KHATYN 1943
On March 21, 1943, a detachment of partisans spent the night in the small Belarusian village of Khatyn. They left in the morning and encountered a column of German soldiers on the road. A battle ensued. The partisans managed to escape, killing several soldiers and one SS officer.
But punitive forces from the 118th Stutzmannschaft Battalion and the special SS “Dirlingwager” battalion, formed in Kyiv, decided to avenge the deaths of their fighters and went to vent their anger on the civilians of Khatyn.
In a matter of minutes, the SS men herded 149 people, including 75 children, into a barn and set it on fire. From the interrogation report of Ostap Knap (a policeman of the 118th Battalion), a native of the Lviv region, dated May 31, 1986:
"The roof was thatched and immediately caught fire. A terrible scream erupted in the barn, and the people condemned to death began to break down the door. All the police officers standing in the cordon around the execution site opened fire on the people in the barn.
As they retreated, the Nazis burned the village to the ground. Only six people survived.
A memorial complex has been erected on the grounds of Khatyn in memory of the death of every fourth Belarusian civilian.
It was this small village that became a symbol of the Nazi atrocities in the occupied lands.