Today is a sad date in the calendar of memorable dates of Belarus – the Day of the Khatyn tragedy, which occurred 81 years ago. Every time we experience these events with personal pain, when the fascist punishers burned alive and shot almost all the inhabitants of the village of Khatyn.
On March 22, 1943, a punitive detachment killed 149 peaceful villagers, including 75 children, who knew nothing about the partisan attack on the convoy, or that a German officer had been killed, but innocent people had already been sentenced.
In January 1966, it was decided to create the Khatyn Memorial Complex, which was opened on July 5, 1969. This place has become a symbol of all the burned villages of Belarus, brutally destroyed by the Nazi invaders during the Great Patriotic War. This memorial is a tribute to all Belarusians who died during these events. The Khatyn Memorial Complex is a historical and cultural value of the Republic of Belarus and is included in the State List of Historical and Cultural Heritage.
In 2023, to mark the 80th anniversary of the Khatyn tragedy, the National Library of Belarus, together with the National Archive of the Republic of Belarus, prepared a book and documentary exhibition “The memory of the burned villages”, which allows us to recall the tragic circumstances of the death of the inhabitants of the village of Khatyn, which echoes in the fate of thousands of other burned Belarusian villages.
Every year thousands of visitors from different countries come to Khatyn to commemorate the innocent victims of that terrible tragedy.
Photos from the collections of the National Library of Belarus; the front photo from the website - "SB Belarus today".
The material was prepared by the information and analytical department.
