The National Archives of the Republic of Belarus held the presentation of documentary books “Burned Villages in Belarus. 1941-1944” and “Burned Villages in Russia. 1941-1944”
The National Archives of the Republic of Belarus held the presentation of documentary books “Burned Villages in Belarus. 1941-1944” and “Burned Villages in Russia. 1941-1944”.
The book of documents and materials “Burned Villages in Belarus. 1941-1944” has been prepared as part of the international project “Social support for survivors of burned Belarusian villages 1941-1944”. The project is implemented by the National Archives of the Republic of Belarus with the support of the German Foundation “Memory, Responsibility and Future”. The book contains 212 documents. These include memoranda, certificates, data and special reports of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Belarus, the People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs of the BSSR (NKVD), the Belarusian Headquarters of Partisan Movement, local party and state institutions, and partisan formations about the Nazi crimes in Belarus; orders, diary notes, messages and reports of military units and various organizations of German Wehrmacht, SS, police and Occupation administration about the punitive operations against Partisans and civilians, and examination reports of the sites of extermination of villages and inhabitants.
The book “Burned Villages in Russia. 1941-1944” is prepared on basis of documents taken from criminal files of foreign prisoners of war convicted after the war in Belarus for military crimes. The book contains 439 documents from Fonds No. 1363 at the National Archives of the Republic of Belarus. The book consists of two chapters. Chapter “Documents, victims and witnesses testify” includes reports of regional and local commissions of the Extraordinary State Commission for Investigation of Nazi Crimes and Damage to Citizens, Collective Farms, Public and State Institutions in the USSR, reports and data of local authorities, interrogation reports etc. Chapter “Confessions of Military Criminals” includes reports of interrogation of foreign prisoners of war and former soldiers of German military units.
The books are prepared by the initiative of the Russian-Belarusian Association of Historians “The Union’s Initiative for Memory and Consent” created in 2016 by the Foundation for Assistance to Actual Historical Research “Historical Memory” (Moscow) and the History Institute of the Belarusian National Academy of Sciences.