The National Archives of Belarus participates in the international project “Enhancing the Status of the Survivors of the Burnt Villages of Belarus”

With the approach of the 70th anniversary of the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War, the National Archives of the Republic of Belarus participates in a new international project entitled Enhancing the Status of the Survivors of the Burnt Villages of Belarus. This two-year project is part of the Meeting Place Dialogue Programme financed by the Remembrance, Responsibility and Future German Foundation, which made payments to the victims of Nazi persecution and continues to finance projects for assisting people who suffered from Nazi crimes.

The main purpose of the project is humanitarian. The project intends to attract the public’s attention to the fate of the survivors of the burnt Belarusian villages and to assist them in solving social problems.

The project’s second part is scholarly. There are plans to organise documentary exhibitions, round tables, meetings between generations, etc. A book of documents “The Tragedy of Belarusian Villages. 1941—1944” has been prepared and given to the publishers. An electronic database of burnt Belarusian villages is being compiled, to provide data on the number of burnt households and population, the dates when the villages were burnt, and the data sources. In addition, the database contains archive documents, photographs and the survivor’s recollections of the tragedy.

On 28 March 2011, the National Archives of Belarus had a meeting with the surviving resident of the burnt village of Skirmuntovo in Derzhinsk district, Zinaida Petrovna Levanets, and the survivor of the burnt village of Gondarevo in Slutsk district, Stefanida Victorovna Dovnar. Their accounts about the burning of villages by Nazis were recorded and will be used in the electronic database. The archive’s staff acquainted the guests with the documents relating to the tragedy of those villages.