On the genocide during the Great Patriotic War on the territory of Lepel district, carried out by the 201st Security Division and the police of Lepel Police

01/06/20231 views

The criminal case under Article 127 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus concerning the genocide of the Belarusian people during the Great Patriotic War (Lepel District) contains materials on places of forced detention, the activities of the 201st Security Division, Polish and Ukrainian collaborators, and police officers of the Lepel Police.

From the materials of the criminal case, it follows that the 17th Latvian Battalion "Vidzeme" arrived in the territory of Lepel District in December 1941. It was stationed in the village of Velevshchina, Svyadsky Selsoviet, Lepel District. The battalion's personnel consisted of Latvians, with a strength of about 60-70 men. The battalion was involved in punitive operations, the murder of civilians and partisans, arrests, and robberies in the territories of Lepel, Chashniki, and Ushachi Districts. In the village of Adamovka, they shot 3 civilians; in the village of Belevshchina, 1 person; in the village of Reut-Polye, 2 people. The battalion left its deployment location in April 1942 and departed in an unknown direction.

There is data on the involvement of employees of the 201st Security Division in punitive operations and the murder of civilians in the territory of Lepel District. From a copy of the interrogation record dated 24.07.1948 of a prisoner of war, squad leader of the 201st Security Division, Mech Fritz Adolf, born in 1924, it follows that he personally, and the servicemen of the division under his command, during the "May Thunder" operation, killed civilians by shooting and burning, were involved in their robbery, and the destruction of villages. Also, from Mech Fritz Adolf's testimony, it follows that the 201st Security Division was based no earlier than February 1944 in the area of Lepel (near Polotsk) on the Berezina River. According to the division's orders, it was tasked with participating in a punitive operation codenamed "May Thunder"; after leaving a settlement, they were to destroy it and drive all able-bodied civilians to Germany. Mech Fritz Adolf provides facts of him and his subordinates killing villagers, including women and children, by shooting and burning, and points to the burning of villages and the robbery of their inhabitants. The punitive operation "May Thunder"

conducted by the German-fascist invaders against partisans and civilians in the Vitebsk, Gorodok, Surazh, and Liozno districts from May 17 to 22, 1943.

Furthermore, there is information about places of mass executions and burials of civilians by the German-fascist occupiers: over one and a half thousand people were shot in the forest near the village of Chernoruchye, Lepel district, since February 1942; 1000 people, including both partisans and civilians, were shot on the territory of the Jewish Cemetery in Lepel; in Lepel, between Sovetskaya Street and K. Marx Street, at the "Dynamo" site, civilians were executed in groups of 10-15 people; in January 1942, about 170 civilians were killed (shot, burned) in the village of Slobodka.

From the materials of the criminal case file, it follows that Dosta Gerasim Vikentyevich, Kvetinsky Bronislav Ivanovich, Gabarashvili Arak Grigoryevich, and Mamchur Leonid Grigoryevich were police officers of the Lepel police and took an active part in crimes against civilians in the territory of Lepel and Lepel district in 1942-1943. In particular, Dosta, Kvetinsky, and Gabarashvili guarded the prison in Lepel, from which people were taken to the outskirts of Lepel beyond the veterinary clinic and shot. They also guarded the Jewish ghetto in the area of Chernoruchye village, Lepel district, which held 800 people, and escorted Jews from the ghetto to the execution site. The Germans carried out the executions themselves.

The targeted policy of extermination of the population in the Lepel district caused irreparable damage to the infrastructure and cultural heritage of the Lepel region.

The investigation of the criminal case on the genocide of the Belarusian people during the Great Patriotic War is a tribute to the memory of the fallen and contributes to the establishment and preservation of historical justice.

Assistant Prosecutor

of Lepel District A.S. Deyneka