Babi Yar Park

Fran and I had breakfast at Sam's No. 3 at Parker and Havana a week ago. (If you're in the area and feeling peckish, Sam's is the place to relieve that empty feeling.) I commented to her how looking out the window it was hard to believe we were where we were. All you could see was a very not busy six lane road with tall grass on the other side with mountains far beyond. I knew of a park just across the street and decided to visit it again, my last visit being maybe 20 years ago when work had just begun.

What a change I found there. Art installations have been placed in memory of some 200,000 people, mostly Jews, who died at Babi Yar during World War II. Busy as the surrounding area is, this is a contemplative area, peaceful, with little traffic noise on a Sunday morning.

Walking from the parking lot you encounter two massive granite stones on either side of the path explaining the reason for the park. Nearing them you encounter a narrow paved path running left and right in a wide circle around a bermed grassy depression with a seating area and another memorial at the center, which you encounter after walking between the monoliths. From the bottom there are two other radial paths leading out.

The one to the left leads to another large block of granite, this one plain, ungraven. It stands in front of a wooden bridge crossing a creek. Oddly, it is painted black. Crossing it somehow made me think of being in a boxcar, with slit windows to look out of. Another granite block at the end did have words engraved on it at one time, but they are nearly indecipherable now due to vandals.

A path leads from this installation to a grove of linden trees which sits at the end of the third radial. It's an irregularly shaped area with the trees planted in a grid. At the center is the last memorial piece of stonework.

There are alternative gravel paths besides the ones mentioned here, and the only really developed areas are the circular one you encounter when first entering the park and the grove. All the remaining space is native grass.

This park is worth a visit. There are a few pictures up on Shutterfly -- check them out.