Names of over 1,000 murdered Jews read out for first time on 84th anniversary of Nazis' Babyn Yar massacre

Over one thousand previously unidentified victims of the Babyn Yar massacre, in which Nazi forces killed over 33,000 Jews in the Ukrainian town during the Holocaust, were named during a memorial ceremony held simultaneously in Jerusalem and Ukraine. 

The 1941 Babyn Yar massacre is one of the largest mass killings of Jews during the Holocaust, and has been called “Holocaust by bullets,” as most of those killed were shot by Nazi forces.

The killings took place on Sept. 29-30, 1941, as Nazi soldiers and collaborators murdered 33,771 Jews in a ravine outside of Kyiv. 

Even during the war, we never forget the tragedy of Babyn Yar, the tragedy of the Holocaust. This tragedy was so immense because the world was too slow and silently watched as the fascists carried out their aggression. The tragedy of Babyn Yar is an example of why today the world… pic.twitter.com/Go0AcqGlC4

— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) September 29, 2025

Later in the war, the ravine also became the site for the massacre of additional groups, including Ukrainian political prisoners, Soviet prisoners of war, and thousands of Roma. 

The Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center (BYHMC) revealed the names of 1,031 victims during the ceremony on Monday. 

“The breakthrough, made possible through unprecedented archival access and large-scale digitization despite the ongoing war, sheds new light on one of the Holocaust’s worst single atrocities—the murder of 33,771 Jews over two days in September 1941, the start of the ‘Holocaust by Bullets,'” the center said in a press release. 

In the memorial event held in Jerusalem, BYHMC Chairman Natan Sharansky, Ukraine’s Ambassador to Israel Yevgen Korniychuk, and Yad Vashem Chairman Dani Dayan, addressed the gathering. 

The ceremony came as part of events for the 84th anniversary of the massacre. During the ceremony in Kyiv, Anna Furman, the CEO of the Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center, revealed the list of new names which had been uncovered through continued research of surviving materials from the massacre. 

“I am proud that our team has done this, discovering new facts and outcomes through collaboration with researchers, institutions, and by analyzing all the materials we could find,” Furman said at the ceremony. 

At the Jerusalem ceremony, Natan Sharansky spoke of the importance of remembering. 

“Memory is a moral weapon against denial, oblivion and distortion,” Sharansky told those in attendance.

“Every name we succeed in restoring contributes to Holocaust commemoration and advances justice and dignity for its victims. There is a blatant attempt to undermine history and even erase it. Precisely in times of war, the obligation to defend the truth is doubled.” 

Sharansky also said that attempts to turn the Holocaust against the Jews in modern times are nothing new. 

“Using the Holocaust against Jews was not born today,” Sharansky stated. “A professor in Columbia University and some others, even 20 years ago, were saying that what Nazis did to Jews, that’s what Jews do today to Palestinians. That’s the highest moment of anti-Semitism. That’s exactly what anti-Semites all the time say.” 

“It’s not accidental that Nazis made Babi Yar on Yom Kippur,” Sharanksy continued.

“It’s not accidental that Kristallnacht was on Tisha B’Av. They’re taking our symbols and using them against us. After the Shoah, anti-Semitism was illegal. Today, they can take the Shoah and turn it against Jews.” 

The BYHMC database now contains the names of around 30,000 Jews killed during the massacre, while also including details such as family relations, age, and profession. The center also said that over 2,000 existing records have been updated and corrected since the start of the Ukraine war.