Every year we celebrate the anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War on a grand scale. And for us, this is already a bright holiday, which is often accompanied by weekends and a trip with friends to barbecue. But often we forget that our Victory is also the sorrow of the whole country for the millions of dead people. On May, which coincided with the anniversary of the 70th anniversary of the victory in the Great Patriotic War, we ended up in Belarus. Of course, we could not help but visit Khatyn - one of the most significant memorial complexes in Belarus, which immortalized the pain of the atrocities of the Nazis. Particularly impressionable, I do not advise reading this article, because Khatyn is a memory of very terrible events that took place in a simple Belarusian village.
Khatyn is not just a monument to the dead, it is the grief of the people for people who did not wait for this bright day of Victory and died, not even from shelling or mines, but simply because of the whim of the conquerors, who knew no boundaries in their atrocities. The memorial complex bears the name of the village that was located on this site, the inhabitants of which were burned alive by the Nazis. Here's how it was.
Once, Khatyn was an ordinary Belarusian village. Small - only 26 houses, but after March 22, 1943, this is another ashes, another wound on the heart of the Belarusian people.
On the morning of that day, the residents were forcibly driven into the barn. As it turned out, partisans fired at a fascist convoy a few kilometers from the village, a German officer died, and the invaders decided to destroy the entire village for this.
Did the inhabitants of Khatyn know what would happen to them? They probably knew. Have you tried to save yourself? Yes, they tried. So seven-year-old Lena Yaskevich tried to run away into the forest, but a German soldier caught up with her and shot her in front of her parents.
The flame very quickly engulfed the wooden sheds with people, a cry was heard, and under the pressure of the mass of people, the doors flew off their hinges. But the punishers cordoned off the burning buildings and shot anyone who tried to escape.
Few were saved. Two burnt girls crawled to the edge of the forest, where they were picked up by the inhabitants of a neighboring village. But this did not save their lives, a few weeks later they also died in a fire, but already in a neighboring village.
Two children were saved, one of whom was covered by her mother with her body, and the second lost consciousness from being wounded. The children survived.
The only adult who survived the Khatyn tragedy was Iosif Kaminsky, a fifty-six-year-old blacksmith. Burnt and seriously wounded, the Nazis mistook him for dead, which saved his life. Waking up, Joseph found his son, who was seriously wounded in the stomach and died in his arms.
This tragic page of his life is embodied in the sculpture "Unmothered", which meets anyone who comes to Khatyn.
Blackened from grief and burning, a man holds a dead child in his arms. And how alive the picture of burning ashes rises before your eyes, a black column of smoke rising into the sky like a funeral pyre and a distraught man who lost his child.
The number of crimes that the Nazis committed against our people is forever engraved on a granite slab. Although this is not the whole list.
And a message from the civilians of Khatyn and other villages burned by the Nazis.
And there are always flowers here, like drops of blood on the ashes.
Stone Iosif Kaminsky seems to be meeting us, and behind him is his already disappeared village. The memorial complex accurately recreates the plan of the village in miniature. But instead of the huts that stand here, there are granite steles, like a chimney from a burned-out house.
On each "pipe" is a bell that rings once every thirty seconds. As if the eternal mourning alarm, for the dead. And below the niche is a sign to whom this house belonged.
Everything is made of gray granite, which resembles ashes, which once again emphasizes the tragedy of the place. And it seems that this is the very frozen ash from that fatal fire.
Open symbolic gates symbolize the hospitality of the owners and their hospitality.
The well, from which the inhabitants once took water, is also made of stone.
In total, during the years of occupation, only in Belarus, the Nazis burned down 186 villages together with the inhabitants. And they are all here - in the world's only village cemetery.
Gray slabs like the foundation of a burned-out house, which have become a tombstone. Gray gravel - again, ashes. In the middle is a bright red flame, frozen in time. It seems that this bonfire from the villages is still burning.
Small urns contain earth taken from the place where the village used to stand.
None of these names are on the map anymore, none of these villages will ever again hear the laughter of children.
185 monuments, in this cemetery of villages, broken families and dead hopes. 186 was Khatyn itself.
An eternal flame burns here.
This is a quadrangular granite slab, on three corners of which birch trees are planted, and an eternal flame burns on the fourth. This is also a symbolic monument, because every fourth inhabitant of Belarus died in that war.
Belarus is one of the most affected countries in the Great Patriotic War, it was she who had to take the first blow (the attack on the Brest Fortress), and then suffer again as a result of the attack on Berlin. The Nazi army advanced in two directions. One of them is directed to the south, to Ukraine, with the further goal of capturing the Caucasus, rich in minerals. And the second is the Northern direction - to Moscow. But Belarus stood in the way.
It is impossible to understand all the atrocities that the Nazis committed here. But their goal was not just to capture these territories, but also to destroy as many people as possible.
Death camps... This is another crime against humanity. This is not only Auschwitz and Buchenwald. They were here in Belarus, no less terrible, because people died here too. In memory of them, in Khatyn, the memory of every city where peaceful Soviet people were tortured and killed was immortalized.
Khatyn is never deserted. Veterans come here, who with tears put color on these mass graves, ordinary families with children come here, each of which, for sure, has their own story about this war. Tourists are brought here, who are once again told what it means to commit crimes against humanity and how important it is to prevent war.
Soldiers who go to the guard of honor - to protect the peace of this tragic monument.
Yes, for many, Victory is just a bright holiday, parades, concerts and caravans with flags.
But for people like Iosif Kaminsky, victory is completely different. We must not forget about it.
There are monuments that turn the soul upside down, silence and are remembered forever.
Ah, Khatyn... Eternal memory to you. Nothing is forgotten, no one is forgotten.
