The name probably sounds unfamiliar to you … or in the best case you relate it with the Polish Katyn, the mass execution of Polish nationals carried out by the Soviet secret police, in April and May 1940. But there is another Khatyn in Belarus, holding a not less horrifying story And they both represent the beastly nature of killing innocents.
Khatyn was a village in Belarus. It does not exist anymore. The only thing that still lasts today is the hellish sound of its name and the ghostly story that made this village an ugly part of the history of Europe.
Today where Khatyn was, there is a memorial complex, built on the place where once lied 20 something small white houses. A village like a million others.
From a small place somewhere in Belarus, Khatyn became a symbol of mass killings of civilian population during the Second World War, in fights between partisans, German troops, and collaborators .All its 149 inhabitants, except for one, Yuzif (Josef) Kaminsky, have been burned alive by the Nazis.
The massacre occurred on March 22, 1943 when a German squad surrounded the village. The siege was a revenge for event that too place earlier this day and had nothing to do with the villagers of Khatyn - a Nazi motor convoy was attacked by fire on a motorway 6 km away from the village and a German officer was killed. The inhabitants of Khatyn were innocent, however their death sentence was already issued. All of them were taken away from their houses and driven out into a shed. The Nazis had mercy for nobody - neither for the old nor for the women with kids in their arms. When all people were finally locked behind doors, the shed was covered with straw, spilt with gas and set on fire. In just a moment the wooden construction ablazed. Desperate people, craving for life pushed the doors from inside and crashed them down. Horror-stricken in their burning clothes, they tried to run away in the nearby hills. But the Nazis were waiting for them outside and set machine gun fire on all. 148 people, including 75 children died. The youngest baby was only 7 weeks old. Khatyn was then looted and burned to the ground.
The only survivor of the Khatyn massacre, who somehow managed to remain alive after the fire and the guns, was the 56-year-old village smith Joseph Kaminsky. Heavily wounded and burnt, he became concious late at night when the Nazi squad was already gone. Among the bodies of his dead family and friends, he found his son, as well injured but still alive. Unfortunately, the boy was fatally wounded in the abdomen, completely burnt and later died in the arms of his father.
The tragedy of Khatyn is now remembered by the Khatyn Memorial Complex. It consists of 26 bells, ringing every 30 seconds to commemorate the terror of the war and its innocent victims. A central statue in the monument is of the only one survived, Joseph, holding his dead son in hands. The statue is called "The Unconquered Man".
