, our jewelry, and everything we had. Then the selection process began: All the healthy men were sent to forced labor, the women and children were sent to two different places and all the rest – old and the young, were sent to the massive death pit.
My mom was holding my baby brother Volodya who was just four months old. next to them was my sister Clara who
was three and a half years old. She was petrified and was holding my mother’s skirt. Clara was forcefully taken by one of the Ukrainian collaborators who murdered her in cold blood. He hit her on the head and then stepped on her chest until she suffocated to death. My mom saw everything, couldn’t bear it, and fainted. My baby brother fell, and then the same collaborator approached him and killed him on the spot. My Mom woke up, realized that two of her kids had been murdered, and started to scream in horror. it didn’t take long until the collaborator shoot her too. They were all grabbed by the legs and thrown into the pit.
While witnessing my family being slaughtered I screamed. My big brother Grisha covered me in the hope I won’t see all the atrocities but it didn’t help. I still see them to this day.”
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