In Orsha district found a previously unknown place of mass burial of victims of genocide

The Prosecutor’s office of the Vitebsk region and the soldiers of the 52nd search battalion opened a new page of the terrible truth about the genocide of the Belarusian people. In the Orsha district found a place where the Nazi invaders massively destroyed civilians, the correspondent of sb.by.

Archival documents and recollections of old-timers indicated that it was here, on the outskirts of the village, that the punishers arranged shootings. When searchers removed the top layer of soil, a mass grave measuring 10 by 12 meters was underfoot. Only in the first layer - the remains of at least 25 people. But experts believe that this is only the first layer of pain. The burial is multilayered - under the ground there may be two more tiers with the remains of tortured people.

The truth about the tragedy is confirmed by the act of the Extraordinary Commission of April 2, 1945 and the testimony of four witnesses. It turned out that the punitive structure GFP-709 operated in Smolyany, which tracked down and mercilessly destroyed all those who did not accept the occupation. In one of the buildings of the current college, the Nazis set up a prison. There kept families of Red Army, underground, partisans. After monstrous torture, the prisoners were driven to the same park to be shot.

Since mid-August, the excavation site has been open to the public. A hundred meters away, in the House of Culture (6V Zamkovaya St.), on the second floor there is an exposition with finds raised by searchers.

- We plan to complete the recovery of the remains at the end of this week, says Igor Metelitsa, Deputy Head of the Vitebsk Region Prosecutor’s Office for Supervision of the Implementation of Legislation in the Troops. - The field season is over. After extraction, we will appoint a complex of forensic examinations. Experts will determine the exact number of victims, including women and children, as well as the age of burial. Then the remains will be reburied in a place that will be determined by the Orsha District Executive Committee.

Work doesn't stop. Ahead is the painstaking work of establishing names and the procedural consolidation of every fact of Nazi crimes. In the Slavgorod region raised the remains of civilians – victims of genocide

Photos provided by the prosecutor's office of the Vitebsk region.