March 22 1943 – Nazi Soldiers Burn Every Citizen of Khatyn, Belarus Alive

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Every 30 seconds, the sound of bells breaks the quiet of a forest 45 miles north of the Belarusian capital, Minsk. In the middle of a wide clearing, a tall granite figure cuts a dark contrast to the bright green growing around it. The statue, part of a large monument to the town of Khatyn, commemorates the massacre of the small village by Nazi soldiers on March 22, 1943. Situated between the Soviet Union and Poland, Belarus was thrust into World War II almost as soon as combat started. Two weeks after the Nazis pushed east to assault the tiny Polish town of Mokra, the Red Army responded by driving 800,000 troops into the neighboring countries of Ukraine and Belarus on September 17, 1939. When Joseph Stalin’s administration claimed the move to be defensive in light of the German advance through Poland, it seemed a logical strategy. The Soviet administration covered up the truth, however: the massive movement was part of the pre-war Molotov-Ribbentrop Non-Aggression Pact with the Nazis signed that August, days before the invasion of Poland. As part of the deal, Nazi and Soviet representatives divided the nations between them to guarantee both governments new territory. For nearly two years, the huge armies of Germany and the Soviet Union stood their ground in Eastern Europe, honoring the agreement and newly-established borders. In June 1941, Adolf Hitler made the play he intended from the start — attacking the Soviets to expand Germany even further. Several Panzer divisions lurched forward from central Poland, rolling back the Red Army to the outskirts of Moscow within six months. Known as Operation Barbarossa, the assault put Belarus, Latvia and Ukraine under Nazi control. With no choice but to support the German army, thousands of Belarusians carried out the wishes of their new overlords, rounding up Jews to face firing squads and turning over whatever food they could find to military authorities. In a matter of months, hundreds were dying every day from starvation. Like Napoleon’s soldiers 130 years before, Hitler’s troops were unable to handle the harsh Russian winter and force the Soviet government to surrender. Early in 1943, Nazi brass decided to shorten supply lines and retreat through Belarus and Ukraine. Determined to leave little in the way of resources for the Red Army chasing after them, the Germans burned everything in sight. On the morning of March 22, 1943, a line of German trucks lumbered along carrying members of the Schutzmannschaft Battalion 118. The group, composed of a variety of Eastern European conscripts into the Nazi war machine, came under attack from Soviet rebels a few miles outside a small village called Khatyn. The ambush killed four and angered commanding officer Erich Koerner. Punishment for the assault would be severe. Solidified by elements of the Dirlewanger Brigade, Koerner led his unit toward Khatyn in mid-afternoon, quickly surrounding the tiny settlement. With ruthless efficiency, the Nazi soldiers rounded up the population — some 150 people, half of them children — and locked them in a barn. Moments later, the building was lit on fire. Koerner’s men watched diligently as the flames swallowed up the terrified residents, opening fire with machine guns on those who attempted to escape. Believing all the residents dead, the Nazis looted the remaining buildings before burning the village to the ground. In a matter of hours, Khatyn had been wiped from the map. Miraculously, three people survived: two boys and Yuzif Kaminsky, a 56-year-old man who managed to find his dying son and cradle him in his arms as the young boy succumbed to the burns covering his body. Two decades later, the image of Kaminsky carrying his son would be turned into the statue at the center of a memorial for all the victims of the Nazi retreat — almost 5,300 settlements in all. In 1969, Soviet leaders under Leonid Brezhnev declared the Khatyn Memorial a national monument to the civilians killed by the Nazis and their collaborators during World War II. An estimated 2 million people died, a quarter of the nation’s population. Though some suspect the event was used as propaganda by the Soviet Union to hide the killing of 20,000 Polish officers in 1940, the bells ringing where Khatyn once stood are a stark reminder of the price paid by Belarusians during the Second World War. Also On This Day: 1739 – Nadir Shah occupies Dehli, India and confiscates the jewels of the Peacock Throne 1916 – Yuan Shikai, the last Emperor of China, abdicates 1995 – Cosmonaut Valeriy Polyakov returns to Earth after a 438-day stay in space 2006 – ETA, a Basque separatist organization, declares a permanent ceasefire in its battle against the government of Spain You may also like : March 22, 1945 – Arab League established