How to get there
Khatyn is located in the Minsk region, near the town of Logoisk. From Minsk to the Khatyn sign you need to drive 54 km.
223110 Logoisk district, Minsk region, Belarus
Site http://www.khatyn.by/
You can order excursions around the complex from 10-30 to 15-00, except Monday.
Ilshat Mukhametyanov © IA REGNUM
Khatyn
“Dear comrades. I ask that this does not happen again ... So that this does not happen anymore ”-voiceJoseph Kaminsky breaks down.
On this day, 74 years ago, the Belarusian village of Khatyn was destroyed. In 1969, a memorial of the same name was opened in its place, reminiscent of hundreds of burned villages. The policy of "scorched earth" was applied by Nazi Germany to the Soviet Union as well.
Nobody here. Quiet in Khatyn. Only the ringing of bells is heard here every 30 seconds. There is neither horror nor fear; there is no anxiety, and there is no peace either. The silence is mesmerizing. You are in a daze. Just you and the field. Granite roof where the burning ceiling fell on heads. Mass grave and monument-symbol "Unconquered Man". Crowns of log cabins on the site of former houses, obelisks in the form of chimneys. Paths made of reinforced concrete slabs in ash color. "Cemetery of the villages", niches of the "Walls of Memory", reminiscent of places of mass extermination of people, an ever-burning flame... Everything here matters.
Vіkentsyklyapedyst
Memorial plaque on the house in Minsk where the sculptor Sergei Selikhanov lived
Khatyn
On June 22, 1941, Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union. The most powerful of the three groups of troops - "Center" - was deployed towards the capital. According to the original plan, she was supposed to defeat the Soviet troops in Belarus, and then advance on Moscow.
The entire territory of the republic was occupied by the end of August 1941. The invaders set up a regime of merciless suppression of any resistance.
The Belarusian village of Khatyn was destroyed in 1943.
“As I remember Khatyn, my heart bleeds so. On March 22, a fascist raided and surrounded the village. Fired. The people were herded into the barn. The doors closed. Chose the village. He set fire to the huts, and then set fire to the shed. The roofs are thatched - the fire pours on the heads. People broke down the door. People started to come out. He began to beat with a machine gun ... Ditched 149 souls. And my 5 souls - four children and a wife. Dear comrades. I ask that this does not happen anymore ... So that this does not happen again ”- the voice of Joseph Kaminsky breaks. The sole surviving adult spoke at the opening of the Khatyn memorial complex on July 5, 1969.
On the day of the tragedy, partisans fired on a German convoy near the village. As a result of the attack, the chief commander of the first company Hauptmann (captain) of the police was killed. It turned out to be Hans Wölke, the 1936 Olympic champion in shot put. The famous athlete, allegedly personally acquainted with Adolf Hitler.
Hans Wolke. 1936
The aggression of the punitive lava of inhuman cruelty splashed out on the civilian population, which supported the partisans. By evening they broke into the village of Khatyn. When all the inhabitants were driven into the shed, the Nazis locked the doors, surrounded it with straw, doused it with gasoline and set it on fire. The wooden building immediately caught fire. Children were choking and crying in the smoke. The adults tried to save them. Under the pressure of dozens of human bodies, they could not stand it and the doors collapsed. In burning clothes, terrified, people rushed to run, but those who escaped from the flames, the Nazis cold-bloodedly shot from machine guns and machine guns. 149 people died, 75 of them were children. The village was looted and burned to the ground.
Six people survived that tragedy.
Two more girls could have escaped. Maria Fedorovich and Yulia Klimovich miraculously got out of the burning shed and crawled to the forest. Burnt, barely alive, they were picked up by the inhabitants of the village of Khvorosteni of the Kamensky village council. But this village was soon burned by the Nazis, and both girls died. Much later, shortly after the opening of the memorial, the flames of the conflagration will overtake one of the six survivors - Anton Baranovsky.
In 1943, together with Viktor Zhelobkovich, he escaped from a blazing barn. When terrified people ran out of there, in burning clothes, Anna Zhelobkovich ran out together with others. She firmly held the hand of her seven-year-old son Vitya. The mortally wounded woman, falling, covered him with herself. The child lay under the mother's body until the Nazis left the village. Anton Baranovsky was wounded in the leg by an explosive bullet. The Nazis mistook him for dead. Burnt, wounded children were picked up and left by residents of neighboring villages.
Three more: Volodya and Sonya Yaskevich, Sasha Zhelobkovich - were able to escape from the punishers.
The only adult witness to the Khatyn massacre was the 56-year-old village blacksmith Iosif Kaminsky. Among the dead fellow villagers, he found his son. The boy was mortally wounded in the stomach, received severe burns and died in his father's arms.
Iosif Kaminsky, Anton Baranovsky, Victor Zhelobkovich
The tragic fate of Khatyn befell six hundred and twenty-eight Belarusian villages.
Belarus, eastern Poland, part of Lithuania and Latvia were liberated from the Nazis in the summer of 1944. During the large-scale offensive operation "Bagration", the Army Group "Center" defeated the Soviet troops. One of the largest military operations in the history of mankind led to the heaviest losses of the Wehrmacht. Subsequently, the aggressor could not make up for these losses.
In January 1966, a decision was made to create the Khatyn memorial complex.
Scorched earth policy
Having captured in 1941-1942. western and southwestern regions of the USSR, Nazi Germany established a brutal occupation regime. Hundreds of villages were swept off the face of the earth, the population was exterminated, driven into death camps or into fascist slavery.
The genocide was expressed, among other things, in the destruction of settlements along with the inhabitants. The horrors of the burned villages were written by eyewitnesses, recorded from their words, retold by children and grandchildren. Memories, memories... Revived pictures of the memory of those who miraculously survived.
