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The Khatyn tragedy is a historical fact, indisputably proven both by the materials of criminal cases of previous years and archival documents, as well as by the results of the investigation of the modern criminal case of genocide. Today, it is safe to say that there are no more blank spots in the history of the Khatyn tragedy.
On the morning of March 22, 1943, 6 km from the village. A fascist convoy was shelled by partisans in Khatyn in the Minsk region. On that day, the partisans were carrying out a routine combat mission: to disrupt communications between the garrisons where the German units were located. A German officer was killed in the attack.
To pursue the partisans, the German invaders called in units of the 118th battalion of the Schutzmannschaft (auxiliary security police; the backbone of the battalion was formed in Poland, then in Kiev) and the German company of the SS Dirlewanger sonderbatallion (over 120,000 Soviet citizens were killed by this battalion; only in the Minsk and Mogilev regions these punishers they burned down more than 150 settlements together with people).
On March 22, 1943, the punishers appeared in the village. Khatyn. As they approached the village, a firefight broke out. But there was no fight. The partisans immediately began to leave the village, losing several people. The punishers did not pursue them, but took over the village. The residents were herded into a barn and set on fire, and those who ran out were shot. A total of 149 residents were killed. And the scariest thing is that there were 75 children among them. 6 children and 1 adult were able to escape. The village (26 yards) was completely burned down.
It is well known that the only adult who miraculously survived the tragedy was Joseph Kaminsky. This is our Unconquered man, his personality is unshakable, like the Khatyn tragedy itself.
The killing of the inhabitants was commanded by the head of the SD team, SS Hauptsturmfuhrer A.Wilke, chief commander of the 118th battalion, Major of the security police E.Kerner, battalion commander, former major of the Polish Army K. Smowski, Chief of Staff of the battalion, former senior lieutenant of the Red Army G.Vasyura. Thus, the Nazi policy of genocide was implemented – the total systematic mass extermination of the civilian population, one of the ways of which was the destruction of settlements along with their inhabitants during punitive operations. The punishers explained the brutality against civilians by fighting the resistance movement.
After the war, D. Khatyn has not been restored. In the 1940s and 1980s, some of the punishers were sentenced to various degrees of punishment.
On July 5, 1969, the Khatyn State Memorial Complex was opened on the site of the burned village. The opening ceremony began in Minsk on Victory Square, from where a torch lit from the Eternal Flame was delivered to Khatyn. Witnesses of the Khatyn tragedy, Joseph Iosifovich Kaminsky and Alexander Petrovich Zhelobkovich, spoke at a rally of thousands dedicated to the opening of the memorial complex.
The decision to perpetuate the burned villages was made by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in January 1966. In 1967, a team of architects (Y.Gradov, V.Zankovich, L.Levin and sculptor S.Selikhanov) began to create a memorial complex.
The history of one village immortalized in the Khatyn memorial shows the tragedy of the entire Belarusian people, leaving deep impressions on everyone who visits the memorable place. The main idea is to remind everyone of the suffering suffered by peaceful people and to emphasize the value of preserving peace.
The Khatyn State Memorial Complex is included in the list of historical and cultural values of the Republic of Belarus.
As President of the Republic of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko stated at a meeting on the implementation of historical policy held on January 6, 2022, “we should not rewrite our history, and we will not do it. But we will no longer keep silent about the specific facts of humiliation and discrimination of Belarusians.… It is a matter of our national dignity to protect the glorious centuries–old chronicle of the Belarusian people.”
In the spring of 2022, the memorial complex began major repairs with modernization and restoration elements. On the day of the Republican clean-up day on April 16, 2022
President of the Republic of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko took part in the beautification of the complex. All the work took place in three stages. The first stage of construction included the cleaning of the “Unconquered Man” sculpture, the repair of the pedestal, the “Barn Roof” monument and the “Crown of Memory” memorial, and landscaping of the surrounding area. During the second stage of construction, the memorials “Cemetery of Villages” and “Trees of Life”, as well as concrete fences of graves and urns with earth were repaired. The third one provided for the repair of the central track lighting and the sound design of the memorial.
In memory of the millions of Belarusians whose lives were taken away by the Great Patriotic War, a new museum “Kozhny Traci” with an area of 1 thousand m2 was erected on the territory of the memorial complex, which was opened on March 22, 2023, on the day of the 80th anniversary of the tragic death of the inhabitants of the village. Khatyn, destroyed by the Nazi invaders.
According to the latest data, during the Great Patriotic War, the Nazis destroyed more than 12 thousand Belarusian villages. At least 288 are called the sisters of Khatyn, they were burned down along with the inhabitants and have not been revived.
There are traditions that are so wise and accurate, and most importantly applicable in our time, that, of course, when you think about their meaning, you realize that it really makes sense not to change them, but only to follow them. After all, time passes, mores and concepts change, life acquires other civilizational colors, but the tradition of laying flowers at the monument in the Khatyn memorial complex remains unchanged as a sign of memory and deep respect for those who died innocently from the atrocities of the Nazis.
