About 300 bodies were carried out every day. How the Germans tortured prisoners of war in the concentration camp near Glubokoye
In the Berezwetscha concentration camp near Hlybokaye, fascists tortured and shot 27,000 Soviet prisoners of war. This place in the Hlybokaye district is first mentioned in chronicles in 1596, when Russian troops passed through it on their way to Vilnius and Minsk. However, according to some sources, here in Berezwetscha, as early as the beginning of the 16th century, the Holy Anufriy Hermitage operated, founded by Saint Anufriy, a man who settled in this quiet place among lakes and birch groves. It is said that this is where the name came from.
In 1634, Iosif Korsak, the owner of the Berezwetscha estate, donated it to the Basilian monks, who after his death founded a Uniate male monastery here.
From 1756 to 1763, a stone church was built on its territory to replace the wooden structures. Contemporaries compared it in size and architecture to the St. Sophia Cathedral in Polotsk. The church was 39.5 meters long, 27.5 meters wide, and the height of the towers reached from 41 to 43 meters. One of the towers housed a clock that was wound for two weeks.
The male monastery became famous for its school, where the children of peasants from the surrounding villages studied. Gradually, the school "grew" into a college, whose graduates even entered Vilnius University.
In 1812, during the campaign to Moscow, Napoleon stayed at the Berezwetscha monastery for as long as 10 days, awaiting the arrival of heavy artillery.
In the 19th century, the monastery transferred to the bosom of the Orthodox Church. It was reclassified as a second-class monastery, the tsarist government cut off much of the income-generating land, the monastery became impoverished and was eventually closed altogether. And only thanks to the deputy of the State Duma of Russia, priest Alexander Veroksin, considerable funds were allocated for its restoration.
In July 1901, 9 novice sisters arrived in Berezwetscha along with nun Sergiya. Over time, their number increased to sixty. An icon-painting workshop and a teacher's college for girls were opened at the monastery, where the role of senior teacher was performed by the abbess Sergiya's own niece, Raisa Kalinnikova. The nuns took an active part in the restoration of the church and other buildings.
The First World War, and then the revolution, played a tragic role in the fate of the monastery. According to the Treaty of Riga of 1921, Hlybokaye became part of Poland, and the monastery ceased to exist, with a military unit of Polish soldiers stationed on its territory.
But the darkest period for the monastery was during the Great Patriotic War. A camp for Soviet prisoners of war was located here, which received a terrible name - a death shelter. It was established by the German invaders in September 1941.
It was a plot of land of about three hectares, enclosed by three rows of barbed wire. There were no buildings other than the monastery's. The camp administration and guards were housed in the buildings. And the Red Army prisoners suffered from cold and hunger in the open field, under the blinding light of searchlights and the sights of machine guns and submachine guns on the watchtowers.
To save ammunition or test the penetrating power of their weapons, the fascists would line up the unfortunates one by one and shoot the first one. The bullet would thus pierce several people at once.
The victims were loaded onto carts with still-living prisoners and taken to be buried in the nearest forest - Barok. The horse often went without a driver - it knew the way...
In the first three months of the Berezwetsch concentration camp's existence alone, from September to November, 10,000 Red Army prisoners died there. New prisoners arrived to replace those who perished.
According to the act of the Hlybokaye District Commission of March 25, 1945, investigating the crimes of the Hitlerite invaders, 27,000 Soviet prisoners of war were tortured and shot in the Berezwetsch camp in the district in 1941-1944.
In the Barok tract, "56 graves were found, and nearby 12 pits prepared for dumping corpses, each measuring 5x12 meters and 2.5 meters deep, which contained the bodies of prisoners of war... laid in rows, feet to feet, heads in different directions. There were 9 such rows." Up to 400 people were buried in each pit.
In the 1990s, the Hlybokaye District Committee of the LKSM(b) began searching for former prisoners of Berezwetsch who had managed to survive. More than a dozen people responded. Among them was Alexander Petukhov, who visited Berezwetsch in 1986.
From the memoirs of Alexander Petukhov:
- From the first days of the war, I commanded a machine-gun squad in a rifle regiment. Near Chernihiv, I was shell-shocked and taken prisoner. First, we, exhausted and wounded, were brought to Babruysk, and then transported by train to Berezwetsch, a POW camp near Hlybokaye.
What was it like? It was an open area enclosed by three rows of barbed wire, stretching from the monastery walls to the lake. At the corners of the enclosure were watchtowers with machine guns, their barrels aimed at the camp. It was the end of September. Some of us were half-naked, and we were kept under the open sky all the time. To warm up even a little, we had to dig small pits with our hands where we could hide from the wind. That's how we slept in the ground.
Colds, exhaustion, constant beatings - all this took away the last strength from people, and they died. Every day, 200-300 bodies were carried out of the camp. They were taken to the forest on carts and thrown into pits. They were buried only when the pits were filled to the brim with corpses.
People looked like living corpses. It was even frightening to look at another person. Instead of eyes, black holes shone, bones protruded instead of cheeks; however, even in such a state, people did not lose hope for life. There were brave ones who escaped. But after these isolated escapes, the Nazis became even more ferocious: for each escapee, they shot 10 people. And the one who was caught after escaping was also shot or beaten so brutally that the poor fellow died two or three days later.
Mikhail Naumov, who had previously served in the Pinsk Flotilla, was in the camp with us. He was a brave guy with tremendous health. He had already escaped from captivity once. They caught him, beat him, and returned him to the camp. Thanks to his strong health, Naumov quickly recovered and dared to escape again. Only this time, not alone. We liked Naumov's proposal, and we began to prepare. A committee was formed for this purpose. Mikhail Naumov was elected its chairman, and its members were Ivan Trifanov, a native of Gorky, myself, and several other people whose last names I don't remember.