Sergei Emelyantsev from the village of Kleevichi, Mogilev region, recalls: “When ours defeated them, in September 1943, the retreating Germans burned my native village.
The people hid in the forest. We managed to evacuate." Six months before that, the villages of Panki and Kavychichi were burned nearby. "Many people died. They were herded into a barn and set on fire. Only a few managed to survive." Sergei Terekhovich was then 11 years old. Today he lives in Bashkortostan.
The woman who lost everything
The highest authorities of the Third Reich developed plans in advance for waging against the USSR not an ordinary, but a merciless war of annihilation, its economic exploitation and dismemberment, as well as a plan for the colonization of the European part. Hitler declared that the war against the USSR would be "the complete opposite of a normal war in the West and North of Europe", that its ultimate goal was "total destruction" and "the destruction of Russia as a state."
It was necessary to achieve the result without pity and responsibility. On April 28, 1941, the German Field Marshal Walter von Brauchitsch issued an order emphasizing that the commanders - military and special punitive units of the Nazi security service (SD) - are responsible for carrying out actions to destroy in the rear without trial or investigation of communists, Jews and "other radical elements". Two weeks later, the chief of staff of the OKW, Wilhelm Keitel, issued a decree that relieved Wehrmacht soldiers and officers of responsibility for future criminal offenses in the occupied territory of the USSR. They were ordered to be ruthless, to shoot on the spot, without trial or investigation, anyone who would show even the slightest resistance or sympathize with the partisans. “This struggle requires merciless and decisive action against the Bolshevik instigators, partisans, saboteurs, Jews and the complete suppression of any attempt at active or passive resistance,” one of the accompanying annexes to the Barbarossa directive said.
Punishers in the village
In 1941, Hitler had the master plan "Ost" ready. It provided for from the territory of the Czech Republic, Poland, the Baltic republics, Ukraine and Belarus, where, according to the calculation of SS Oberführer Konrad Meyer, 45 million people lived, evict 31 million people “unwanted by racial indicators” beyond the Urals, and “Germanize” the rest, i.e. turn into slaves of the German conquerors. At that time, Wehrmacht soldiers and officers were handed memos that said: “... Kill every Russian, Soviet, do not stop, if you have an old man or a woman, a girl or a boy in front of you - kill, by doing this you will save yourself from death, ensure the future of your family and be glorified forever."
Village on fire
Autumn-winter 1943-1944 destructive policies have assumed the widest scale. In the last period of the occupation, the role of the Nazi Wehrmacht in implementing the policy of total devastation was manifested in the creation of special teams of arsonists.
From a letter from a non-commissioned officer of the 473rd German Infantry Regiment of the 253rd Infantry Division Karl Peters on the implementation of the scorched earth policy:
"Dear Gerda!
... Now I'm standing in Bryansk. The front line passes through the city. But this is no longer a city, but a pile of ruins. Yes, when we surrender the city, we leave only the ruins ... Huge fires turn night into day. Believe me, an Englishman is not able to achieve such destruction with any bombs ... And if we retreat to the border, then the Russians will not have a single city, not a single village from the Volga to the German border. And he probably won't be able to handle it. Yes, “total war” reigns here in its highest perfection. What is happening here is something unprecedented in world history ... "
The troops of Nazi Germany, retreating from the occupied territories, turned "settlements into a desert zone during the retreat of the troops" .
Only in Belarus, during the period of punitive operations, over 5295 villages were destroyed by the Nazis, along with all or part of the population. In the Vitebsk region, 243 villages were burned twice, 83 - three times, 22 - four or more times. In the Minsk region, 92 villages were burned twice, 40 - three times, 9 - four times, 6 villages - five or more times.
Schematic plan of Khatyn
Crime and Punishment
A group of schoolchildren from Lithuania follow their Belarusian guide. They look like they are 12-13 years old. They speak Lithuanian among themselves, but the tour takes place in Russian. The language barrier?! What is there - the guys are listening carefully, and even curious, trying to "grab" the Russian speech around.
The guide leads through the complex and talks about everything - up to the price of gas in the Eternal Flame. About everything. Just not about punishers ...
The "Chief" of the 118th was Sturmbannführer Erich Körner. The reprisal against the inhabitants of Khatyn was led by the chief of staff of the police battalion Grigory Vasyura.
The site of the memorial complex says that the punitive operation was carried out by the 118th police battalion. It was formed in 1942 in Kyiv to fight the partisans and exterminate the civilian population. It mainly consisted of Ukrainians, former career officers who agreed to cooperate with the invaders, as well as units of the SS battalion Dirlewanger.
Ukrainian collaborators from Schutzmannschaft
Most of the punishers of the "118th" will later be punished. Some - much later, in the 1980s, previously lost among those who returned from the front.
Grigory Vasyura, the chief of staff of the police battalion, also managed to cover his tracks after the war - he worked as deputy director of one of the state farms in the Kyiv region. In April 1984, he was even awarded the Labor Veteran medal. Pioneers congratulated him on May 9th. He was very fond of speaking to schoolchildren in the guise of a real war veteran, a front-line signalman, and was even called an honorary cadet of the Kyiv Higher Military Engineering Twice Red Banner School of Communications named after M. I. Kalinin - the one he graduated from before the war.
In November-December 1986, the trial of Vasyura took place in Minsk. 24 punishers of the battalion were brought in as witnesses. By the decision of the military tribunal of the Belarusian military district, the chief of staff of the police battalion was found guilty of crimes and sentenced to death by firing squad.
I would also like to put an end to this "crime and punishment" of the guilty punishers. However, this would be part of the truth: it is known about Vladimir Katryuk, who lived safely in Canada until his death in 2015. He never appeared before the court for those crimes.
