Operation Winterzauber

Operation Winterzauber (Operation "Winter magic") was a punitive anti-partisan operation from 15 February to early April 1943 aimed at creating a depopulated zone of 30 to 40 km along the Belarus–Latvia border. It was conducted by the Baltic and Ukrainian collaborators under German command in the period in the triangle of Sebezh–Osveya–Polotsk in Northern Belarus (Drisa, Osveia, Polotsk, Rossony districts) and in the Sebezhsky district of the Pskov region; in the USSR it became known as "the Osveya tragedy." According to the Foreign Ministry of the Russian Federation, justice of Germany qualified operation "Winter magic" as a crime against humanity.

Objectives

The aim of the operation was the establishment of a buffer zone devoid of people and settlements of a width of 40 km between Drissa in the South, Zilupe and Smolnatal in the North and covered the area of osveja — Driss — Polotsk — Sebezh — Rossony (Belarus, Russia). This depopulated area was to deprive the partisans of their strong points and resources.

The strength of the punitive formations

The operation was supervised by the Higher SS and Police Leader of the Baltic region SS-Obergruppenführer Friedrich Jeckeln. The operation initially involved:

• 7 Latvian police battalions − 273, 276, 277, 278, 279, 280, 281th
• The 50th Ukrainian police battalion
• SS police company
• German anti-aircraft part
• German artillery battery of the division
• two German communications platoons
• 2nd air group of special purpose.

The Latvian battalions were commanded by Standartenführer Voldemārs Veiss, who was subsequently buried in the Brethren cemetery in Riga in the Pantheon of heroes (died from wounds sustained on the Volkhov front in April 1944).

Original German units and Ukrainian police battalion were not included in the composition of combat groups, making thus a kind of reserve command.

During the operation, the conducting of the study involved new formation:

• Hastily formed 282nd Lettish "security" battalion
• The 2nd Lithuanian police battalion
• Rota 36-th Estonian police battalion
• Einsatzkommando the security police under the command of SS obersturmfuhrer Krause
• Einsatzkommando DM under the command of SS hauptsturmfuhrer Kaufman

The total number of Einsatzkommando of the security police and the SD were 210 people. The total strength of the forces involved in the operation was about 4000 people.

Over time, the composition of the battle groups changed somewhat; the following units were added: the Ukrainian and Lithuanian police battalions of the German police company of the SS, the German motorized gendarmerie platoon and attached to Einsatzkommando of the security police and the SD.

For example, the battle group "Bertha" included:

3rd tank army;

• The 201st security division
• 281-th security division
• 391-th training field division.

The operation and casualties

According to the Foreign Ministry of the Russian Federation, the operation unfolded as follows. Entering the village, the cops and given them parts of shot all who could be suspected of belonging to the partisans (those were virtually all residents-men aged from 16 to 50 years) and elderly and disabled people, which was not capable of Hiking long March. The rest — mostly women and children — were sent on foot to the place of the so-called "second sluicing". Those who were exhausted in the path were shot. Modular camps people were sent to other camps, for example in Salaspils concentration camp near Riga, where women were separated from their children and sent to work in Germany.

So, 16–18 February 1943 the Nazis destroyed the village of Rositsa. More young and strong people were sent to the station of Bigosovo, where they were loaded into wagons and taken to the concentration camp of Salaspils and work in Germany. The rest of the people were burned in houses, a large group of people was driven into a barn that was then set on fire. Among those killed were Catholic priests Yuri Kashira and Anthony Lashchevich, one of which was burnt with other residents, and the second shot for persistent requests to save the children (according to other sources also burned). In 1999 Pope John Paul II declared the murdered priests blessed.

It was destroyed several hundred villages (including those where there lived a thousand or more people). In one Osveya area was burned 183 villages, attacked and burned 11 383 (2 of 118 children under the age of 12 years), 14 175 residents were deported — adults to work in Germany, children in the Salaspils concentration camp.

Novgorod, Belarusian, Latvian partisan and the population had made a desperate resistance to the invaders. The most famous episode was the fight 90 Latvian partisans against 4 of the Lettish punitive battalions supported by tanks and aircraft, on the hill Apsu Kalnysh. To rescue the civilians, the command of the 6th air army carried out an air operation, during which on the mainland were taken from 8 to 11 thousand people.

Commemorations

In Belarus there are events dedicated to the memory of the victims.

In February 2008, in the Verkhnedvinsk district house of culture was held a literary-musical composition "St. Aswe Complaints". On the evening sounded poems Belarusian poets, witnesses shared their memories. In the village Osveya near the mound of Immortality held a meeting of veterans, youth and the public, which was addressed by politicians, priest and former young prisoners of Salaspils. Events take place in other localities.

In the village Rosice, where 204 residents were killed, including two priests, later canonized by the Catholic Church blessed, twice a year, in mid February and in mid-August, held memorial services. In 2009 he visited several surviving residents who shared their memories. Surviving witness Valentine Martsinkevich, who was then ten years old at the time of the atrocity, recalled:

We gathered and were led along the road. Crossed the river, and there on the tanks, the SS and the dogs fully. Surrounded us and then drove to the village Kulakovo. Women with children were placed in the local school, men inside the barn. <...> Then the interpreter shows us and two other families who were sitting nearby, and tells her to leave. At the porch of the sled. We sat down in them, rode thirty meters, and we saw that the school was on fire. It was first doused with gasoline and then fired on with incendiary bullets. The barn with the men was also set on fire. Those trying to get out through the windows or the roof were shot. Women began to scream, and the policeman took the whip and began to hit hard and scream: "Be quiet, or I'll kill!"

In her memories of their few days were transported by train to Salaspils, not giving food and water. In the way children from dying in accidents, those who have had power, at a stop in Daugavpils asked passers-by to throw out the window the snow.

As noted by the author of a book on Rosicky tragedy "thy will be done" Irina Zhernosek, "personally, I can't understand how it was possible to voluntarily join the invaders, to burn and to kill". In her view, "leaders of modern Latvia should apologize to Belarusian people".

Doctor of humanitarian Sciences of Belarus Ales White in March 2009 noted: "we would like to see in the place of pilgrimage in the village of official representatives of Latvia so that they could show that they stand on the side of the victims of terror and not supporting the Nazis."

References

• Wolfgang Curilla: Die deutsche Ordnungspolizei und der Holocaust im Baltikum und in Weißrußland 1941-1944. 2. Auflage. Ferdinand-Schöningh-Verlag, Paderborn 2006.
• А. Р. Дюков: Операция «Зимнее волшебство» Нацистская истребительная политика и латвийский коллаборационизм. Фонд «Историческая память», Moskau 2011. [English: Operation Winterzauber: Nazi policy of extermination and Latvian collaborationism]
• H. Судленкова: «Зимнее волшебство» СС. // Сайт журнала «Россия в глобальной политике». (www.globalaffairs.cz) (28. Juni 2007).
• K. Kangeris: Latviešu policijas bataljoni lielajās partizānu apkarošanas akcijās 1942. un 1943. gadā // Totalitārie okupācijas režīmi Latvijā 1940−1964. Latvijas vēstures institūta apgāds, Riga 2004, ISBN 9984-601-56-2. (Latvijas Vēsturnieku komisijas raksti)
• А. Р. Дюков: «Зимнее волшебство»: нацистская карательная операция в белорусско-латвийском приграничье, февраль — март 1943 г. Документы и материалы. [English: Winterzauber: Nazi punitive operation on the Belarus-Latvia border region, February – March 1943. Documents and records.] Фонд «Исторически память», 2013. ISBN 978-5-9990-0020-0