"History has never known such mass barbarism and inhumanity as committed on our land by the Nazi occupiers and their accomplices..." - Assistant Prosecutor of Beshenkovichi District Sergey Kiryanov took part in commemorative events for the tragic death of residents

Sergey Kiryanov, Assistant Prosecutor of Beshenkovichi District, participated in commemorative events for the tragic death of Khatyn residents at the State Institution "Beshenkovichi District Historical and Local Lore Museum," where he addressed those present and spoke about the progress of the criminal investigation into genocide.

The Khatyn tragedy is not an isolated incident of the war, but one of thousands of facts testifying to the deliberate policy of genocide by Nazi Germany against the population of Belarus. Over 9,000 villages and towns in Belarus shared the terrible fate of destruction along with Khatyn. Some of them, burned with their inhabitants, like Khatyn, never revived after the war.

The terrible tragedy of Khatyn village was also shared by Korenyovo village in the Beshenkovichi district. The destruction of civilians in the villages of Sloboda, Bortniki, Ulla, Ostrovno, and the urban settlement of Beshenkovichi itself, where about 6,000 people became victims, was also accompanied by particular atrocities.

Between August and September of last year, a significant number of bone remains of civilians were exhumed in the forest near Sloboda village, with the participation of the search unit of the 52nd separate specialized search battalion of the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Belarus.

In total, according to information from archival sources, during the occupation of the district by Nazi invaders, more than 10,000 civilians were killed on its territory, and more than 2,000 residents of the district were forcibly deported for forced labor.

The events of August 2020 forced us to turn to the history of our state. They showed that we had begun to forget the lessons of history, to neglect the benefits achieved by the lives and blood of our relatives and friends – peace, freedom, the right to self-determination. It was these anti-social and anti-patriotic events that became a factor contributing to the decision in April 2021 to initiate a criminal case regarding the genocide of the Belarusian people during the Great Patriotic War -one of the most heinous crimes known to mankind.

The event was attended by Galina Unukovich, Chairperson of the Beshenkovichi District Executive Committee, Gennady Shvedov, Chairperson of the Beshenkovichi District Council of Deputies, the museum staff, representatives of organizations and institutions of the district, and schoolchildren.

At the end of the event, the participants laid lamps at the exhibition on the genocide of the Belarusian people and thanked the prosecutor's office employee for an interesting and informative presentation.

Assistant Prosecutor

of Beshenkovichi

District

Class 1 Lawyer S.A. Kiryanov