Policemen from the Ukrainian Schutzmannschaftbattalions at military courses in Minsk. 1942
It is scary to imagine the reality of what happened, you are burdened by modern well-being, you are afraid to believe in the possibility of such events.
Polina Yakovleva
One of the most pressing issues of recent times is an attempt to reconcile veterans of the Great Patriotic War and warriors from the OUN-UPA.
In discussions on this topic, first of all, not emotions should come forward, but facts and only facts. Many people wrote about the Roland and Nachtigal battalions, the SS division - Galicia, and not many people know about the deeds of the 118th police battalion of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), created to fight partisans.
Having lost the battle of Stalingrad at the beginning of 1943, the German government changed its policy towards the inhabitants of the occupied countries, and after the creation of two Latvian and one Estonian divisions on April 28, 1943, the Ukrainian SS division "Galicia" was formed.
According to the order of the Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler of July 14, 1943, it was forbidden to call it Ukrainian, but only the "Galician division". The full name of the formation is "114th SS Volunteer Infantry Division "Galicia".
Divisions of "Galicia" performed mainly police functions. The initiators of the creation of the division abandoned the word "police" for political and psychological reasons. However, the soldiers of the division had to take part in battles with regular units of the Soviet army. In the very first battle near Brody, during the Lvov-Sandomierz operation of the Soviet troops, the Galicia division was completely defeated. Some of its formations later took part in a number of police operations in Eastern and Central Europe.
A year before the formation of the SS division "Galicia", in June 1942, the 118th security police battalion was formed in Kyiv from among the former members of the Kyiv and Bukovina kurens of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN). True, almost all of them were previously prisoners of war officers or privates of the Red Army, who, apparently, were captured in the first months of the war. This is evident from the fact that at the time when the 118th police battalion was formed in Kiev, most of these prisoners of war had already agreed to serve the Nazis and undergo military training in Germany. Vasyura was appointed chief of staff of this battalion, who almost single-handedly led the battalion and its actions.
67 years ago, a terrible tragedy occurred in the Belarusian village of Khatyn. On March 22, 1943, the 118th security police battalion entered the village of Khatyn and surrounded it.
The entire population of Khatyn, young and old - the elderly, women, children, were driven out of their homes and driven into a collective farm barn. The butts of machine guns were lifted from the bed of the sick, the elderly, did not spare women with small and infant children. When all the people were gathered in the shed, the punishers locked the doors, surrounded the shed with straw, doused it with gasoline and set it on fire. The wooden shed quickly caught fire. Under the pressure of dozens of human bodies, they could not stand it and the doors collapsed. In burning clothes, terrified, suffocating, people rushed to run, but those who escaped from the flames were shot from machine guns. The fire killed 149 villagers, including 75 children under 16 years old. The village itself was completely destroyed.
The author of the article was in Khatyn. Then we examined the entire Memorial architectural and sculptural complex, which occupies an area of about 50 hectares. In the center of the composition of the memorial there is a six-meter bronze sculpture "The Invincible Man" with a murdered child in her arms. Nearby are closed granite slabs, symbolizing the roof of a barn in which the villagers were burned. On the mass grave of white marble - the Crown of Memory.
The former street of the village is lined with gray, ash-colored, reinforced concrete slabs. In those places where houses once stood, 26 obelisks were erected, resembling chimneys scorched by fire, and the same number of symbolic concrete log cabins. On the chimneys-obelisks there are bronze tablets with the names of those who were born and lived here. And from above - sadly ringing bells. On the territory of the memorial there is also an eternal flame in memory of the victims of Nazi crimes.
When, having visited the place of the tragedy, you imagine yourself a participant in these events, I confess - it becomes creepy! Sadness on the faces of sightseers, guests and foreign tourists, deathly silence, fresh flowers lie in many places.
Executioners of Khatyn - who are they?
Every nation is proud of the victories achieved in the struggle for the freedom and independence of the motherland, and sacredly respects the memory of the losses suffered in the name of these victories. The French have Oradour, the Czechs have Lidice. The symbol of the immortal trials of Belarusians is Khatyn, which represents 628 Belarusian villages destroyed during the war years along with their inhabitants.
"... The bloody tragedy of this forest settlement of 26 yards took place on March 22, 1943. 149 people, including 76 children, remained forever in this hellish grave. All except one - Yosif Yosifovich Kaminsky, who accidentally escaped from a burning, overcrowded barn and in bronze appeared now with a dead son on his outstretched arms. In these hands everything is despair, and tragedy, and an endless will to live, which provided the Belarusians with the opportunity to survive and win ..", - wrote Vasily Bykov in the article " Bells of Khatyn" in 1972.
What do we know about the tragedy of the destroyed Belarusian village? In our country, any schoolchild can say that German punishers burned Khatyn ... It was they who were considered guilty of the tragedy.
Indeed, in the text of the photo album "Khatyn" (Minsk, 1979), "the Nazis, overwhelmed by the manic idea of the "exclusivity" of the Aryan race, by their imaginary" superhumanity "are called punishers.
The idea of the Khatyn tragedy is also distorted in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, where we read: "Khatyn is a memorial architectural and cultural complex on the site of the former village of Khatyn (Minsk region of the BSSR). Opened on 07/05/1969 in memory of the inhabitants of Belarusian villages and villages , completely destroyed by the fascist invaders "(TSB, M., 1978., T.28, P.217).
What really happened?
In the newspaper "Soviet youth" No. 34 of March 22, 1991, which was published in Latvia, an article was published "Khatyn was burned by policemen" (The case of Grigory Nikitovich Vasyura, a native of the Cherkasy region).
