On the conduct by employees of the institution «Zonal State Archives in Orsha», within the framework of the republican action «Archives for School», a thematic information hour dedicated to the Khatyn tragedy
March 25, 2024, as part of the «Archives to School» campaign and events dedicated to the Year of Quality, with 1st year students of the educational institution «Orsha College of Voronezh State University named after P.M. Masherov» in the assembly hall of the college, the leading archivist of the department for the use of documents of the institution «Zonal State Archive in Orsha» Yu.I. Gryadovka, a thematic information hour «Khatyn. Tragedy and Memory» dedicated to the 81st anniversary of the Khatyn tragedy.
During the event, students got acquainted with documentary materials, archival documents and photographs reflecting the policy of the Nazi invaders towards civilians, with protocols of interrogation of witnesses to the tragedy, acts of execution by the Nazis of civilians and prisoners of war, a list of settlements that were destroyed along with their inhabitants and not revived, we 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, students were shown films about the village of Khatyn, as well as about the village of Ola, in which at dawn on January 14, 1944, 1,758 people were killed, including 950 children. Almost nothing was written about this settlement in books, no documentaries were made about it, and eyewitnesses of these distant events are no longer alive…
Khatyn is a symbol of the terrible tragedy that the Belarusian people experienced during the Great Patriotic War. And no matter how many years have passed for the Belarusian people, the memory of the Khatyn tragedy will always be sacred. And it is important for us to remember that it is on us, living today, that depends on what the idea of war in the future will be – how much life and truth there will be in it. We have no right to betray, forget, allow to distort or belittle the sacrificial feat of the people who gave the world the Great Victory.
