The Rechitsa Zonal State Archives presents a document on the genocide perpetrated by Nazi invaders against residents of the Khoiniki region

The archive collection of digital copies of original documents of the USSR Extraordinary State Commission for the Investigation of Fascist Crimes contains the interview report of Anna Adamovna Chekan, a resident of the village of Novosyolki in the Khoiniki District, who witnessed the massacres of civilians by the German occupiers and their accomplices (F.864, Op.1, D.11, L.84-84ob). Here is what she recalled about the Nazi atrocities:

«On June 10, 1943, at four o’clock in the morning, a detachment of German soldiers drove by car into the village of Zelenyi Gai in the Novosyolki Village Council, where I lived with my family. [The Germans] surrounded the village and set it on fire. The German soldiers began to herd people from all over the village into one courtyard for a meeting. But there was no meeting there, and the soldiers began grabbing people and throwing them alive into the fire. For example, Miron Romanenko’s family was piled into a small barn in the yard, doused with kerosene, and set on fire. Their two-year-old boy winced in pain and screamed terribly. A seven-year-old boy, Leonid Shleg, wanted to escape. A German soldier grabbed him and threw him into the fire of a burning house. I managed to escape and hide in the green grass of my garden, and my husband left early for the village of Novosyolki on business, [thanks to which] he also survived. But few of the 33 families survived—only three families. The next day, when the Germans left, we found many people in wells, in the fires—pieces of charred arms and legs. <...> All the burned and shot civilians in our village of Zeleny Gai were counted at 93 people».

1-2. ZGAREch. F. 864. Op. 1. D. 11. L. 84-84ob