Litwin
Platinum Member
Israel Lapidus , WW2 hero or War - criminal? Drazhna massacre . Who is right here Viktor HURSIK or Emmanuel Joffe ? question why some people are still praising people like Israel Lapidus?
google translate:
Only six decades later, the surviving inhabitants of the Belarusian village of Drazhno-Starodorozhsky district decided to talk about the terrible events they experienced in 1943. Their stories in his book “Croc and Popel Drazhna” were collected by the Belarusian local historian Viktor HURSIK. Belarusian partisans fought bravely against the Nazis during the Great Patriotic War. Partizan was the main defender of civilians, a symbol of liberation from fascism. Soviet history idealized the image of the “people's avenger,” and it was unthinkable to talk about his misdeeds. Only six decades later, the surviving inhabitants of the Belarusian village of Drazhno-Starodorozhsky district decided to talk about the terrible events they experienced in 1943. Their stories in his book “Croc and Popel Drazhna” were collected by the Belarusian local historian Viktor HURSIK. The author claims that on 14 April 1943, partisans attacked Drazhna and indiscriminately shot, cut and burned civilians alive. The author confirms the testimony of the surviving Drazhnians by documents from the National Archives of the Republic of Belarus .
One of the surviving witnesses to the burning of the village, Nikolai Ivanovich Petrovsky, after the war, moved to Minsk , where he worked as an electrician at a state-owned enterprise before retirement. Today the veteran is 79 years old, he is seriously ill.
“Probably the last time I visit Drazhna,” Nikolai Ivanovich said slowly, frowning, as we drove into the village. - For over sixty years, I remember that horror every day, every day. And I want people to know the truth. After all, the partisans who killed their fellow countrymen remained heroes. This tragedy is worse than Khatyn .
“The shots woke us up around four in the morning”
- When the fascists arrived in 1941, a police garrison, to our misfortune, was formed in Drazhna. The policemen, and there were 79 of them, settled in the school, which was fenced off with bunkers. This place was strategic. The village stood at the intersection of roads, on a hill. The policemen could ideally sweep the terrain, and the forests were far away - three kilometers from Drazhna.
Even before the arrival of the Germans, my father, the chairman of the general store, a member of the party, managed to go into the forest along with the chairman of the collective farm and the major of the Red Army. And in time. The police began to commit atrocities: they arrested a veterinarian Shaplyko and shot him. They hunted for my father too. He was ambushed near the house.
The whole of our family — me, my mother, three brothers and sister Katya, were almost naked driven into the collective farm barn. Father was tortured before our eyes, beaten, forced to dig a grave. But for some reason they did not shoot him and after a few days sent to a concentration camp, Nikolai Ivanovich tries to speak dryly, without emotions. But it seems the old man is about to break loose.
“So we lived: without a father, with hatred for the invaders, we waited for liberation,” Nikolai Ivanovich continues. - And in January 1943, the partisans conducted an operation to seize the police garrison.
Today it is clear that the operation was planned foolishly, the guerrillas attacked in the forehead, almost all of them put out a machine gun. The villagers were forced to bury the dead. I remember how mom was worried, crying. After all, we considered the partisans our hope ...
But after a few months, these “defenders” committed unprecedented atrocities! - The old man stopped for a minute, looked at the village, looked for a long time towards the forest. - The shots woke us up around four in the morning on April 14, 1943.
Mom shouted: “Dzetki, shed!” The naked jumped out into the yard, we looked: all the huts were burning, shooting, shouting ...
We ran to escape to the garden, and my mother returned to the house, wanted to endure something. The thatched roof of the hut was already burning. I lay, did not move, my mother did not return for a long time. He turned around, and her man ten, even women, prick with bayonets, shouting: “Get it, fascist bastard!” I saw how her throat was cut. - The old man again paused, his eyes were devastated, it seemed that Nikolai Ivanovich was again experiencing those terrible moments. - Katya, my sister, jumped up, asked: “Do not shoot!”, Got the Komsomol ticket. Before the war she was a pioneer leader, a convinced communist. During the occupation, the ticket and the party certificate of the father were sewn into a coat and carried with them. But the high partisan, in leather boots, uniforms began to aim at Katya. I shouted: “Dzyadzechka, do not forget it!” But a shot rang out. Coat sister in a flash of thick blood. She died in my arms. I always remembered the face of the killer.