The committee's task included extensive explanatory work among all prisoners of war and the collection of weapons (stones) for an attack on the guards. Such "weapons" were found on the camp territory, and we carefully collected stones, brought them together, and buried them in the ground. Duties were distributed among the committee members.
We were just waiting for the moment. And it came on the night of October 14-15, 1941, when thick clouds covered the sky. Exactly at 11 p.m., the bugle for lights out sounded. At that very moment, as if on command, the camp came alive. All the prisoners rushed to the main exit. Boards creaked, heavy stones rained down on the heads of the fascists. Machine guns and submachine guns crackled from all sides, and an innumerable number of flares shot up into the sky. But it was too late. The huge crowd of prisoners who had rushed out of the camp gates scattered in all directions.
I ran with Mikhail Navumov and another guy, Nikolai. Automatic gunfire sounded from behind, dogs barked. Apparently, the Germans caught up with and shot everyone who was weak and couldn't run far from the camp. Everything flickered before my eyes. My heart beat faster at the thought that we were free, that we had escaped the clutches of death.
About seven to ten kilometers from Glubokoye, we came across a farmstead, but we were afraid to stop and went around it. Only later, when our strength began to fail us, did we dare to enter the next farmstead. After a little refreshment, we moved on again. It was getting light. Our legs were giving out. We wanted to sleep. And when we saw another farmstead, I begged to stay. I was placed in the bathhouse, and the guys went on.
I stayed at this farmstead until evening, and then I was moved to another, which was about fifteen to eighteen kilometers from Glubokoye. The owner's name was Mikhail. His wife gave me fresh linen and took care of me like a small child. I lived with Mikhail for a whole week. I slept in the cowshed. I hardly showed myself outside. When I had rested well and regained my strength, Mikhail gave me half a sack, and I headed towards Polotsk.
Thus, I reached Velikiye Luki, met Soviet soldiers who were surrounded. A partisan detachment, service in the ranks of the Red Army. I was wounded in battles and after treatment went home to the Stalingrad region.
Since then, October 14th I consider my second birthday!
From the memoirs of Vera Stepanovna Perepechko, a resident of the village of Mikhailovka, Glubokoye district:
In the morning, it became known that the prisoners had broken the fence and escaped. Not everyone was lucky enough to reach the Galubitskaya forest. Many were mowed down by machine guns from the watchtowers, many drowned in Lake Podlaznoye, which was located near the camp. Even today, fishermen pull human skulls out of this lake.
One prisoner, already elderly, ran into a neighbor's yard. They had managed to change his clothes, and then a German entered. And what a resourceful woman: she thrust a halter into the prisoner's hands, as if he were leading a horse. The German moved on to the next house.
But the young soldier was not lucky. As he was escaping, he became exhausted and lay down under a bush in Lisichyny Gorki. That's what our area is called. He was found and brought to our house. One guard stayed with him, while the other went to find another escapee. We changed the soldier's clothes to dry ones: we changed his underwear and his shirt. We didn't give him fresh bread because we couldn't, but we fed him and stuffed his pockets. He cried, showed a photograph of a very beautiful girl, and begged the guard, who was Czech, to let him go. The latter replied: "If I were alone, I would let you go. But I have a German with me. He saw and will report!" And so they led the poor fellow away...
Later, in Berezvechye, the Germans kept Italian prisoners of war. In winter, they cleared the streets of snow, and in summer, they harrowed the roads. They harnessed two or three horses, tied several reins together, and headed for the villages of Udela and Obrub. This is how they searched for mines. Sometimes both horses and people were blown up.
As the front approached, the Italian prisoners of war often said that the Germans would shoot them. And so it happened – they lie in a separate mass grave in Bark.
This grave is right at the entrance. In the eighties of the last century, the Italian Ambassador to the Soviet Union, Giovanni Miluoluo, visited here and laid a wreath on the grave of his compatriots. He sincerely thanked them for honoring the memory of his countrymen in this way.
After the war, in the 1950s, another unpleasant event occurred: the ancient temple, one of the most beautiful in Europe, was destroyed in Berezvechye.
It would seem that after this barbaric act, a full stop could be put to the history of the monastery in Berezvechye. But no. About ten years ago, women dressed in dark clothes appeared on the streets of Glubokoye. These were nuns from... the Berezvechye monastery.
A new women's monastery has been built in the Berezwetschje microdistrict, one kilometer from the old one, on a high hill. Mother Superior Anfisa said that the Berezwetschje Women's Monastery was revived by a decision of the Synod of the Belarusian Orthodox Church in 2004. At that time, eight sisters arrived from the Polotsk Women's Monastery. They settled in cells of a two-story building, near which a cozy home church was erected.
The nuns have very little free time: morning and evening are for prayers, and the rest of the hours are for work. The monastery has its own workshop where church vestments are sewn. There are gardens for the subsidiary farm, and bees. The nuns also teach in the Sunday school at the monastery.
Today, there are already eleven nuns in the monastery. They have taken on an almost impossible task: to erect a temple in honor of the Archangel Michael next to the monastery. It will replace the one that was destroyed within the old monastery walls of Berezwetschje. The foundation laying for the church has begun. When asked when the construction will be completed, the answer was: "It all depends on the funds."
However, as is known, churches are built by the entire community. Organizations, enterprises, and residents of the Hlybokaye district are transferring money for the construction of the temple.
Vladimir Saulich. Photos by the author, SB Belarus Segodnya