The Vitebsk Regional Prosecutor's Office reported on the progress of the criminal case investigation into the genocide of the Belarusian people

- As part of the criminal investigation, over 16,000 people have been interviewed across the republic since April 2021, including more than 2,500 in the Vitebsk region, said Vladislav Naryzhny, Deputy Head of the Department of the Vitebsk Regional Prosecutor's Office. - More than half of them are prisoners of death camps, their relatives, and other witnesses and eyewitnesses of the atrocities committed by the German-fascist invaders and collaborators. Most of the interrogations have been video-recorded. Over 5,000 inspections of archival documents, sites of mass extermination and burial of civilians, and rural settlements have been carried out.

According to the interlocutor, at least 105 places of forced detention for civilians and prisoners of war were established in the Vitebsk region during the war. In fact, these were death camps where a significant number of the population was exterminated by creating unbearable conditions.

- Information about at least 67 previously unknown mass burial sites of civilians has been established, the representative of the supervisory authority continues. – Field search operations are planned at each of them to find the remains of killed civilians, underground fighters, and partisans. This year, field search operations will be carried out in the Senno, Postavy, and Polotsk districts of the Vitebsk region.

At least 52 large-scale punitive operations were carried out in the region by the German-fascist invaders and their accomplices. At the same time, at least 5,179 rural settlements were destroyed, often burned down along with their civilian inhabitants. And the list of "Khatyn Sisters" in the Vitebsk region (these are settlements that were completely destroyed during the war, with at least 50% of the civilian population killed, and these settlements were not revived after the war) has increased by 60, and now stands at 170 settlements.

As Vladislav Naryzhny emphasized, one of the objectives of the criminal case investigation is to preserve historical justice, truth, and the memory of the feat of our ancestors, our people. This is done for the purpose of patriotic education of children and youth of Belarus.
- It is necessary to convey to the younger generation the truth about those tragic events based on the facts established during the investigation, - noted the representative of the supervisory authority. - In addition, it is important to prevent the revival of Nazism and to perpetuate the memory of the victims of genocide.
The investigation of the criminal case is ongoing.

"VITEBSKY VESTI"