A memorial complex in the Belarusian town of Ozarichi honours the over 9,000 civilian victims who perished in three camps of the German Wehrmacht in the area from March 1944 on; they died of typhus, hunger and cold.

Ozarichi, 1944, Victims of the camp following liberation, E. Podshivalov


Ozarichi, 2010, Memorial to the Victims of the Ozarichi Camps, Turovskaya Eparkhiya

At the beginning of March 1944, the 9th German army under Josef Harpe established three temporary camps on their retreat: near Ozarichi, Dert' and Podosinnik. The camps, set up on marshland, were surrounded by barbed wire and meant to hold »diseased people, cripples, the elderly and women with more than two children under the age of 10 as well as other people not capable of working«. The 35th infantry division and Sonderkommando 7 of SS Einsatzgruppe B (mobile killing unit) forcibly gathered at least 40,000, possibly over 50,000, tired and helpless civilians from the Belarusian regions of Gomel, Mogilev, Palyes'sye and the Russian areas of Smolensk and Orel at those camps.
Until the invasion of the 65th Army of the 1st Belarusian Front on March 18/19, 1944, between 9,000 and 13,000 children, women and men perished at the camps, deprived of shelter, water and food. The calculated mass death by typhus, hunger and cold is considered one of the gravest crimes of the Wehrmacht committed on civilians in the course of the war of extermination against the Soviet Union.

Ozarichi, 1944, Victims of the camp following liberation, E. Podshivalov


Ozarichi, 2010, Memorial to the Victims of the Ozarichi Camps, Turovskaya Eparkhiya

Between 9,000 and 13,000 of the up to 50,000 imprisoned Belarusian and Russian men, women and children did not survive their incarceration at the camps near Ozarichi.

Ozarichi, 1944, Victims of the camp following liberation, E. Podshivalov


Ozarichi, 2010, Memorial chapel, Turovskaya Eparkhiya

In 1965, a sculpture in memory of the victims' suffering was unveiled at the historic site in Ozarichi. The Russian inscription reads »Here, in the fascist death camp, over 9,000 peaceful residents died of cold, hunger and diseases, were shot and tortured in March 1944.« Every year on the anniversary of the liberation, on March 18/19, commemorative ceremonies are held here by the state and the church. In 2010, the Orthodox church dedicated a small wood chapel on this occasion.

Ozarichi, 2010, Commemorative ceremony at the memorial, Turovskaya Eparkhiya


Ozarichi, 2010, Memorial dedication, Turovskaya Eparkhiya

Name

Memorial schertvam faschistskogo konclagerja v Osaritschach

Address

ul. Gagarina, Ozarichi, Kalinkovichsky rayon
247742 Azarytschy

Phone

00375 (0) 234 591 577

Open

The memorial complex is accessible at all times.