I remember how I crawled away. I look at the neighbor Fyokla Subtselnaya together with the little daughter of the three partisans who were thrown alive into the fire. Aunt Thekla held her baby in her arms. Further, at the door of the burning hut, lay the old woman Grinevichiha, burned, in blood ...
- How did you survive? - I ask the almost sobbing old man.
- In the gardens, my brothers and I crawled to the uncle. His house was burned, and he miraculously survived. They dug a dugout in it and lived.
Later, we learned that not a single policeman had been shot by the partisans. The houses that were behind their fortifications, too, survived. The Nazis arrived in the village, rendered medical assistance to the victims, took someone to the hospital in the Old Roads.
In 1944, the police began to scoff, sent me and several other teenagers to work in the concentration camp of the city of Unigen, near Stuttgart. We were released by the US military.
After the war, I learned that partisans from the Kutuzov squadron commanded by Lapidus Israel had directly burned and killed the drazhnents. Other units from the brigade of Ivanov "Kutuzov" covered. I found Lapidus when I was 18 years old. He lived in Minsk, in the area of Komarovka , worked in the regional party committee. Lapidus let the dogs down on me ... I know that this man lived a good life, and he died a hero.
Residents killed on April 14, 1943 are buried in the Drazhna cemetery. Some families on that fateful morning were completely destroyed by the partisans. There were no one to put monuments on their graves. Many graves are almost flattened and will soon disappear altogether.
Even the families of the front-line soldiers did not spare.
Today Drazhno is a prosperous village, with a good road, old but well-kept houses.
At the village grocery store, we met with other living witnesses to the partisan crime. The guerrillas did not get to the house of Eva Mefodevna Orphans (today is the grandmother's 86th year).
“Little children, God forbid anyone to know that war,” Eva Metodevna clutched at her head. - We survived, and my girlfriend Katya was shot, although she screamed: “I am my own!” My sister-in-law and mother-in-law were shot, their little boy was left to die. But the father of their family fought at the front.
“People were hanging in the pits from under the potatoes, so one family was shot right there, they did not regret,” said 80-year-old Vladimir Apanasevich with despair. Grandpa could not resist and burst into tears. - Fate saved me, and in fact some partisans were partly taken away by the partisans for half a kilometer in the field and shot. Recently, eight people came to us from the district executive committee . They asked about the burning of the Drazhno partisans, is it true. More silent, shaking their heads. So silently and left.
Alexander Apanasevich, the son of grandfather Vladimir, showed the passport of Valentina Shamko killed by partisans. In the photo is a girl, sweet, naive-eyed, defenseless.
- This is my aunt. My mother told me that she had been shot in the head, - uncle Alexander tells with bewilderment in her voice. “Mom kept Valentina's prostrate kerchief, but now I can't find her.”
Kombrig Ivanov:
"... the battle went very well"
And the commander-in-chief Ivanov, in a report to the authorities, summed up the military operation in Drazhno as follows (from case No. 42 of the 4057 National Archive of the Republic of Belarus fund, we completely retain the author’s style)
“... the battle went very well. They completed their task, the garrison was completely defeated, with the exception of 5 bunkers, of which it was not possible to enter, the rest of the police were destroyed, up to 217 bastards were killed and suffocated from the smoke ... ”
For this "operation", many guerrillas were presented to the awards.
If the drazhna residents had not told about the tragedy of the distant days to Viktor Hursik, nobody would have known about the wild burning of the Belarusian village by the partisans.
Victor Khursik: "The partisans wanted to extradite civilians for the policemen"
- Spadar Victor, some people are trying to challenge the content of your book ...
- Apparently, it is too late to do it. I know that when the book was published, the Ministry of Information sent it to a closed review by authoritative experts. Scientists concluded that the facts that I cite in the book correspond to reality. I foresaw such a reaction. I consider my position as state, as well as the ministry’s approach. I had one goal - the search for truth. The policy of the book "Crow and Popel Drazhna" has nothing to do.
