Khatyn… You won’t find this Belarusian village on even the most detailed geographical map of our country. 81 years ago, on March 22, 1943, the fascist monsters destroyed it along with its civilians. 149 people, including 75 children, were burned alive or shot. Miraculously, six survived: one adult and five children. They told the world about the atrocities they witnessed on that terrible spring day.
The Khatyn Memorial Complex is the embodiment of 9,200 villages and settlements of our Motherland, burned to the ground during the years of war, 628 of them with local residents: women, old people and children. 186 settlements, like Khatyn, were never revived.
The tragedy of Khatyn is not a random episode of the war, but one of thousands of facts testifying to the deliberate policy of genocide of the population of Belarus, which was carried out by Nazi Germany and its allies throughout the entire period of occupation.
“…God forbid that anyone who lives on earth should not see or hear such grief…” – the words of Iosif Kaminsky, the only adult who survived the Khatyn fire, are forever imprinted in our genetic memory. The people of Belarus, like no other, understand the pricelessness of a peaceful sky over their native land and the great price that the generation of victors paid for it.
