The Zonal State Archives in Rechitsa presents a document on the genocide of the Nazi invaders against the residents of the village of Semenovka in the Rechitsa District

On June 22, 1941, the Great Patriotic War began with the attack of Nazi Germany on the USSR without declaring war. Currently, this date is celebrated in our country as the Day of National Remembrance of the Victims of the Great Patriotic War and the Genocide of the Belarusian People.

The archival collection of the Extraordinary State Commission of the USSR for the Investigation of the Crimes of Fascism contains a protocol of the interrogation of a witness – a resident of the village of Semenovka in the Rechitsa District, Alexander Grigorievich Beda, dated April 6, 1945 (F. 864. Op. 1. D. 3. L. 246). He testified the following about the genocide committed by the Nazis:

«On June 9, 1943, two mounted Germans arrived in our village, one spoke good Russian. None of the residents knew the purpose of their arrival. Soon they left the village, and about an hour and a half later a German SS punitive detachment arrived in the village in 100 vehicles. I don’t know the rank of the detachment commander. The residents, having learned that the Germans would evacuate to hard labor in Germany, began to flee into the forest. Only the elderly and sick remained in the village. The punitive forces offered the remaining population to evacuate, but the residents did not agree, and they began to shoot them. Three mothers were shot: Topolskaya Makrina Ivanovna, Topolskaya Anna Semyonovna, Kenukh Efrosinya Maksimovna. Nikolaenko Darya Ivanovna was shot along with her mother, the sick Nikolaenko Natalya Titovna. Shevchenko Akulina Markovna was shot during the escape into the forest. Klemez Maria Kuzminichna was shot and thrown into a well. Dubovets Praskovya Moiseyevna with two young children, Maria and Anna, was shot in the garden near her house. After the brutal reprisal against the population, the Germans announced that they would not shoot any more, but the population did not come out of the forest, so the Germans set fire to the village and left».

1. ZGAREch. F. 864. Op. 1. D. 3. L. 246