- How did you find out about the burning of the village?
- The Drazhna players themselves decided to address me. At first, I did not believe that the partisans could have burned down a village with civilians. Checked and rechecked. Digging in the archives, not once met with the inhabitants of Drazhna. When I realized the depth of the tragedy, I realized that it was necessary to speak not only about heroism, but also about the crimes of the partisans, and they were. Otherwise, the Belarusian nation will not take place.
- The book is a lot of documentary compromising on partisans, from where?
- In each detachment was a security officer. He diligently recorded all cases of misconduct, reported on this to his superiors.
- Did the partisans burn Belarusian villages everywhere?
- Of course not. Most of the partisans fought bravely for the freedom of the motherland. But individual cases of crimes against civilians were. And not only in Drazhna. The same tragedy occurred in the village of Staroselie, Mogilev region, in other regions. Today it is necessary to raise the question of the state erecting monuments on the places of tragedies.
- And what is the fate of the commander of the 2nd Minsk partisan brigade Ivanov?
- He comes from Leningrad . Lead the brigade 21-year-old Ivanov sent from the headquarters of the partisan movement. It is clear from the documents that not one partisan died because of his inexperience. Those who refused to go into stupid attacks, he personally shot. Ivanov is perhaps one of the few partisan brigade commanders who was not given the title Hero of the Soviet Union. According to information received from former senior officials of the Pukhovichi District Committee of the Communist Party of Belarus, in 1975 he committed suicide.
- And yet it doesn’t fit in my head, why did the partisans go to such a terrible crime?
- Until 1943, they almost did not fight, sat out in the woods. The policemen and partisans lived relatively peacefully, only under pressure from above there were clashes. But in 1943, Stalin began to demand concrete results. Take the police garrison in Drazhna Ivanov did not have enough talent. Then the command of the brigade went through criminal means. They decided to burn the village, kill the locals and pass them off as policemen.
“ There are a lot of marauding acts behind the detachment of Kutuzov”
Viktor Khursik included in his book evidence of several more survivors of the burning of Drazhna. These people are no longer alive.
Here are excerpts from the book “Crow and Popel Drazna”.
Report of the head of the special department of the NKVD Bezuglova "On the political and moral state of the 2nd Minsk partisan brigade":
“... Returning back, we stopped (partisans. - Ed.) To Gurinovich M., tore out 7 more families of bees, broke the lock, climbed into the hut, took all things up to the cast iron, also took 4 lambs, 2 pigs and so on.
According to the marauding act, the entire population is outraged and demands protection from the command.
There are a lot of marauding actions behind the detachment of Kutuzov, therefore it is necessary to take measures on this issue in the strictest order ... ”
EVIDENCE TESTIMONY
The story of the witness of the burning of Drazhna Catherine Gintovt (wife of the Hero of the Soviet Union):
“In the sixties we were assigned a new boss. He was so calm. Maybe on the second or third day of his arrival there was a conversation between us.
- Where were the war? - I asked.
- At the front and in the partisans.
- Where in the partisans? During the war, they killed many of them and burned half the villages.
Were in Starodorozhsky district, in Drazhno ...
I told that in Drazhna my girlfriend was shot, my other residents were burned and killed.
As I told him this, I look - the man in his eyes became ill.
“I'll go to the hospital,” he said.
A few days later the boss died. ”
ANOTHER OPINION
Emmanuel Joffe: "Misses happen to all"
Doctor of Historical Sciences Emmanuel Ioffe - the main ideological opponent of Viktor Hursik. The events of April 14, 1943 in Drazhna, he treats differently.
“The guerrillas are innocent, they executed orders from above,” says Emmanuel Grigorievich. - I worked with documents. According to my data, Drazhna was a large police garrison. The vast majority of residents were policemen.
Of course, it is impossible to idealize the commanders of partisan brigades, I do not remove from them a certain guilt. I personally spoke with many commanders, war is war, everything happened in the heat of struggle. Yes, and Moscow gave orders to destroy enemies.
