I tried to start writing this post couple of times and every time I ended up looking at the blinking cursor and unable to collect my thoughts. Sometimes pictures can tell the story better than words and this is why we simply put here WWII military photos made by German soldiers in Belarus during the WWII. Full credit goes to tol.blogs.org and Belarusian photo-community photo_polygon. Many thanks for sharing it.
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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
scarry…
My father a german paratrooper aged 19,was guarding the railwayline near Teryukha in Belarus ,he befriended a local family and was transferred to Tunisia in Feb 1942 … these photos tell some of his story ….thankyou!
Thank you so much for sharing this part of your family history. It touched me greatly and let me get in touch with what the country my grandfather grew up in was like during his last days living there.
this photos seriously distort the reality of war in Belarus – portraying good Nazis wit Belorus people…estimated up to 40 % of population – every 4th died thanx to Nazis. 628 villages burned with all inhabitants. just stuff them all into a wooden church and burn alive…we must never forget this. people in the west do not this
Thank you for your comment Bibi. These photos are meant to show another – even if staged for propaganda purposes – perspective. I also agree with you that the war devastated Belarus, and I hope that we will never see the WWIII.
However, I will respectfully disagree with you about the reality of the Great Patriotic War. What is the reality of it? We know about the Nazis and atrocities committed by them. Why don’t we mention marauding partisans who often provoked Germans to punish local residents? Aren’t they should be mentioned in connection with war atrocities? Why not? What gives them immunity? Or how about NKVD squats cleaning local population from “undesirable” elements in the post-occupation years? Why do we exclude them from the reality? What makes their crimes less severe?
These questions need to be answered before we draw the line. And until that happens, the reality will remain covered by the fog of war.
I was curious about Belarus in WW2 because I just watched the Russian movie, Come and See. It is about what German policy was in Belorussia during the war. The movie also had a part in which village inhabitants were locked in their church and they were burned alive. Then at the end, it mentioned the 628 villages that met the same fate.
Bibi was commenting about the contrast between the pictures and the reality of what the Germans did in that part of Russia.
I am not sure why you must “respectfully disagree” with anything about that person’s comment. It seems to me you are defensive.
Of course atrocities occurred during WW2 and they happen in every way. But that does not exonerate what the Germans did in Belarus to those villages.
You want to point out what the partisans did to make your self feel better? Fine, whatever makes you feel better. But anything done against the German invaders does not justify burning all those people alive. The partisans were fighting soldiers who invaded their country.
You almost sound like you are trying to justify something, and you have no moral or ethical ground to defend the bestial acts of cruelty of the “civilized” Germans in Belarus during the war.
There is really nothing much for you to say other than to vent your conscience. Since this is your blog, obviously you can say whatever you want. But you cannot fool people with anything if you try to cast the collective guilt net.
There was nothing civilized about Germany during WW2.