Belarusian SS-men as noble knights in shining armour

[W. R.]

Čupry, Toŭščy and Vieracieji were right in the centre of the guerrilla zone. Since 1942 punishers organized raids here many times. That's why even when the Red Army was advancing actively while pushing the enemy to the west, locals continued to stay in dugouts. But already for some weeks shooting had not been heard, and in June 1944 some villagers took their children with them and dared to leave the forest and start renewing the destroyed houses in Toŭščy village. And they got into a cordon of policemen of the 5th company of 13th Belarusian SD battalion. "Punishers" seized men, women, old and children, herded them into a tight group and escorted to Čupry nearby. Here, on the outskirts, there were two barns... People were herded into those buildings and locked. The walls were covered with straw and set on fire. <...> One of the policemen threw a grenade into the barn. But even after the explosion moans and cries didn't cease. When several people broke the door of one of the barns open and the people began to flee, the punishers who surrounded the buildings, began to shoot them. Everything was over when the roofs of the barns collapsed.http://nspaper.by/2009/04/09/zazhivo-sozhzhennym.html
«Judge: Who was among the inhabitants of Toŭščy village?
Witness: Men and women. I remember children 10—9 years old… A grenade was thrown into the open door, but I don't remember, by whom…
Defendant: During the Berezina operation we were buring down Toŭščy village. There were 27 of us, policemen, and 3 Germans…
Judge: What prevented you from torching the Germans instead of your people? There were only 3 of them!
Defendant: We were just afraid. There was no impulse.
Counsel: Defendant, the witnesses who survived say, that the villages were burned down, the property was looted and the cattle was driven off…
Defendant: I can't tell absolutely sure about the cattle…»http://www.respublika.info/4732/inner/article30467/

Victims:

Aŭlaska Jakaŭ
Busła Andrej, his wife Hanna, their children - Antanina, 10 y.o.; Hanna, 14 y.o.
Busła Piotr, 18
Hrynkievič Jazep, his wife Maryja, their son Anatol, 14
Hrynkievič Kazimier, his son Kliment, 14
Kaminski Ryhor, his wife Julija, the two children of theirs
Kaval, Jeŭdakija, 18
Kaval Kazimier, his son Anatol, 14
Mackievič Natalla, her children - Mikałaj, 6, Lida, 8
Sadko Maryja, her nephew Michajił, 5
Sadko Piotr, 17
Sadko Michajił, his wife Volha, their children - Alžbieta, 12, Vasil, 10, Auhieńnia, 8
Sadko Makryna, her daughter Valancina, 5, her niece Lida, 7
Sadko Vaładzimier, 17
Sadko Juzefa, her children - Michajił, 6, Jadzia, 6, Hanna, 3
Sadko Natalla
Skakun Alaksiej, 19
Skakun Źmicier
Skakun Alena, her children - Michajił, 5, Valancina, 10, Jadzia, 12
Skraha Nastaśsia, her children - Vaładzimier, 2, Halina, 6, Lola, 11, Mikałaj, 14
Skraha Tadora, her children - Vaładzimier, 16, Janina, 15
Stadnik Maryja, her daughters - Nina, 16, Nadzieja, 10.
Šyła Volha

[W. R.]

On the other hand:
The most sensitive and painful moment in the history of Belarusian collaborationist formations is the question about their participation in reprisals against peaceful civilians. Naturally, Belarusian formations weren't an exception from that rule. Besides here the guerrilla war took especially extreme forms often turning into a civil war. But nevertheless it should be admitted that Belarusian volunteers cannot be blamed for any excesses on ethnic or religious grounds. Unlike in the Ukraine, the Baltic states and the Cimea, Belarusian volunteers never killed people because those spoke a different language or had a different religion.* Even the Belarusian formations, that can be characterized as 'national' ones, didn't do that. All the actions of extermination of civilians, in which the Belarusian police had to participate, were within the limits of the “usual” of the German occupation regime. Any other volunteers would have acted similarly.

Naturally, the Belarusian police had to participate in the extermination of the Jewish population. But nevertheless the majority of historians tend to state that that was within the limits of the “usual” for the occupation. In general the level of anti-semitism in Belarus was significantly lower than, for example, in the Ukraine, and the Belarusian population wasn't notorious for mass anti-Jewish excesses, as, for example, the population of the Baltic states was.

* Formations of other ethnicities acted differently in Belarus. Especially notorious were Latvians, who stated directly during the actions of extermination, that their goal was “to exterminate as many Russians as possible” (in Russians they included Belarusians as well).SOURCE: Korichnevye teni v Polesye by O.V. Romanko (http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A0%D0%BE%D0%BC%D0%B0%D0%BD%D1%8C%D0%BA%D0%BE,_ %D0%9E%D0%BB%D0%B5%D0%B3_%D0%92%D0%B0%D0%BB%D0%B5% D0%BD%D1%82%D0%B8%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B8%D1%87), pages 293-294.

He is an Ukrainian citizen (from the least Ukrainian part of the country) so it must not be an attempt to whitewash Belarusian collaborationtists or something.