Residents of Verkhnedvinsk district created a book of memories about burned villages

Residents of the Verkhnedvinsk district have recorded the memories of people from villages burned down during the Great Patriotic War and published a district collection, reported the chairperson of the district organization of the Belarusian Peace Foundation, Elena Tatarchuk.

The presentation of the book "In the Footsteps of Fiery Villages", published with funds from a public organization and ordinary residents, and workers of district enterprises, will take place today at the Verkhnedvinsk Center for Culture and Folk Art. "This is the result of a local initiative, which was prompted by our participation in another, already international project 'Enhancing the Status of Survivors from Burned Belarusian Villages, 1941-1944'. After all, our district suffered greatly from the atrocities of the fascists," explained Elena Tatarchuk. The Rossonsky district has created its own "repository" of eyewitness testimonies – in the form of a multimedia project "Tears from the Ashes".

A tremendous amount of work has been done in the Verkhnedvinsk district since 2012: lists of residents of burned villages have been compiled and corrected. The Department of Education, the Center for Extracurricular Work with Children and Adolescents initiated the collection of memories from old-timers. Children worked on this during their holidays, and high-quality recordings, after editing, were included in the collection. The best essays written by students based on the stories of their elders were also included. The result was over 150 narratives and essays. "We must mention the colossal contribution of our local historian, a research fellow at the Verkhnedvinsk Historical and Local Lore Museum, Anton Bubolo. He supervised all the work, personally collected memories, edited them, and translated them into Belarusian," added Elena Tatarchuk.

In addition, the collection includes a letter that arrived in Verkhnedvinsk from the German public association "Kontakte", a participant in the project "Enhancing the Status of Residents of Burned Villages" from the German side. This letter is a kind of moral compensation, an apology.

The print run of the book is small, but it is distributed to all school and rural libraries and, of course, is available in the central district library. Living history will not be lost or forgotten. Descendants will know why hordes of punitive expeditions descended upon the partisan region on the border of Belarus, Russia, and Latvia. The most terrible one was "Winter Magic" in 1943, which involved regular army units, police battalions, tanks, and aircraft. The former Osvyeya district was destroyed, and Drissa district suffered greatly. In the Rositsa Church, the fascists set up a sorting point, and 1,500 residents were burned alive along with the priests. In the region, the fascists burned 426 villages, 305 of which were completely or partially with people.

Ekaterina Knyazeva, BELTA.