I have an ambivalent attitude towards kombriga Ivanov. On the one hand, he conscientiously carried out the orders, but everyone has mistakes.
google translate:
Only six decades later, the surviving inhabitants of the Belarusian village of Drazhno-Starodorozhsky district decided to talk about the terrible events they experienced in 1943. Their stories in his book “Croc and Popel Drazhna” were collected by the Belarusian local historian Viktor HURSIK. Belarusian partisans fought bravely against the Nazis during the Great Patriotic War. Partizan was the main defender of civilians, a symbol of liberation from fascism. Soviet history idealized the image of the “people's avenger,” and it was unthinkable to talk about his misdeeds. Only six decades later, the surviving inhabitants of the Belarusian village of Drazhno-Starodorozhsky district decided to talk about the terrible events they experienced in 1943. Their stories in his book “Croc and Popel Drazhna” were collected by the Belarusian local historian Viktor HURSIK. The author claims that on 14 April 1943, partisans attacked Drazhna and indiscriminately shot, cut and burned civilians alive. The author confirms the testimony of the surviving Drazhnians by documents from the National Archives of the Republic of Belarus .
One of the surviving witnesses to the burning of the village, Nikolai Ivanovich Petrovsky, after the war, moved to Minsk , where he worked as an electrician at a state-owned enterprise before retirement. Today the veteran is 79 years old, he is seriously ill.
“Probably the last time I visit Drazhna,” Nikolai Ivanovich said slowly, frowning, as we drove into the village. - For over sixty years, I remember that horror every day, every day. And I want people to know the truth. After all, the partisans who killed their fellow countrymen remained heroes. This tragedy is worse than Khatyn .
“The shots woke us up around four in the morning”
- When the fascists arrived in 1941, a police garrison, to our misfortune, was formed in Drazhna. The policemen, and there were 79 of them, settled in the school, which was fenced off with bunkers. This place was strategic. The village stood at the intersection of roads, on a hill. The policemen could ideally sweep the terrain, and the forests were far away - three kilometers from Drazhna.
Even before the arrival of the Germans, my father, the chairman of the general store, a member of the party, managed to go into the forest along with the chairman of the collective farm and the major of the Red Army. And in time. The police began to commit atrocities: they arrested a veterinarian Shaplyko and shot him. They hunted for my father too. He was ambushed near the house.
The whole of our family — me, my mother, three brothers and sister Katya, were almost naked driven into the collective farm barn. Father was tortured before our eyes, beaten, forced to dig a grave. But for some reason they did not shoot him and after a few days sent to a concentration camp, Nikolai Ivanovich tries to speak dryly, without emotions. But it seems the old man is about to break loose.
“So we lived: without a father, with hatred for the invaders, we waited for liberation,” Nikolai Ivanovich continues. - And in January 1943, the partisans conducted an operation to seize the police garrison.
Today it is clear that the operation was planned foolishly, the guerrillas attacked in the forehead, almost all of them put out a machine gun. The villagers were forced to bury the dead. I remember how mom was worried, crying. After all, we considered the partisans our hope ...
But after a few months, these “defenders” committed unprecedented atrocities! - The old man stopped for a minute, looked at the village, looked for a long time towards the forest. - The shots woke us up around four in the morning on April 14, 1943.
Mom shouted: “Dzetki, shed!” The naked jumped out into the yard, we looked: all the huts were burning, shooting, shouting ...
We ran to escape to the garden, and my mother returned to the house, wanted to endure something. The thatched roof of the hut was already burning. I lay, did not move, my mother did not return for a long time. He turned around, and her man ten, even women, prick with bayonets, shouting: “Get it, fascist bastard!” I saw how her throat was cut. - The old man again paused, his eyes were devastated, it seemed that Nikolai Ivanovich was again experiencing those terrible moments. - Katya, my sister, jumped up, asked: “Do not shoot!”, Got the Komsomol ticket. Before the war she was a pioneer leader, a convinced communist. During the occupation, the ticket and the party certificate of the father were sewn into a coat and carried with them. But the high partisan, in leather boots, uniforms began to aim at Katya. I shouted: “Dzyadzechka, do not forget it!” But a shot rang out. Coat sister in a flash of thick blood. She died in my arms. I always remembered the face of the killer.
