Khatyn, Belarus 1943

Khatyn: The Village That Burned While They Screamed

On March 22, 1943, in Nazi-occupied Belarus, the village of Khatyn ceased to exist, not by bomb or accident, but by fire and gunfire, house by house, child by child. Belarus or Byelorussia experienced the worst, most brutal SS unit during the entire war, the SS-sonderkommando Dirlewanger or Dirlewanger Brigade. Made up of mostly former hunters and poachers then later on murderers, rapists, pedophiles, convicts, etc. Commanded by their leader Oskar Dirlewanger, the most sadistic Nazi there was in the S.S. They were the worst of the worst. They wreaked havoc upon the majority of modern day Eastern Poland and Belarus. There are over 600 villages that are currently abandoned or empty due to the sonderkommando killing everyone in it, this 600 is the confirmed there could be more that we do not know about as they did not report on certain things as the SS efficiency didn’t like having too much brutality on civilian life which is a wild thought. The sonderkommando’s most well known and largest village they destroyed in Belarus was the village of Khatyn. Khatyn is a former village in central Belarus. It is exactly a 1 hour drive north from the capital of Minsk. March 22 in 1943 they would unfortunately cross paths with the Dirlewanger men. 

After a partisan attack on German troops 6 kilometers from Khatyn and a German officer dying as a result. Members of the Dirlewanger Brigade and Ukrainian Schutzmannschaft Battalion 118 auxiliary police forces descended on the village in what they called a “reprisal.” But what followed was no battle, it was murder. Partisans in Belarus were made up of men and some women of all ages, many were Red Army soldiers left behind during the fast advance of Germany into the Soviet Union and many were civilians who wanted to join the fight against the invading forces. There were also civilians who had no choice to join as their friends and families were killed by either Wehrmacht or S.S.  

The Dirlewanger Brigade had a unique “tactic” of surrounding entire villages and/or towns, rounding up all the people no matter age or gender, then locking them in the largest barn or church in the village then setting it ablaze and shooting at anyone who tried escaping. Afterwards they would take any firearms or tools useful for them, livestock, hay and if they found any remaining people hiding they would shoot them. For the women, they take them ages 13 up to around 36 years old rape them and execute them or let them go depending how drunk the men were at the time. Murder, rape and looting were common among their “partisan reprisal attacks”. The sadistic tendencies were actually a common thing in the “punishment brigades” in the S.S. 

The Dirlewanger men locked the entire population; over 150 people, including 75 children, inside a barn, set it ablaze, and shot anyone who tried to escape the flames. Those who crawled out on fire were gunned down. The village was then looted and erased from the map. This was a common occurrence during the SS anti-partisan operations in Belarus under the command of Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski. When you hear about this it sounds awful, but to truly grasp what it was like you can see such events in the movie from 1985 “Come and See”, the story of a 16 year old boy’s experience of an innocent child to a traumatized war torn child. The events of Come and See are based on the Belarusian partisans and the Dirlewanger Brigade in Belarus in 1943. This movie is known as the most realistic movie about war trauma and the most psychologically terrifying movie not because of ghosts or monsters but the reality of how it was completely true. I wrote another post describing and breaking down Come and See I will soon post.

Today, a haunting memorial stands where Khatyn once lived. Eternal flames burn beside iron sculptures of villagers, and the sound of a bell tolls every 30 seconds for every few seconds of silence Dirlewanger left behind. I hope to make my way through Belarus one day. I always feel sad and sentimental when meeting Poles and Belarusians because their countries are the only two countries that never received any reparations from the war from Germany or Russia.

Rest in Peace, Spačyvaj Z Miram