MINSK, 22 June (BelTA) – 75 years separate us from the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, which became a crucible for the multinational Soviet Union.
At dawn on 22 June 1941 Nazi Germany, violating the non-aggression pact, invaded the Soviet Union. Hitler's Germany launched Operation Barbarossa along the western border of the USSR from the Barents Sea to the Black Sea, becoming the largest invasion force in the history of warfare. The German military leadership expected to secure a quick victory and crush the USSR with one hit.
In the first hours of the war, the German troops produced their main attack on two parts of the front: on the defensive area of the 3rd and 4th Soviet armies near Brest and Grodno.
In the early hours of the war, Brest and its fortress came under massive artillery shelling and air strikes. Some people died while sleeping and did not even realize that the war began. The Nazi chose the longest day of the year for the offensive.
By 9am on 22 June, Hitler's forces seized the town of Brest and enveloped the fortress. Brest Fortress defenders put up stubborn resistance to the invaders. Separate groups of Soviet soldiers continued fighting in the fortress until almost the end of July 1941.
Red Army soldiers put up a strong resistance to Hitler's army demonstrating courage and selflessness, which led to the fiasco of the German blitzkrieg.
More than 1.3 million Belarusians fought against the Nazi invaders in the Great Patriotic War. As many as 217 Belarus-born generals and admirals coordinated the actions of the Red Army. Their names became legendary and were known to all soldiers fighting on the fronts.
Belarus lived under the fascist occupation for long three years. To establish ‘a new order' on the occupied territory, the Nazis resorted to genocide, mass killings and bloody terror. Nazi soldiers committed appalling atrocities having no mercy even on women and children. Concentration camps, prisons, ghettos were set up virtually in every region of Belarus. There were 260 death camps and 70 ghettos on the territory of the country. One of them, the Trostenets concentration camp, claimed 206,500 lives.
Belarus lost one third of its population during that war. These people will be remembered forever.
More and more years separate us from the events of the Great Patriotic War, but the heroic deeds of people killed in battles, the grief for millions of innocent victims, and the tragedy of the invasion are still remembered by the older generation, and will be remembered by their children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren.
