ROADS OF BURNT VILLAGES

Belarus · 1941–1945
12,000+ settlements destroyed
600+ burned with people · never revived
185 urns in Khatyn · each a village

Scorched Earth Map · Belarus

Click markers — each tells a tragedy. Red markers: villages annihilated with inhabitants.

200 remembered. Thousands more unrecovered.

The map shows only a fragment — 200 verified villages burned with their inhabitants. At least 600+ «sisters of Khatyn» vanished forever, out of 12,000+ destroyed settlements. Each marker is a wound that never healed.

Voices from the ashes

OLA

Ola

1,758 victims (950 children)

January 14, 1944 — Operation "Jakob". People were driven into houses and barns, then set on fire. Those who escaped were shot.

“I was shocked: a pile of burned people. From one cellar they pulled out the body of a six‑year‑old child. Only the legs in new bast shoes remained intact…’”
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BORKI

Borki

2,027 victims

June 15, 1942 — one of the largest punitive operations. Residents herded into a church and barns, then burned alive.

"They threw grenades into the crowd." — eyewitness
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SHUNEVKA

Shunevka

66 people burned alive (15 children)

May 22, 1943 — Operation Cottbus. All inhabitants herded into a barn and set ablaze. Only three survived.

"The silence after the screams was louder than the fire."
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KHATYN

Khatyn

149 victims (75 children)

March 22, 1943 — village herded into a barn and set on fire. Only adult survivor: Joseph Kaminsky.

"I found my son among the dead." — Joseph Kaminsky
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DALVA

Dalva

44 victims (29 children)

June 19, 1944 — just two weeks before liberation, all residents locked in a house and burned alive.

"I swore to build a memorial so no one would forget." — Nikolai Girilovich
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ROSITSA

Rositsa

1,528 victims

February 16–18, 1943 — Operation "Winter Magic". Catholic priests burned alive with their parishioners.

"Father Yuri stayed with us until the end."
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GLUKHOYE PERKHUROVO

Glukhoye Perkhurovo

120 victims (entire population)

January 30, 1943 — Operation "Jakob". Village burned with inhabitants, never revived. Only three survived.

"Only three residents survived, hiding in a cellar and the forest."
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ZINYAKI

Zinyaki

419 victims (484 total including nearby villages)

January 22, 1944 — for alleged support of partisans, Nazis burned 82 households together with inhabitants.

"Bodies were stacked in layers inside barns, then set on fire." — Galina Kuzmich
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SHAULICHI

Shaulichi

366 victims (120 children)

July 7, 1943 — prosperous village of 77 households, all residents shot or burned in their homes.

"By evening, Shaulichi no longer existed."
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KNYAZHEVODTSY

Knyazhevodtsy

900+ victims

July 23, 1943 — largest burned village in Grodno region. Over 900 civilians killed and burned.

"Equal to six Khatyns."
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Digital Cemetery of Villages

185 cells — each stands for an urn in the Khatyn memorial. Every cell holds the name of a village that was burned with its people and never revived.
Click on a cell to see details🕊️ number = victims
Click on any cell to see village details

* The list includes Khatyn, Ola, Borki, Shunevka, Dalva, and many more. 185 symbolic urns.

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Why this matters

Belarus lost every third settlement during the Great Patriotic War. More than 600 villages were burned together with their inhabitants and never came back to life. This project transforms dry statistics into an emotional, visual memorial — understandable across borders.

Open archives · National Archives of Belarus
Digital memorial · May 9