It turns out that the village of Khatyn in Belarus was destroyed, along with all its inhabitants, not by the Germans, but by a special Sonderkommando (the 118th police battalion), which consisted overwhelmingly of Ukrainian policemen. Yes, Ukrainians!
The chief of staff of this battalion was Grigory Vasyura, who almost single-handedly led the battalion and its actions.
Now let's move on to clarifying the reasons and circumstances that eventually led to the destruction of the Belarusian village of Khatyn.
- The memory of the terrible Khatyn tragedy will forever remain in the hearts of Belarusians
After its formation, the 118th police battalion at first showed itself "well" in the eyes of the occupiers, taking an active part in mass executions in Kyiv, in the infamous Babi Yar. After that, the battalion was redeployed to the territory of Belarus - to fight the partisans. It was here that the terrible tragedy occurred, as a result of which Khatyn was destroyed.
The fact is that the post of quartermaster in each of the subdivisions of this battalion was necessarily occupied by a German officer, who was, thus, an unofficial curator-supervisor of the activities of the policemen of his subdivision. Of course, such a rear service was much safer and more attractive than being at the front. Therefore, it is not surprising that one of the German officers in such a position turned out to be Adolf Hitler's favorite, Hauptmann Hans Welke.
The Fuhrer's love for him was not accidental, since it was he, Hans Welke, who was the first of the Germans to win a gold medal in the shot put at the 1936 Olympic Games in Munich, which fundamentally strengthened the Fuhrer's thesis about the supremacy of the Aryan race. And it is precisely Hauptmann Hans Welke, being in an ambush, who is killed by Soviet partisans who stopped the night before to spend the night in the village of Khatyn.
Of course, the murder of the Fuhrer's favorite made all the policemen very worried about the safety of their own skins, and therefore the need for a "worthy repayment to the bandits" became a "matter of honor" for them. Unable to find and capture the partisans, the police followed their tracks to the village of Khatyn, surrounded it and began executions on the local population in retaliation for the murdered Hauptmann.
May 13 Vasyura leads the fighting against the partisans in the area with. Dalkovichi. May 27 conducts a punitive operation in the village. Osovi, where 78 people were shot. Further - the punitive operation "Cottbus" on the territory of the Minsk and Vitebsk regions - the massacre of the inhabitants of the village of Vileika; the destruction of the inhabitants of the village of Makovye and Uborok execution near the village. Kaminskaya Sloboda 50 Jews. For these "merits" the Nazis awarded Vasyura with the rank of lieutenant and two medals.
When his battalion was defeated, Vasyura continued to serve in the 14th SS Grenadier Division "Galicia", already at the very end of the war - in the 76th Infantry Regiment, which was already defeated in France.
After the war in the filtration camp, he managed to cover his tracks. Only in 1952, for cooperation with the Nazis during the war, the tribunal of the Kyiv military district sentenced him to 25 years in prison. At that time, nothing was known about his punitive activities. On September 17, 1955, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR adopted the Decree "On the amnesty of Soviet citizens who collaborated with the invaders during the war of 1941-1945", and Vasyura was released. He returned to his native Cherkasy region.
The KGB officers nevertheless found and again arrested the criminal. By that time, he was, no less, the deputy director of one of the large state farms in the Kiev region, he was very fond of speaking to the pioneers in the guise of a war veteran, a front-line signalman, and was even called an honorary cadet in one of the military schools in Kiev.
Just imagine this: the honorary cadet - the chief executioner of Khatyn and the murderer of Babi Yar was a model of heroism and devotion to the motherland for our future soldiers and officers?
A natural question arises why at that time the case and the trial of the chief executioner of Khatyn did not receive proper publicity in the media. It turns out that, according to one of the researchers of this topic, journalist Glazkov, the top party leaders of Belarus and Ukraine "had a hand" in classifying this case. The leaders of the Soviet republics took care of the inviolability of the international unity of the Belarusian and Ukrainian peoples (!).
The first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine, a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU, Vladimir Shcherbitsky, took special care of the non-disclosure of the materials of the Vasyura case. As a result of this pressure, correspondents were admitted to the process only selectively, and in the future, none of the materials prepared by them was ever published.
Dossier:
Vasyura Grigory Nikitovich, born in 1915, Ukrainian, native of the Cherkasy region, from peasants. A career military man, in 1937 he graduated from the communications school. In 1941, with the rank of senior lieutenant, he served in the Kiev fortified area. Being the chief of communications for the fortified area of the rifle division, this native of the Cherkasy region was captured in the first days of the war and voluntarily transferred to the service of the Nazis. He graduated from the school of propagandists at the so-called Eastern Ministry of Germany. In 1942 he was sent to the police of occupied Kyiv. Having shown himself to be a zealous campaigner, he soon became chief of staff of the 118th police battalion. This unit distinguished itself with particular cruelty in the destruction of people in Babi Yar. In December 1942, a punitive battalion was sent to Belarus to fight the partisans.
Such was Grigory's life before and during the war. She looked no less "interesting" after. The characterization of the deputy director for the economic part of the state farm "Velikodymersky" in the Brovarsky district of the Kyiv region reports that before retiring and after that, Grigory Vasyura worked conscientiously. In April 1984, he was awarded the medal "Veteran of Labour", whom the pioneers congratulated every year on May 9, and the Kiev Military Communications School even enrolled in honorary cadets! This was the case until 1986.
In November-December 1986, Grigory Vasyura was tried in Minsk. 14 volumes of Case No. 104 reflected many specific facts of the bloody activities of the fascist punisher. By the decision of the military tribunal of the Belarusian military district, Vasyura was found guilty of crimes and sentenced to capital punishment - execution. During the trial, it was established that he personally destroyed more than 360 peaceful women, the elderly, and children.
