A collection of documents and materials on Nazi punitive operations in the Belarusian-Russian border area has been published

The collection «Nazi punitive operations in the Belarusian-Russian border area: August 1942 – January 1943» has been added to a series of scientific publications of the National Archives of the Republic of Belarus on the crimes of the Nazis and their accomplices against the civilian population.

The publication presents documents on the preparation, progress and results of the punitive operations «Griffin», «Monkey Cage», «Ankara», «Winter Forest», as well as lists of settlements partially or completely destroyed during the events described.

The materials of the opposing sides are collected under one cover. Among the published German documents: documents of military units and police formations (combat journals, reports, reports, orders, instructions, etc.).

No less informative are the sources of the Soviet side: combat, political and intelligence reports, radiograms and coded telegrams, reports, reports of underground regional and district committees of the Communist Party (bolsheviks) of Belarus, reports on the work done by employees of the Central Headquarters of the People’s Commissariat of the Red Army and the Belarusian Headquarters of the Red Army, commanders of brigades and detachments. Included are interrogation protocols and handwritten testimonies of German prisoners of war, participants in punitive operations, testimonies of residents of burned villages and partisans.

The collection includes 319 documents from the collections of the National Archives of the Republic of Belarus, the Russian State Military Archive, the State Archives of the Russian Federation, the State Archives of the Contemporary History of the Smolensk Region, the Russian State Archives of Socio-Political History, the Central Archives of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, the US National Archives, the Federal Archives of Germany, the Yad Vashem Archive (Israel), many of which are published for the first time.

1. Cover of the collection «Nazi punitive operations in the Belarusian-Russian borderland: August 1942 – January 1943».

2. Title page of the collection «Nazi punitive operations in the Belarusian-Russian borderland: August 1942 – January 1943».