I remember how I crawled away. I look at the neighbor Fyokla Subtselnaya together with the little daughter of the three partisans who were thrown alive into the fire. Aunt Thekla held her baby in her arms. Further, at the door of the burning hut, lay the old woman Grinevichiha, burned, in blood ...
- How did you survive? - I ask the almost sobbing old man.
- In the gardens, my brothers and I crawled to the uncle. His house was burned, and he miraculously survived. They dug a dugout in it and lived.
Later, we learned that not a single policeman had been shot by the partisans. The houses that were behind their fortifications, too, survived. The Nazis arrived in the village, rendered medical assistance to the victims, took someone to the hospital in the Old Roads.
In 1944, the police began to scoff, sent me and several other teenagers to work in the concentration camp of the city of Unigen, near Stuttgart. We were released by the US military.
After the war, I learned that partisans from the Kutuzov squadron commanded by Lapidus Israel had directly burned and killed the drazhnents. Other units from the brigade of Ivanov "Kutuzov" covered. I found Lapidus when I was 18 years old. He lived in Minsk, in the area of Komarovka , worked in the regional party committee. Lapidus let the dogs down on me ... I know that this man lived a good life, and he died a hero.
Residents killed on April 14, 1943 are buried in the Drazhna cemetery. Some families on that fateful morning were completely destroyed by the partisans. There were no one to put monuments on their graves. Many graves are almost flattened and will soon disappear altogether.
Even the families of the front-line soldiers did not spare.
Today Drazhno is a prosperous village, with a good road, old but well-kept houses.
At the village grocery store, we met with other living witnesses to the partisan crime. The guerrillas did not get to the house of Eva Mefodevna Orphans (today is the grandmother's 86th year).
“Little children, God forbid anyone to know that war,” Eva Metodevna clutched at her head. - We survived, and my girlfriend Katya was shot, although she screamed: “I am my own!” My sister-in-law and mother-in-law were shot, their little boy was left to die. But the father of their family fought at the front.
“People were hanging in the pits from under the potatoes, so one family was shot right there, they did not regret,” said 80-year-old Vladimir Apanasevich with despair. Grandpa could not resist and burst into tears. - Fate saved me, and in fact some partisans were partly taken away by the partisans for half a kilometer in the field and shot. Recently, eight people came to us from the district executive committee . They asked about the burning of the Drazhno partisans, is it true. More silent, shaking their heads. So silently and left.
Alexander Apanasevich, the son of grandfather Vladimir, showed the passport of Valentina Shamko killed by partisans. In the photo is a girl, sweet, naive-eyed, defenseless.
- This is my aunt. My mother told me that she had been shot in the head, - uncle Alexander tells with bewilderment in her voice. “Mom kept Valentina's prostrate kerchief, but now I can't find her.”
Kombrig Ivanov:
"... the battle went very well"
And the commander-in-chief Ivanov, in a report to the authorities, summed up the military operation in Drazhno as follows (from case No. 42 of the 4057 National Archive of the Republic of Belarus fund, we completely retain the author’s style)
“... the battle went very well. They completed their task, the garrison was completely defeated, with the exception of 5 bunkers, of which it was not possible to enter, the rest of the police were destroyed, up to 217 bastards were killed and suffocated from the smoke ... ”
For this "operation", many guerrillas were presented to the awards.
If the drazhna residents had not told about the tragedy of the distant days to Viktor Hursik, nobody would have known about the wild burning of the Belarusian village by the partisans.
Victor Khursik: "The partisans wanted to extradite civilians for the policemen"
- Spadar Victor, some people are trying to challenge the content of your book ...
- Apparently, it is too late to do it. I know that when the book was published, the Ministry of Information sent it to a closed review by authoritative experts. Scientists concluded that the facts that I cite in the book correspond to reality. I foresaw such a reaction. I consider my position as state, as well as the ministry’s approach. I had one goal - the search for truth. The policy of the book "Crow and Popel Drazhna" has nothing to do.