On the issue of Ukrainian participants in the Khatyn action. (
Today you will not find the VILLAGE of Khatyn on any geographical map. On March 22, 1943, the punishers wiped her off the face of the earth along with the elderly, women, and children. Inhumans cut off the lives of 149 people in one day, including 75 children...
In 1943, at the burial site of the Khatyns, residents of the surrounding villages put up three wooden crosses, then erected a small concrete obelisk with a red star, a little later the sculpture “Grieving Mother” appeared here. Since the opening of the Khatyn memorial complex in 1969, this Belarusian village has become a symbol of human sorrow and a terrible example of what fascism really is.
Khatyn received a second life, posthumously. Rising from the ashes unconquered, unbroken. For almost fifty years, the memorial keeps the memory of all the burnt settlements of Belarus. There are 185 graves with urns with the earth of disappeared villages in the only "Village Cemetery" in the world. Their names can only be found here, in Khatyn, which has become the 186th in this terrible list.
Symbolic trees of life... The names of 433 Belarusian villages are marked on the branches, destroyed along with the inhabitants, but restored after the war.
It is impossible to calmly read the documents declassified by the KGB about the destruction of the village, stored in the National Archives, is impossible. Partisan diaries, lists of the wounded and dead during the battle, the act of burning Khatyn, excerpts from reports to the higher leadership of the punishers themselves, memoirs and confessions of the gendarmes, the accused, victims and witnesses. I’m reading and realizing with horror what a horde of thugs-criminals the infernal machine of Nazism sent against the civilians of my native Belarus ...
Gang of criminals led by a pedophile
The Sonderbattalion, as one of the most brutal SS formations, was born in July 1940 from among convicted poachers. The special unit was originally called the “Oranienburg Poaching Team” - after the name of the city 30 kilometers from Berlin. It was headed by Oscar Paul Dirlewanger, Doctor of Economics, a participant in the First World War and the Spanish Civil War, who fought on the side of the Francoists. Behind him at that time were not only awards such as the Iron Crosses I and II degrees, but also a criminal article for forced sexual relations with a 13-year-old girl. And in the future, Dirlewanger was noticed more than once in excessive drinking and pedophilia. After bullying, he poisoned his juvenile victims with strychnine, watching their torment from the sidelines. In total, they wanted to initiate at least 10 criminal cases against this pathological type for "desecration of the race by an SS officer."
Executioner Oscar Paul DIRLEVANGER.
So this subhuman (Untermensch, if according to Nazi qualifications) in the rank of Obersturmführer first assembled a detachment of about 55 convicted poachers who were registered in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. They were trained by non-commissioned officers of the 5th SS Regiment "Dead Head". Insignia - buttonholes with crossed bones. Strict discipline, for the slightest violation, a terrible punishment awaited. As a result, Himmler rated the gang of "bony" on a quality scale "from good to very good."
In September 1940, the penal unit was renamed the special SS battalion "Dirlewanger", they served in Lublin, later - in a Jewish forced camp closer to the Soviet border. From January 29, 1942, the Dirlewanger team began to be considered as a volunteer battalion. Serving with a rapist-pedophile was prestigious for concentration camp prisoners, they themselves filed petitions. As a result, criminals with several convictions arrived here - murderers, pimps, robbers, rapists ... For these qualities, the gang was later called the "Special Group" Dr. Dirlewanger ".
In February 1942, Dirlewanger and his battalion were transferred to Mogilev. The personnel were initially used in anti-partisan operations. Later they began to carry out the so-called cleansing of villages. Already in May, in the Klichev district, the punishers wiped out the villages of Olkhovka, Susha, Vyazen and Selets from the face of the earth. The SS leadership assessed the combat activities of the special team very positively, and Dirlewanger himself was presented for an award. On June 15, 1942, the village of Borki, Kirov District, was burned to the ground, killing 1,800 people - residents of Borki themselves and the villages included in them.
Dirlewanger's report on the action in Borki dated June 16, 1942 has been preserved: “Yesterday's operation against Borki took place without contact with the enemy. The settlement was immediately surrounded and captured. Local residents who tried to escape were shot, three of them carrying weapons. As a result of the search, it was established that the village was a partisan one. There were almost no men, few horses, carts. […] The inhabitants were shot, the settlement was burnt down. […] 1,112 inhabitants were shot, plus 633 SD liquidated. Total: 1,745. Shot while trying to escape - 282. Total number: 2,027.”
Sonderkommando Dirlewanger was active in the Klichevsky, Kirovsky and Bykhov regions. In the period from July 11 to 20, 1942, she burned the villages of Vetrenka, Dobuzha, Trilesino, Krasnitsa and Smolitsa. Dirlewanger did not take part in these actions, he was treated in Germany. Throughout the year, several people were brought to the Sonderkommando SS on parole. Basically, these were veterans of the German Nazi Party who were at fault, sent to Dirlewanger for "correction".
Sonderkommando trained for blood
At the beginning of November 1942, an order came: the personnel of the Sonderkommando would take part in Operation Frida, a local action to eliminate the partisan brigades of the Minsk zone. In a word, while the Dirlewanger battalion reached Khatyn, they left behind them burned villages and thousands of ruined lives. They committed no less atrocities after that. The list of victims is huge.
As for the 118th Schutzmanschaft Battalion, it began to be formed at the beginning of 1942 in Poland, continued in Chernivtsi in Western Ukraine, mainly from Ukrainian nationalists. In Kyiv, he was replenished with participants in the massacres at Babi Yar. The total number of the gendarmerie group reached 500 people. Initially, uniforms came from the Baltic States from the captured warehouses of the former Lithuanian army. Therefore, Ukrainians looked like Lithuanians. The real German uniform was given to them much later. The Germans entered the battalion only as commanders, although there was a dual control. From the German side - Erich Kerner, from the Ukrainian - Konstantin Smovsky. The chiefs of staff were Emil Zass and Grigory Vasyura. Hans Welke's deputy was the nationalist Joseph Vinnitsky.
