Khatyn

The name of a small Belarusian village Khatyn, located 60 kilometers north of Minsk, entered the history of the Great Patriotic War as a terrible symbol of the atrocities of the Nazi punishers, who brutally exterminated the civilian population of the occupied territories of the Soviet Union. In 1943, in retaliation for several killed by partisan policemen, Hitlerites turned their wrath on the inhabitants of the nearest village to the place of attack. To intimidate the local population dozens of innocent civilians of Khatyn were mercilessly burned alive. Every single one of them – from infants to the elderly. This settlement disappeared forever from the geographical map of Belarus.

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Video: Khatyn

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General Information

In 1969, on the site of a village burned by punishers, the Khatyn memorial complex was opened. On an area of 50 hectares created memorial compositions that do not leave indifferent visitors. The spectacular and emotional ensemble of mourning structures is a symbiosis of touching sculptures, architectural elements and landscape design, memorial sound accompaniment. Granite was brought from quarries in Ukraine, marble and bronze were delivered from Russia.

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‘ Belarus. Documents show that during the years of German occupation, the Nazis committed more than 600 Belarusian villages to the flames. In 185 of them the population was completely destroyed, and men who went to the front were killed. There was no one to return to the fires, these villages were never rebuilt.

The Khatyn Memorial is included in the list of historical and cultural values of the Republic of Belarus, more than 200,000 tourists visit it annually.

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History of the village

In March 1943, the fighters of a detachment of Belarusian partisans from the brigade “People’s Avengers”, operating in the territory of the German-occupied Minsk region, spent the night on the outskirts of the village of Khatyn surrounded by forests. In the morning, having left the village, the partisans moved to the road and fired from an ambush on the occupation police vehicles, which had gone to search for damage to the communication line. The fight was short-lived. The fighters of the guerrilla sabotage group disappeared into the woods.

In that firefight killed several Hitlerites. One of them was Captain Hans Wölke, commander of the 1st company of the auxiliary police battalion. The Germans formed this punitive unit in occupied Kiev. It recruited broken-hearted Red Army prisoners of war who languished in concentration camps and agreed to cooperate with the Nazis, as well as volunteer collaborators from among the civilian population and the part of the Melnikovs (OUN (m)), who joined the Nazis.

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%’ German athlete, won the first gold medal in track and field events at the 1936 Olympics held in Berlin. The admiring Fuhrer himself invited the winner to his box in the stadium, because the big Wölke convincingly confirmed the Nazi theory of the “superiority of the Aryan race” by setting a new world record in the shot put. By personal order of the Reich Chancellor, the champion, then serving as a non-commissioned officer in the Berlin police, was promoted to the extraordinary rank of lieutenant.

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When news of the death of Hitler’s favorite reached the Wehrmacht high command, the fate of Khatyn was sealed. The order for the brutal destruction of the village was given by the battalion commander, Police Major Erich Körner. The direct executor of the criminal order was a prisoner of war, a Soviet officer who had defected to the Hitlerites – a former senior lieutenant of the Red Army 27-year-old Grigory Vasyura, chief of staff of the battalion. Dozens of his subordinates became the executioners of Khatyn.

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Police officers herded all the residents of Khatyn to the backyard of the collective farm grain current, locked them in a barn, and set fire to the thatched roof. The first to carry the burning torch was the commander of the squad, policeman Joseph Lukovich. The mad people who tried to escape from the blazing barn were shot with machine guns by both police and SS men standing in the cordon. 149 people died in the fire, among them 75 children. Miraculously a few babies managed to survive under the bodies of their murdered mothers. They escaped into the street when the executioners left the flaming village. The fate of the two surviving girls, who received extensive burns, is dramatic. Half-dead Maria Fedorovich and Sofia Klimovich were found on the fire and were taken out by peasants of a neighboring village, but the girls died together with the inhabitants of that village, shot in another act of intimidation.