- How did you find out about the burning of the village?
- The Drazhna players themselves decided to address me. At first, I did not believe that the partisans could have burned down a village with civilians. Checked and rechecked. Digging in the archives, not once met with the inhabitants of Drazhna. When I realized the depth of the tragedy, I realized that it was necessary to speak not only about heroism, but also about the crimes of the partisans, and they were. Otherwise, the Belarusian nation will not take place.
- The book is a lot of documentary compromising on partisans, from where?
- In each detachment was a security officer. He diligently recorded all cases of misconduct, reported on this to his superiors.
- Did the partisans burn Belarusian villages everywhere?
- Of course not. Most of the partisans fought bravely for the freedom of the motherland. But individual cases of crimes against civilians were. And not only in Drazhna. The same tragedy occurred in the village of Staroselie, Mogilev region, in other regions. Today it is necessary to raise the question of the state erecting monuments on the places of tragedies.
- And what is the fate of the commander of the 2nd Minsk partisan brigade Ivanov?
- He comes from Leningrad . Lead the brigade 21-year-old Ivanov sent from the headquarters of the partisan movement. It is clear from the documents that not one partisan died because of his inexperience. Those who refused to go into stupid attacks, he personally shot. Ivanov is perhaps one of the few partisan brigade commanders who was not given the title Hero of the Soviet Union. According to information received from former senior officials of the Pukhovichi District Committee of the Communist Party of Belarus, in 1975 he committed suicide.
- And yet it doesn’t fit in my head, why did the partisans go to such a terrible crime?
- Until 1943, they almost did not fight, sat out in the woods. The policemen and partisans lived relatively peacefully, only under pressure from above there were clashes. But in 1943, Stalin began to demand concrete results. Take the police garrison in Drazhna Ivanov did not have enough talent. Then the command of the brigade went through criminal means. They decided to burn the village, kill the locals and pass them off as policemen.
“ There are a lot of marauding acts behind the detachment of Kutuzov”
Viktor Khursik included in his book evidence of several more survivors of the burning of Drazhna. These people are no longer alive.
Here are excerpts from the book “Crow and Popel Drazna”.
Report of the head of the special department of the NKVD Bezuglova "On the political and moral state of the 2nd Minsk partisan brigade":
“... Returning back, we stopped (partisans. - Ed.) To Gurinovich M., tore out 7 more families of bees, broke the lock, climbed into the hut, took all things up to the cast iron, also took 4 lambs, 2 pigs and so on.
According to the marauding act, the entire population is outraged and demands protection from the command.
There are a lot of marauding actions behind the detachment of Kutuzov, therefore it is necessary to take measures on this issue in the strictest order ... ”
EVIDENCE TESTIMONY
The story of the witness of the burning of Drazhna Catherine Gintovt (wife of the Hero of the Soviet Union):
“In the sixties we were assigned a new boss. He was so calm. Maybe on the second or third day of his arrival there was a conversation between us.
- Where were the war? - I asked.
- At the front and in the partisans.
- Where in the partisans? During the war, they killed many of them and burned half the villages.
Were in Starodorozhsky district, in Drazhno ...
I told that in Drazhna my girlfriend was shot, my other residents were burned and killed.
As I told him this, I look - the man in his eyes became ill.
“I'll go to the hospital,” he said.
A few days later the boss died. ”
ANOTHER OPINION
Emmanuel Joffe: "Misses happen to all"
Doctor of Historical Sciences Emmanuel Ioffe - the main ideological opponent of Viktor Hursik. The events of April 14, 1943 in Drazhna, he treats differently.
“The guerrillas are innocent, they executed orders from above,” says Emmanuel Grigorievich. - I worked with documents. According to my data, Drazhna was a large police garrison. The vast majority of residents were policemen.
Of course, it is impossible to idealize the commanders of partisan brigades, I do not remove from them a certain guilt. I personally spoke with many commanders, war is war, everything happened in the heat of struggle. Yes, and Moscow gave orders to destroy enemies.
I have an ambivalent attitude towards kombriga Ivanov. On the one hand, he conscientiously carried out the orders, but everyone has mistakes.
