1943

Neither one of the most detailed geographic map today, you will not find this small Belorussian village. It was destroyed by the Nazis in the spring of 1943.
Khatyn - a former village, Logoisk district, Minsk region of Belarus - has become a symbol of the tragedy of the Belarusian people, sad page in the history of the Great Patriotic War.
In memory of those killed 2230000 people in Belarus - one in four - in 1969. on the spot burned with built villagers Khatyn memorial complex which embodies the idea of ​​courage and unconquered people, brought innumerable sacrifices in the name of victory.





Brutal fascists rushed into the village and encircled it. The villagers knew nothing about that morning at 6 km away from Khatyn guerrillas fired on the convoy was the Nazis and killed in an attack by a German officer. But neither the innocent people the Nazis had sentenced to death. The entire population of Khatyn, young and old - old men, women and children driven from their houses out into the shed. Butts raised bed sick, the elderly, did not spare women and young infants. The family of Joseph and Anna Baranovsky with 9 children, Alexander and Alexandra Novitsky with 7 children; the same number of children were in the family of Kazimir and Elena Iotko, the youngest just turned one year. The barn drove Vera to a seven-week Yaskevich son Tolik. Helen Yaskevich initially hid in the yard, and then decided to take safe shelter in the forest. Bullets Nazis were not able to catch up with the running girl. Then one of the fascists rushed to her and caught up, shot her in front of his father mad with grief. Together with the inhabitants of Khatyn were driven into the barn villager Yurkovichi Anton Kunkevicha and resident of the village Kameno Kristina Slonskaja, which were at that time in the village of Khatyn.

No adult could go unnoticed. Only three kids - Volodia Yaskevich, his sister Sonia and another boy Sasha Zhelobkovich Yaskevich - managed to escape from the Nazis. When the entire population of the village was in the barn, the Nazis shut the barn door, besieged it with straw, doused with gasoline and set on fire. Wooden shed caught fire instantly. The smoke choked and crying babies. Adults were trying to save the children. Under the pressure of the dozens of people broke and crumbled door. The burning clothes, Horror-stricken people fled, but those who tried to escape from the flames, the Germans coolly shot from rifles and machine guns. Killed 149 people, including 75 children under 16 years of age. The village was looted and burned down.

Two girls from families and Klimovichi Fedorovich - Maria Fedorovich and Yulia Klimovich - were saved by miracle of the burning shed and crawl to the forest. Charred, almost living being picked up by the villagers of the village council Khvorosteny Kamensky. But soon this village was burned by the Nazis, and the two girls were killed.

Only two children of whom are in the barn survived - a seven-year Viktor Zhelobkovich and twelve Anton Baranovsky. When burning clothes, people ran in terror from the burning barn, along with other villagers ran Anna Zhelobkovich. She clung to the hand of a seven-year son Vitya. Mortally wounded woman, falling, covering a son. Wounded in the hand of a child lay under his mother's corpse before the departure of the Nazis from the village. Anton Baranovsky was wounded in the leg by an explosive bullet. The Germans took him for dead.
Burnt, wounded children and picked out the inhabitants of the neighboring villages. After the war, the children were brought up in a children's home GP Pleshchenitsy.

The only adult witness to the Khatyn tragedy, 56-year-old village smith Joseph Kaminsky, burned and wounded regained consciousness late at night when the Nazis were no longer in the village. He had to suffer another heavy blow: among the corpses of fellow villagers, he found his wounded son. The boy was fatally wounded in the abdomen, severe burns. He died in the arms of his father.

This tragic moment in the life of Joseph Kaminsky as a basis for the creation of a single sculpture of a memorial complex "Khatyn" - "The Unconquered Man».

Khatyn tragedy - one of thousands of evidence of deliberate policy of genocide against the population of Belarus, which the Nazis carried out throughout the period of occupation. Hundreds of such tragedies have occurred over the three years of occupation (1941-1944gg) on ​​the Belarusian land.

Photo:
In this cemetery were buried an urn with soil from 185 destroyed villages (186th was Khatyn itself)



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