The fighters of the 118th battalion were transferred from Ukraine to Belarus at the end of 1942. First to Minsk, then to Pleschenitsy. At their expense, the replenishment of the SS battalion "Dirlewanger" also took place. Policemen were selected and transferred without their consent. Basically, from one gang to another. What difference does it make where to kill? So under the command of Dirlewanger were not only convicts-criminals, but also motley traitors from among the former prisoners of war. As a result, by the end of August 1942, 3 divisions were formed in a special part of the SS: a German company under the command of Oberscharführer Heinz Faiertag, a Ukrainian platoon led by former Red Army lieutenant Ivan Melnichenko, and a Russian-Belarusian order service company led by Volksdeutsche August Barchke. Later, even a group of German gypsies joined them. They differed from the personnel of the gang in that they had clean-shaven heads. But they also wore SS uniforms without insignia.
It is not necessary to describe each thug. There are many of them, one more beautiful than the other. In November-December 1986, one of the main executioners, Grigory Vasiura, was tried in Minsk. The court was presided over by Lieutenant Colonel of Justice, military judge of the BVO Tribunal Viktor Glazkov. Unfortunately, due to health reasons, he could not meet with me personally, we only talked by phone: it is clear that it is hard for an elderly person to remember such things.
Gendarmes of the 118th police battalion.
Retribution will overtake all
During the trial, all the accusations fell on Vasyuru. He was called the man who led the entire punitive operation. But is it?
Former director of the National Archives of the Republic of Belarus Vyacheslav Selemenev explains:
Vasyura was never the main figure in the destruction of Khatyn. He is just one of the performers, like Vladimir Katryuk. The command was given by the former UNR colonel Konstantin Smovsky, the German Erich Kerner and the commander of the Ukrainian platoon of the Dirlewanger battalion Ivan Melnichenko. In the 2000s, a number of KGB documents were declassified, which allow us to draw the appropriate conclusions. The fact is that no one has ever searched for either Smovsky or Kerner. It is not known for certain what happened to them after the war. If I'm not mistaken, Smovsky ended up in America. Vasyura lived quietly in Ukraine under his last name, so it was easiest for him to fall into the hands of justice. Until the very last moment, he denied his involvement in the punitive operation. All charges were based on the testimony of witnesses, his colleagues in the battalion. No official documents confirming his involvement have been established. But the reports were depersonalized, it was difficult to prove something. In 1974, Vasily Meleshko and a whole group from the 118th battalion were tried.
From the materials of the KGB, which I managed to look through, it is known that purebred Germans also burned Khatyn. In addition, there was also a Ukrainian platoon. The plot started with the 118th security police battalion, and the 1st German company and the Ukrainian platoon of the SS Dirlewanger detachment came to the rescue. But Kerner unequivocally led the operation.
Mass grave in Khatyn with three crosses, 1943.
Fire Lip
It cannot be argued that the Germans in 1942 boldly traveled through the forests, the partisans have long become a threat to them. But on that day, a convoy of one passenger car and two trucks was calmly driving to eliminate the break in the communication line. There were enough people, all were armed to the teeth. And then the partisans ... A small shootout, not even a battle, as a result of which a couple of Germans and a couple of policemen died. It would be possible and necessary to finish off the rest, but the partisans decided to retreat to Khatyn.
The protocol of interrogation dated January 31, 1961 of witness Iosif Kaminsky, born in 1887, a native of the village of Gani, Logoisk district, living in the village of Kozyri, says: “On March 21, on Sunday, many partisans arrived in the village of Khatyn. After spending the night, in the morning, it was still dark, most of them left our village. In the middle of the day on Monday, March 22, 1943, while at home in the village of Khatyn, I heard shooting near the village of Kozyri, located 4-5 kilometers away. And the shooting was great at first. Then it stopped and soon resumed again for a while. I do not remember exactly, it seems that at 15 o'clock in the afternoon the partisans returned to the village of Khatyn and settled down for dinner. An hour and a half later, the Germans began to surround our village. After that, a battle ensued between them and the partisans. […] The guerrillas retreated after about an hour of battle ... "
“[...] Around the middle of the day, being with my father in the barn of my house, I heard gunfire that was heard from the opposite side of the village. When my father and I ran out of the barn, I saw how one of the partisans who were in our house climbed onto a stack of hay and shouted from a height: “Germans!”, After which he fired from a rifle upwards, as if giving a signal to his comrades. After the partisans left our compound, our whole family hid in the cellar. After a short time, the door of the cellar opened, and one of the punishers with a gesture ordered us to leave the basement upstairs ... ”(Excerpt from the protocol of interrogation of June 4, 1986, witness Viktor Zhelobkovich, born in 1934.)
The first victims of the punishers were 26 civilians in the village of Kozyri, located about a kilometer from the Logoisk-Pleshchenitsy highway, not far from the turn to Khatyn. A little further on the right side were the village of Guba and the farm Izbishche, which have long been gone. According to local old-timers, the village was also burned down, few people remember it.
Iosif KAMINSKY at the monument "Grieving Mother", 1965.
