The «Zonal State Archive in Krichev» institution held an event as part of the national «Archives to Schools» campaign and the «Young Archivist» pilot project

On November 13, 2026, within the framework of the national «Archives to Schools» campaign and the «Young Archivist» pilot project, a thematic meeting titled «To Live and Remember: The Tragedy of the Burned-Down Village of Antonovka» was held at the Krichev Children’s Library No.2 for 8th-grade students from Secondary School No.8 in Krichev.

Antonovka consisted of about 40 households; 10 were inhabited by a Belarusian population, while the others were home to Jewish families. In the early 1930s, a collective farm (kolkhoz) named «New Life» («Novaya Zhizn») was established, uniting 32 households.

November 14, 1941, began as an ordinary day in the village, and none of its residents suspected that for many of them, it would be their last. On that day, the Nazis seized 18 Jewish villagers. The Hitlerites spared no one—neither a 90-year-old man, nor women with infants, nor children. The victims were driven to a pit and shot at point-blank range. Later, the brutalized Nazis executed other residents of the village as well.

In 2004, to honor the memory of the residents of Antonovka, students from the Molyatichi School—under the guidance of their principal—erected a monument in the form of a tree with severed branches, symbolizing the «tree of life» and the extinguishing of its future. Antonovka is included on the list of villages that were burned down and never rebuilt in the post-war period.

The young people were also shown archival documents—specifically, witness questionnaires regarding this tragedy—provided by the State Archive of the Russian Federation.

1–4: Senior Archivist Viktoria Kondratenko leading a thematic session.