RemembranceBitter
· Day 639 of 1418
The bells of Khatyn
Khatyn, Belarus
- villagers were killed, 75 of them children
- 149
- villagers were killed, 75 of them children
- Belarusian villages were never rebuilt
- 186
- Belarusian villages were never rebuilt
On 22 March 1943 punitive troops burned the Belarusian village of Khatyn together with its people: 149 people, 75 of them children. Hundreds of Belarusian villages shared its fate. Today a memorial stands there: a bell tolls above the site of every house.
The villagers were herded into a barn, which was then set on fire. Only one adult survived: the blacksmith Iosif Kaminsky. Among the dead he found his son Adam, who died in his arms.
Today Khatyn has a statue called “The Unbowed Man”: Kaminsky holding his son. Next to it is the “cemetery of villages”, with 186 symbolic graves for villages that were never rebuilt.
Good people, remember: we loved life, and our Motherland, and you, our dear ones. We were burned alive in the fire.