Dear compatriots! Today, March 22, is a mournful date of a terrible tragedy that has become a symbol of the cruel crimes of Nazism.
Dear compatriots!
Today, March 22, is a mournful date of a terrible tragedy that has become a symbol of the cruel crimes of Nazism.
Almost 80 years separate us from that spring day – the last in the lives of 149 residents of the Belarusian village of Khatyn. Peaceful people, who threatened no one and simply wanted to work on their native land, raise children, and continue the history of their country, were burned alive by punitive forces who came to destroy Slavic civilization.
The facts, which we have not often spoken about in order to preserve the souls of the post-war generations of the fraternal – Belarusian, Ukrainian, Russian – peoples, make the memory of the brutal massacre of defenseless old people, women, children, and infants even more painful. The entire barbarity lies in the fact that, along with the German fascists, the 118th battalion, consisting of Ukrainian collaborators who swore allegiance to the aggressor, took on the role of executioner. These are the very ones whose bloody activities inspire modern neo-Nazis who exterminate their own citizens in southeastern Ukraine for their ethnic background.
But we know for sure that the mournful toll of Khatyn's bell resonates with pain not only in the hearts of Belarusians but also in the hearts of millions of people around the world who look at the truth of that war with open eyes, understand that Nazism has no nationality, and believe that evil will be punished.
Rest in peace, the last residents of thousands of our villages, burned and wiped off the face of the earth. We will do everything to preserve in modern and future generations the historical memory of the Great Patriotic War, of its true heroes – the great sons and daughters of the multinational Soviet people, the victors.
Source: belta.by