"Babi Yar: A Document in the Form of a Novel" is a highly regarded documentary novel written by Anatoly Kuznetsov, focusing on the Babi Yar massacre. This tragic event unfolded over two days, September 29-30, 1941, resulting in the murder of 33,771 Jewish civilians in the Kiev ravine. It stands as one of the largest single mass killings during the Holocaust.
The novel begins with a powerful statement: "Everything in this book is true. When I recounted episodes of this story to different people, they all said I had to write the book. The word ‘document’ in the subtitle of this novel means that I have provided only actual facts and documents without the slightest literary conjecture as to how things could or must have happened."
