Pripyat Marshes massacres
Part of the Holocaust | |
Date | 28 July – 29 August 1941 | (or 31 August)
---|---|
Location | Pinsk Marshes, Byelorussian and Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republics, Soviet Union |
Motive | Nazism |
Target | Soviet civilians (particularly Jews) |
Perpetrator | |
Deaths |
|
Property damage | Multiple villages completely destroyed Turaw partially damaged |
The Pripyat Marshes massacres (German: Prypyatsümpfe Säuberung) were a series of mass murders[1] carried out by the military forces of Nazi Germany against Jewish civilians in Belarus and Ukraine, during July–August 1941. SS leader Heinrich Himmler ordered these operations, which were carried out by units of the Wehrmacht (the regular armed forces) and the Waffen-SS. These units were ordered to kill as many Jews as possible, in a region in and around the Pripyat Marshes, comprising nine raions of the Byelorussian SSR and three raions of the Ukrainian SSR.
These massacres are considered to be the first planned mass murders of civilians carried out by Nazi Germany.[2] At least 13,788 people were killed in phase one and 3,500 Jewish men and boys were killed in phase two.[3] The principal means of execution employed was mass shootings, after the local populace had been rounded up. Other methods were also tried, including driving people into the swamps and drowning them, though this was largely ineffective owing to their shallowness.
Among others, the villages of Dvarets, Khochan', Azyarany, Starazhowtsy and Kramno, were completely destroyed by burning and Turaw was partially destroyed.
History
The operation was ordered by
Captured German documents about the operation reached the Soviet leadership in Moscow in January 1942, and were published in a note by the People's Commissariat (Ministry) for Foreign Relations, issued on 27 April. The note was addressed to all countries with which the USSR had maintained diplomatic relations. It is believed that the international publicity and shock caused by this data prompted Nazis to hide or destroy other materials concerned with this operation.[2]
Beginning of the events
On 19 July 1941, the 1st and 2nd SS Cavalry Regiments were assigned to the general command of HSSPF von dem Bach-Zelewski for the action which took place in two stages. The beginning date of the operation is considered 28 July 1941.[6] On that day the two SS cavalry regiments were transferred to Baranavichy for the "systematic combing of the Pripyat swamps".[3]
Shortly thereafter, Himmler ordered the
Himmler notified Fegelein by telegram on 1 August that the numbers killed so far were too low. A few days later, Himmler issued regimental order no. 42, which called for all male Jews over the age of 14 to be killed. The women and children were to be driven into the swamps and drowned. Thus Fegelein's units were among the first in the Holocaust to wipe out entire Jewish communities.[11] As the water in the swamps was too shallow and some areas had no swamps, it proved impractical to drown the women and children, so in the end they were shot as well.[12]
The first stage
The forces of 1st SS Cavalry Regiment moved from Baranavichy in the direction of Lyakhavichy — Hantsavichy, Baranavichy — Ivatsevichy — Byaroza — Pruzhany, and "combed" the territory to the south, south-east and south-west reaching the Pripyat River. The forces of 2nd SS Cavalry Regiment moved from Lutsk in the directions of Kamen'-Kashirski — Drahichyn — Ivanava and Sarny — Luninyets — Pinsk, and searched the territory to the south and north of the Pripyat River, until making contact with 1st SS Cavalry Regiment.
Coordinating with the 2nd SS Cavalry Regiment's move,
The second stage
The forces of the SS Cavalry Brigade moved from the initial line of Baranavichy — Luninyets railroad to the east, conducting the "cleansing" of the right and left banks of the Pripyat River keeping south of the highway R-1 (Brest — Slutsk — Babruysk).
In the course of this stage, the 2nd Regiment fought one or two battalions of the Soviet regular and irregular troops on 21 August 1941 near
In the course of following days the 1st Regiment combed the region of Starobin — Lyuban — Ptsich, and the 2nd Regiment advanced to the east of the line of Kol'na — Lyakhavichy (Knyaz'-Vozyera) towards the Ptsich River. The second stage of the operation ended on either 29 August[2] or 31 August.[4] Fegelein's final report on the operation, dated 18 September, states that they killed 14,178 Jews, 1,001 partisans, and 699 Red Army soldiers with losses of 17 dead, 36 wounded, and 3 missing.[13][14] The historian Henning Pieper estimates the actual number of Jews killed being closer to 23,700.[15]
Notes
- ^ By the definition of Alexey Litvin, who considers that the previous definition of operation, given by V. Lazyebnikaw and V. Pase, "operation... against the encircled units of Red Army, partisans and local population", is overly generalized and so imprecise.
- ^ a b c d e (Litvin 2003)
- ^ a b c Miller 2006, p. 309.
- ^ a b (Lazyebnikaw and Pase)
- ^ Pieper 2015, pp. 79, 119.
- ^ Pieper 2015, p. 79.
- ^ This plan has not been found, so the information on it has had to be reconstructed. Litvin, 2003
- ^ a b Turonek, p. 101
- ^ Pieper 2015, pp. 80–81.
- ^ a b Pieper 2015, p. 81.
- ^ Pieper 2015, pp. 86, 88–89.
- ^ Pieper 2015, pp. 89–90.
- ^ Pieper 2015, pp. 119–120.
- ^ Miller 2006, p. 310.
- ^ Pieper 2015, p. 120.
References
- (Lazyebnikaw and Pase) Лазебнікаў В. С., Пасэ У. С. Прыпяцкія балоты // Belarusian Soviet Encyclopedia, V.8. p. 604.
- (Litvin 2003) Литвин Алексей. Убийцы // Советская Белоруссия No.226 (21892), 3.12.2003. — Newspaper's archive in the net.
- Miller, Michael (2006). Leaders of the SS and German Police, Vol. 1. San Jose, CA: R. James Bender. ISBN 978-9-3297-0037-2.
- Pieper, Henning (2015). Fegelein's Horsemen and Genocidal Warfare: The SS Cavalry Brigade in the Soviet Union. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-1-137-45631-1.
- (Turonek) Jerzy Turonek. Białoruś pod okupacją niemiecką. Warszawa—Wrocław: WERS, 1989. 186 p., ill.