The tragedy of Khatyn
22.03.2023
On this day 80 years ago – on March 22, 1943 – Khatyn, a quiet friendly Belarusian village, was wiped off the face of the Earth. Almost all of its inhabitants, 149 people, of which 75 were children, were brutally killed by the punitive forces.
Nazi soldiers and their collaborators roused the sick from their beds with rifle butts. All people — young and old, women and kids — were driven from their houses out into the shed, which was then covered with straw and set on fire. The trapped people managed to break down the front doors, but in trying to escape, were ruthlessly killed by machine gun fire. The youngest Khatyn resident was only 7 weeks old.
The tragedy of Khatyn is one of a thousand facts testifying to the purposeful policy of genocide of Nazi Germany in relation to the population of Belarus. Khatyn embodies over 9,000 villages of Belarus, many of which were burned down along with the people and have never revived.
