Babi Yar

This gripping story of Kyiv during the Second World War told by a young boy who saw it all.

‘Rightly hailed a masterpiece’ Daily Mail

‘So here is my invitation: enter into my fate, imagine that you are twelve, that the world is at war and that nobody knows what is going to happen next…’

When the German army rolled into Kyiv in 1941 the young Anatoli was just twelve years old. He began writing down what he saw in his journals.

Within ten days of the invasion, the Nazis had begun their campaign of fear and murder in Ukraine. Babi Yar (Babyn Yar in Ukrainian) was the place where the executions of Jews and many others took place. It was one of the largest massacres in the history of the Holocaust. Anatoli could hear the machine guns from his house.

Anatoli’s clear, compelling voice, honesty and determination guide us through the horrors of that time. Babi Yar has the compulsion and narration of fiction but everything recounted here is true.

‘Extraordinary’ Orlando Figes, Guardian

‘A vivid first-hand account of life under one of the most savage of occupation regimes… A book which must be read and never forgotten’ The Times

This is the complete, uncensored version of Babi Yar – its history written into the text. Parts shown in bold are those cut by the Russian censors, parts in brackets show later additions.