The prosecutor's office revealed details of punitive operations by the Nazis in the territory of the Orsha district during the Great Patriotic War.
– During the operation, German-fascist invaders intended to clear a large forest-swamp area near the automobile and railway roads in the Vitebsk – Orsha – Smolensk triangle of partisans, – says Vitaly Ivchik, senior assistant prosecutor of the Orsha district. – The 13th and 14th police regiments, the 61st security regiment, the 638th French regiment, the 257th infantry regiment, artillery and gendarmerie units, a special battalion, and a group of police and the SD participated in the operation. During its course, the punitive forces destroyed about 900 women and children, deported 910 people to Germany for slave labor, and burned down several villages, including Bortniki and Morozovka. In addition, the Nazis confiscated more than 1700 head of cattle from the local population.
The punitive operation "Karlsbad" was carried out by German-fascist occupiers and their accomplices in the Orsha, Tolochin, Kruglyansky, and Shklovsky districts in October 1942.
– During its course, the Hitlerites dealt with the inhabitants of the villages of Bor, Volkovshchina, Zadny, Kozly, Podar with particular cruelty, – reported Vitaly Ivchik. – The Nazis burned down the villages of Goenka and Polezhaevka. They shot 1051 people, mostly women, the elderly, and children.
The circumstances of those terrible events became known during the investigation of a criminal case regarding the genocide of the population of the modern territory of our country by Nazi criminals and their accomplices during the Great Patriotic War.