The memorial sign will commemorate the residents of three villages in the Dokshitsky district who were burned during the Great Patriotic War.

June 19, Vitebsk / Olga Bogacheva - BELTA /. A memorial sign will perpetuate the memory of residents of three villages in the Dokshitsky district burned down during the Great Patriotic War, the press group of the KGB Directorate for the Vitebsk region informed a BELTA correspondent. On June 20, 1944, a fascist punitive detachment burned alive 56 residents of the villages of Tolshchi, Veretei, and Chupry, located close to each other. Among the dead were 29 children. However, this atrocity did not go unpunished. In 1986, employees of the KGB Directorate for the Vitebsk region found two German accomplices who had participated in the massacre. During the war, they served in the 5th company of the 13th SD battalion, specially formed by the Nazis to combat partisans and destroy the local population. The judicial board for criminal cases of the Supreme Court of the BSSR sentenced the traitors to the highest measure of punishment. The tragic event became known from the materials of the criminal case. On the eve of the celebration of the 65th anniversary of the liberation of Belarus from the Nazi invaders, the KGB Directorate proposed to perpetuate the memory of the residents of the burned villages. The opening of the memorial sign will take place on June 20, the day of the tragedy. Representatives of the KGB Directorate, local authorities, veterans and participants of the Great Patriotic War, youth, and the public will take part in the opening ceremony of the memorial. -0-