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‘ France, and changed his epaulettes. The former Polizei joined the Foreign Legion fighting the Germans. There they never ask about the past of legionnaires. Katryuk fought in Italy as a machine gunner, was severely wounded, and earned awards. After the war he emigrated to Canada. The 93-year-old Punisher passed away peacefully on his ranch with an apiary in Quebec as recently as 2015. All attempts to bring him to justice were sadly unsuccessful.

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A tour of the Khatyn memorial

‘ A five-kilometer asphalted road through a dense forest leads to the Khatyn memorial complex from Minsk to Vitebsk. Each kilometer of the way to the mournful place is marked with a block of marble. We recommend that you start your visit to the complex by looking at the archival photos and documents presented in the pavilion located at the entrance.

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The exposition of the first hall tells about the beginning of World War II, the occupation of European countries and the German attack on the Soviet Union. The second hall contains chilling documents, impassionedly telling about the tragedy of Khatyn and many other Belarusian villages – more than 200 places of mass extermination of civilians have been established on the territory of the republic. A separate exposition is dedicated to the history of the memorial complex.

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‘ Granite roof symbolizing the barn that collapsed in the fire
‘ Granite roof symbolizing a barn that collapsed in a fire

The exhibition hall exhibits a series of paintings by Vasily Sharangovich, a national artist known in Belarus. These works brought the talented master the title of laureate of the State Prize of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in 1968

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‘ Belarus was reduced by one civilian killed by the Nazis every half a minute. There were no such colossal losses in any of all the countries through which the deadly hammer of the Second World War swept. Another composition of the memorial reminds about this sorrowful fact. Birches grow on three corners of the square made of granite. The fourth corner is empty. This is how the authors of the composition visually inform the viewers of the staggering figure deeply cut into the granite slab – the war claimed the life of every fourth Belarusian, a total of 2 230 000 people were killed. The Eternal Flame burns between the birches, bouquets of flowers always lie on the symbolic tombstone.

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‘ Wall of Remembrance for the Victims of the Concentration Camps
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The alley leads visitors to the Wall of Remembrance, where marble slabs with the list of concentration camps set up by the Nazis in Belarus are installed. The memorial is closed by a composition dedicated to all the villages burnt down during the war.

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Practical information

‘ Minsk you will be passing by one way or another). The cost of a check for three will be about 40 Belarusian rubles. The institution works from 09:00 to 19:00.

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If you want, you can also spend the night in “Partisan Bor”. The cost of a room – from 20 Belarusian rubles per person. The reception desk is open 24 hours a day.

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How to get there

‘ Minsk runs buses to villages located a short distance from the memorial. It is most convenient to take a ticket for the bus that follows the route Minsk – Pleshchenitsy and ask the driver to stop at the turn to Khatyn. You can walk to the memorial on foot (the walk will take about an hour), or try to stop a hitchhiker. But the best way is to join a guided bus tour. You can buy a ticket for the excursion in the tour bureau at the railway station, in any Minsk travel agency, or order it through the administrator of your hotel.

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By private transport you should go from Minsk northward along the M3 highway in the direction of Vitebsk. At the 54th kilometer before the right turn to Khatyn there is a monumental sign. The memorial is located 5 km from the highway.

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Branches of the memorial complex “Khatyn”

There are two more memorial locations in Belarus that fall under the administration of the “Khatyn” complex. One of them is located relatively close, at the 77th kilometer of the same highway M3. This is the memorial “Dalva” – this was the name of an old Belarusian village, which suffered the sad fate of Khatyn. Here, 44 local residents perished in the fire. According to tradition, the memorial, opened in 1973, repeats the layout of the burned village. The museum has an exposition dedicated to the history of Dalva, known since the 17th century.

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‘ Dalva Memorial Complex
‘ Kurgan Slavy in Belarus

At the 21st kilometer of the highway M1, leading from Minsk to Moscow, stands the “Mound of Glory”, erected in honor of the Soviet soldiers who liberated Belarus from the Nazis. The memorial was opened in 1969, recently it has been reconstructed and modern lighting powered by solar panels has been installed.

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