Khatyn Memorial
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On March 22, 1943, all 26 homes of a small, traditional village located on this site were burned and all 149 people were killed by German troops, including 75 children. This is one of the many WWII memorials in Belarus. The site of the former village is now the Khatyn WWII Memorial, which was opened in 1969. The only remaining structures from the original homes are the brick chimneys, which now hold bells that sound occasionally. The only survivor from this village was a man (Josef Kaminski) who was visiting relatives in a nearby village; when he returned home he found that the entire population of the village had been herded into a barn and burned alive. There is a sculpture of the man holding the body of his son, which he recovered from the ruins. This sculpture of a grief-stricken man carrying a child in his arms is the first thing you see as you enter the memorial. An eternal flame burns between three silver birch trees, commemorating the one in every four Belarusians killed during WWII. Tragically, more than 600 small villages like this one were destroyed during the war, many of which were never repopulated as all the inhabitants perished. Thus, the memorial also houses small red and black “urns,” which are featured in the photograph; each holds a small amount of earth from each of the 618 villages in Belarus that were destroyed during the war.
Contributors
June 02, 2007
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by terez93
| type: | Memorials |
| World66 rating: | 
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| address: | 54km north on the Vitebsk highway, tel. (+375-17) 27 71 59. |
