Genocide of the Belarusian people
The General Prosecutor's Office of the Republic of Belarus opened a criminal case under Article 127 of the Criminal Code on the facts of the commission of genocide on the territory of the Republic of Belarus by Nazi criminals and their accomplices during the Great Patriotic War and in the post-war period. The decision was based on information about the death of millions of Belarusians and other people as a result of the atrocities of the German occupiers and their accomplices.
Genocide is an act committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group.
“The intensity of direct military losses in the BSSR turned out to be three times greater than in the entire country (USSR), higher than in any state in the world.”
The Nazi invaders in Belarus envisaged:
- 75% of the population, unsuitable from the point of view of the Nazis, according to racial and political assessments, should be destroyed or deported to the east;
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25% were subject to Germanization and use as agricultural slaves. According to the investigation of atrocities on the territory of the BSSR temporarily occupied by the Nazis, it was established:
- more than 260 death camps were created by the Nazis to exterminate prisoners of war and civilians (Among the largest death camps only in Minsk and its environs there were 9, where more than 400,000 people were killed: the Trostenets death camp (more than 206,500 people were killed); a camp near the village. Masyukovshchina (more than 80,000 people); camp on Shirokaya Street (20,000 people);
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of which 14 are children's concentration camps;
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140 large punitive operations were carried out by the occupiers on the territory of Belarus;
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the invaders burned 10,500 villages and hamlets of the republic;
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of these, 5,295 settlements shared the fate of Khatyn, that is, they were destroyed along with all or part of the population;
- 186 villages were never revived.
Direct damage damage caused by the German invaders to the national economy of Belarus amounted to:
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75 billion rubles (in 1941 prices) (~$14.2 billion).
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The occupiers turned the cities and villages of Belarus into piles of ruins:
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209 of 270 cities and regional centers were burned, destroyed and looted;
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10,338 enterprises were destroyed (which amounted to 85% of their pre-war number);
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10,000 collective farms, 92 state farms and 316 machine and tractor stations were robbed and completely destroyed;
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The occupiers burned and destroyed 100,465 industrial production buildings.
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The Nazis took 18.4 thousand cars, more than 9 thousand tractors, 1.1 thousand combines, 2.8 thousand heads of cattle to Germany, cut down 104 thousand hectares of forest, 33 thousand hectares of gardens.
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Cultivated areas decreased by 40%, cattle numbers by 49%, horses by 61%, pigs by 80%, sheep and goats by 78%.
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The technical and energy base of the village was completely destroyed;
- 90% of the machine equipment was exported to Germany.
The republic's economy in terms of industrial and energy capacity was dropped to the level of 1913.
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almost 3 million people (34% of the pre-war population) lost their homes;
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399,474 people were deported to Germany, of whom tens of thousands died, unable to withstand the brutal conditions of exploitation;
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at least 1.4 million people were killed in places of forced detention of the civilian population;
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The BSSR lost about 2.2 million people, or every third resident, during the Great Patriotic War.
A significant place in the accusation of fascism by the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg (Germany), held on November 20, 1945. until October 1, 1946, occupied materials and documents about crimes committed by the Nazis and their accomplices on the territory of Belarus.
In the Republic of Belarus, in order to preserve the memory of millions of Soviet citizens who became victims during the Great Patriotic War and the post-war period, the Law of the Republic of Belarus dated January 5, 2022 No. 146-3 “On the genocide of the Belarusian people” was adopted, which is aimed at legislatively ensuring the protection of the fundamental values of the Belarusian people, establishing effective barriers to attempts to falsify the events and results of the Second World War, and giving a fair assessment of the atrocities of Nazi criminals and their accomplices, nationalist formations during the Great Patriotic War and the post-war period. This law supplemented the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus with Art. 130-2 "Article 130-2 Denial of the genocide of the Belarusian people."
1. Denial of the genocide of the Belarusian people, contained in a public speech, or in a printed or publicly displayed work, or in the media, or in information posted on the global computer network Internet, another public telecommunication network or a dedicated telecommunication network, - shall be punishable by arrest, or restriction of freedom for a term of up to five years, or imprisonment for the same term.
2. The action provided for in Part 1 of this article, committed by a person previously convicted of denying the genocide of the Belarusian people, or by an official using his official powers, is punishable by imprisonment for a term of three to ten years.
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