The first victims are lumberjacks
In the morning of March 22, 1943, the villagers, and among them were men, women and teenagers, went to cut down the forest. Yadviga Shalupin (nee Lis) also came to work. As a witness, she testified on January 31, 1961:
“During the Patriotic War, I lived in the territory temporarily occupied by the Germans in the village of Kozyri. […] I remember that in the last days of March 1943, at about 10 o’clock in the morning, the headman of our village Alexander Lis (killed in Logoisk around 1944) ordered the residents to go to work to the Pleschenitsy-Logoisk highway to clear the roadside from bushes and forests . I was then 15 years old, but I also went to the highway to work. I remember that 40-50 fellow villagers gathered at the highway at that time. […] When we worked for about an hour, we saw how several cars (about 4) with people dressed in green German military uniforms drove along the highway from the side of Pleschenitsy in the direction of Logoisk. How many there were, I don’t know how I remember, the cars were fully loaded with these punishers. Soon we heard from the side of Logoisk, about half a kilometer away from us, indiscriminate shooting, and when the shooting died down, soon the same cars drove up to us from the side of Logoisk, and the punishers began to herd everyone to one place on the highway. I remember well that some of the punishers spoke Russian, accusing us of knowing that we were ahead of the partisans with whom they had a shootout. Gathering everyone on the highway, the punishers built us into a column and drove in the direction of the town of Pleschenitsy. In the village of Guba, the punishers stopped and forced everyone who had axes and saws to put them on the ground, after which they drove on. Those who lagged behind or walked from the edge of the column were beaten with rifle butts. Approximately 10-15 punishers escorted us, and the rest remained at the place of our detention. When we approached the edge of the forest outside the village of Guba, some fellow villagers, including myself, rushed into the forest, trying to escape. Punishers fired randomly at us with rifles, as a result I was wounded in my right arm, back, head and left leg, but still I managed to escape. What happened next on the highway, I did not see. Exhausted from pain, I barely made it to the village, and then I was taken to the Logoisk hospital, where I was treated for about 3 months. […] All fellow villagers who were shot on the highway were buried by their relatives in the cemetery in the village of Koren.”
(To be continued.)
Memorial complex "Khatyn" (Belarus) - description, history, location. Exact address, phone number, website. Reviews of tourists, photos and videos.
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Khatyn is a symbol of the terrible tragedy that the Belarusian people experienced during the Great Patriotic War. Sometimes we ask ourselves the question - is it necessary to visit objects dedicated to such terrible and tragic events as those that took place in Buchenwald, Auschwitz, Treblinka, Khatyn? Do our children need to see these cruelties? The answer is unequivocal - it is necessary. The events of the war are moving further and further into the past, the number of veterans is getting smaller... Twenty years ago, numerous columns marched on the traditional procession of partisans in Minsk, now it's good, if a couple of hundred people. And such memorials as Khatyn are an invaluable repository of the historical memory of the people, who in their history experienced a national tragedy. Khatyn is a symbol of the martyrdom of the Belarusian people, who lost every fourth person during the war. And at the same time - evidence of his unbending courage, because, having survived everything, he emerged victorious. This is what the main monument of Khatyn "Unconquered Man" is dedicated to.
History of the Khatyn tragedy
On March 22, 1943, the Belarusian village of Khatyn ceased to exist, now it is not on any geographical map. On the eve of the partisans fired at a German motorcade, a German officer was killed. In such cases, the punishers always carried out repressions against civilians, thus trying to intimidate the partisans, because among the population of the villages there were their relatives. People who knew nothing about what had happened were driven into a barn, adults, who soon realized what awaited them, tried to save the children, but they were shot while trying to escape. Only three children managed to escape. Shortly after the barn was set on fire, its walls collapsed, the burnt, engulfed in flames people still tried to hide, but they were shot point-blank.
Anna Zhelobkovich, falling, covered her son Vitya with her body, he lay under the corpse of his mother until dawn, later he and another boy, Andrei Baranovsky, who was seriously wounded and taken by the Nazis for dead, were found by residents of a neighboring village.
Of the adult residents of the village, only 56-year-old blacksmith Iosif Kaminsky survived. Having regained consciousness, burned and wounded, he found the body of his son among the corpses of his fellow villagers. This tragic event is the basis for the only sculpture of the Khatyn memorial complex.
Sorrow for the dead and enduring admiration for the resilience of the suffering people - these are the feelings that the authors of the Khatyn memorial managed to embody in stone and sound.
Memorial Complex
When in the 60s of the last century it was decided to perpetuate the memory of the Khatyn tragedy, a competition was held among sculptors and architects. The winners were architects Yu.Gradov, V.Zenkovich and L. Levin, sculptor S.Selikhanov. Khatyn is an outstanding work of monumental art. By laconic, figurative, expressive, realistic means, the authors convey to visitors a lofty patriotic idea. The monument has an exceptional emotional impact, which is achieved by a combination of nature, sound accompaniment and the perfection of architecture and plastics. Anyone who has ever heard the bells of Khatyn will never forget them. Belarus is the unconquered Iosif Kaminsky, carrying his tortured child in his arms, but not bowing his head to the invaders. Sorrow for the dead and enduring admiration for the resilience of the suffering people - these are the feelings that the authors managed to embody in stone and sound.
How can I get to
From Minsk to Khatyn there is a bus from the main bus station. By private car, you need to drive along the M3 Minsk-Vitebsk highway, at 54 km you will see a sign - Khatyn, following it, after 5 km you will reach the memorial.
Opening hours
Photo-documentary exposition: 10:30-16:00, ticket price for students and schoolchildren - 0.50 BYN; regular tickets - 1 BYN.
Excursion service: 10:30-15:00, day off - Monday.
Photography (1 camera) - 0.50 BYN.
Entrance to the territory of the memorial is free, there is a parking lot, a kiosk selling souvenirs, the nearest food point to the memorial is in the neighboring boarding house "Partizansky Bor".
Prices on the page are for November 2018.
