The remains of 65 civilians shot in 1942 have been buried in the Beshenkovichi district
The remains of the victims of genocide – civilians – were discovered last summer by an investigative team of the Prosecutor General's Office. Excavations were carried out at the burial site in a forest area near the villages of Sloboda and Bortniki, Beshenkovichi District. The examination results showed that the discovered remains belong to at least 65 people, including 4 women. All bodies were found in a mass grave, in several layers. The fact that people were killed at different times is indicated by the soil sprinkled over each layer of remains. During the occupation in the Great Patriotic War, the invaders dealt with civilians in the forests, where they were buried in pits.
This location in Beshenkovichi District was identified during the investigation of a criminal case on genocide. Specialists analyzed data from local residents and archival information, some of which came from the State Archive of Russia. A document from 1945 mentioned the execution of 365 civilians in 1942 in the Lisie Nory tract and their burial near the village of Sloboda.
Along with the remains of executed people, fragments of shoes, combs, buttons, cartridges, and shell casings were found. Some of them are marked on the bottom with stamps from 1938 and the SS emblem in the form of two characteristic lightning bolts. According to the prosecutor's office, over 10,000 civilians were killed in the Beshenkovichi district during the years of Nazi occupation, and about 2,000 were taken into slavery. The invaders completely or partially burned down more than 100 settlements in the district, and some of the villages were never rebuilt after the war.
"During the investigation of the criminal case on the fact of genocide of the Belarusian people, new facts of crimes committed by fascists, their henchmen, policemen, and other collaborators against the population of our country are being revealed. New facts, new victims are being brought out of oblivion," noted Deputy Prosecutor General Sergey Khmaruk. - More reliable information about the destruction of residents in this place has been found in the archives of the Russian Federation. And it turned out that in addition to the testimony of people who spoke about this case during interrogations, documentary evidence was obtained. Our people, who died at the hands of the fascists, were civilians, fulfilling their everyday mission, and died like soldiers."
The Deputy Prosecutor General emphasized that the work to establish the facts of the genocide of the Belarusian people was initiated by the Prosecutor General's Office and is ongoing in cooperation with the law enforcement agencies of the Russian Federation. "Winter conditions do not allow for excavations; they have been suspended but will resume in the spring of next year. The winter period will be used to analyze the information obtained and accumulate new materials. More than 10,000 settlements where our people were exterminated have already been identified. There is an interactive map where settlements where people living in Belarus were exterminated are marked and continue to be marked," he added.
The mourning ceremony was attended by the President's Aide - Inspector for the Vitebsk Region Anatoly Linevich, Chairman of the Vitebsk Regional Council of Deputies Vladimir Terentyev, the leadership of the Beshenkovichi District, representatives of the prosecutor's office, public associations, work collectives, and schoolchildren.
"BELTA"