Conducting an information hour for 5th grade students, as part of the republican action «Archives to School», at the institution «Zonal State Archive in Orsha»
On March 22, 2024, as part of the republican action «Archives to School» and events dedicated to the Year of Quality, with 5th grade students of the state educational institution «Secondary School No.11 of Orsha», leading archivist of the department of document use Yu.I.Gryadovka an information hour was held on the topic: «Khatyn. Tragedy and Memory», as a tribute to the memory of the residents of the village of Khatyn, burned to the ground 81 years ago by the German occupiers, and in memory of hundreds of Belarusian villages destroyed during the Great Patriotic War.
Khatyn has become a symbol of Eternal Memory and Sorrow, the tragedy of the Belarusian people during the Great Patriotic War. Killings of people occurred throughout the republic – from executions to the complete destruction of populated areas. The Nazi invaders believed that mass executions, the destruction of cities and villages along with people, were supposed to sow fear among the population of the occupied territories.
The tragedy of Khatyn and the thousands of villages in our country that shared its fate is living evidence of the deliberate policy of genocide of Hitler Germany towards the population of Belarus. According to recent studies, over 9 thousand villages in Belarus were burned by the Nazi invaders and many of them were never reborn from the ashes.
Khatyn is not only a monument to burned villages. This is a monument to all peaceful people of Belarus who became victims of aggression, war, and Nazism.
During this event, the children got acquainted with archival documents and photographs reflecting the policy of the Nazi invaders towards civilians, learned about the events that took place in the village of Khatyn and the fate of its inhabitants, as well as about the memorial complex created at the site of the tragedy.
In addition, the students were given a sightseeing tour of the archive. The children got acquainted with the history of its creation, the main activities of the archive, the composition of the stored funds, the specifics of working with archival documents and their storage. We got acquainted with the poster exhibitions that are on display in the archives and visited the archives.
