, location =
Naliboki
Nalibaki ( be, Налібакі, pl, Naliboki, russian: Налибоки) is an agrotown in Minsk Region, in western Belarus.
History
During the times of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, since 1555Dagnoslaw Demski, NALIBOKI I PUSZCZA NALI ...
,
German-occupied Poland
German-occupied Poland during World War II consisted of two major parts with different types of administration.
The Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany following the invasion of Poland at the beginning of World War II—nearly a quarter of the ...
, date = May 8, 1943
, weapons =
Automatic and
semi-automatic weapons
, fatalities = 129
, perps =
Soviet
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...
, victims =
Poles
Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, who share a common history, culture, the Polish language and are identified with the country of Poland in C ...
The Naliboki massacre ( pl, zbrodnia w Nalibokach) was the 8 May 1943
mass killing
Mass killing is a concept which has been proposed by genocide scholars who wish to define incidents of non-combat killing which are perpetrated by a government or a state. A mass killing is commonly defined as the killing of group members withou ...
of 127 or 128
Poles
Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, who share a common history, culture, the Polish language and are identified with the country of Poland in C ...
by
Soviet partisans
Soviet partisans were members of resistance movements that fought a guerrilla war against Axis forces during World War II in the Soviet Union, the previously Soviet-occupied territories of interwar Poland in 1941–45 and eastern Finland. The ...
in the small town of
Naliboki
Nalibaki ( be, Налібакі, pl, Naliboki, russian: Налибоки) is an agrotown in Minsk Region, in western Belarus.
History
During the times of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, since 1555Dagnoslaw Demski, NALIBOKI I PUSZCZA NALI ...
in
German-occupied Poland
German-occupied Poland during World War II consisted of two major parts with different types of administration.
The Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany following the invasion of Poland at the beginning of World War II—nearly a quarter of the ...
(the town is now in
Belarus
Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by ...
).
Background
Before the 1939 German-Soviet
invasion of Poland
The invasion of Poland (1 September – 6 October 1939) was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union which marked the beginning of World War II. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week aft ...
, Naliboki was part of eastern
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...
's
Stołpce
Stowbtsy ( be, Стоўбцы, ''Stoŭbcy'', ) or Stolbtsy ( rus, Столбцы, , stɐlˈptsɨ; pl, Stołpce; yi, סטויבץ ''Steibtz'', lt, Stolpcai) is a town in Minsk Region, Belarus, the administrative center of the Stowbtsy District. ...
County,
Nowogródek Province.
Following Operation Barbarossa, Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union, Soviet resistance forces operated in eastern Poland, behind German lines. Since the spring of 1942, the 125th "Stalin" unit operated in the
Naliboki forest
Naliboki Forest ( be, Налібоцкая пушча, Nalibotskaya Pushcha; russian: Налибокская пуща, Nalibokskaya Pushcha) (''pushcha'': wild forest, primeval forest)) is a large forest complex in northwestern Belarus, on the r ...
. Its first documented action was the destruction of a detachment of German police near
Naliboki
Nalibaki ( be, Налібакі, pl, Naliboki, russian: Налибоки) is an agrotown in Minsk Region, in western Belarus.
History
During the times of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, since 1555Dagnoslaw Demski, NALIBOKI I PUSZCZA NALI ...
on June 9, 1942. In addition to them, two other Soviet partisan units operated in the Nalibok forest: the Nikitin's unit and the "Chkalov" unit. Local partisans were recruited from Red Army soldiers of all ethnicities who had been cut off by German encirclements,
and from Ukrainians and pro-Soviet Belarusians. These troops had no contact with the
Central Headquarters of the Partisan Movement (CSPD), limited their attacks on German units for lack of ammunition, and raided nearby villages for supplies. They forcibly took provisions from villagers, whom they treated as enemies. The murder of peasants by way of terrorizing them into giving up provisions began in 1943 when villages such as Kamień, Derewno, Borowikowszczyzna, Dziagwie, and Rodziewszczyzna were raided. Naliboki was among the raided villages.
Consequently, in August 1942, by order of the Germans, the villagers formed a self-defense unit, and the village police station was opened. Both the local self-defense and police were infiltrated by the
Home Army
The Home Army ( pl, Armia Krajowa, abbreviated AK; ) was the dominant resistance movement in German-occupied Poland during World War II. The Home Army was formed in February 1942 from the earlier Związek Walki Zbrojnej (Armed Resistance) est ...
.
In the spring of 1943,
NKVD
The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (russian: Наро́дный комиссариа́т вну́тренних дел, Naródnyy komissariát vnútrennikh del, ), abbreviated NKVD ( ), was the interior ministry of the Soviet Union.
...
leaders were sent to Soviet partisans by
CSPD CSPD may refer to:
* Colorado Springs Police Department, Colorado, U.S.
* Center for the Study of the Public Domain, at Duke University Law School, North Carolina, U.S.
* Client-side persistent data, a term for storing data required by web appli ...
, and the partisans were
airdrop
An airdrop is a type of airlift in which items including weapons, equipment, humanitarian aid or leaflets are delivered by military or civilian aircraft without their landing. Developed during World War II to resupply otherwise inaccessible tr ...
ped
material
Material is a substance or mixture of substances that constitutes an object. Materials can be pure or impure, living or non-living matter. Materials can be classified on the basis of their physical and chemical properties, or on their geolo ...
. They were led by "Platon" who, equipped with a radio station, reached the Naliboki forest in April, where he took command of the entire partisan movement in the
Baranovichi oblast. In May, there were more than 5,000 partisans under his command, divided into 36 divisions and 4 brigades, most of them operating in the Naliboki forest.
In March and April 1943, the Soviet partisans arranged two meetings with the Polish self-defense leaders. During the talks, the Soviet partisans insisted that the Poles join them, but the Poles refused. However, an agreement was signed with the Poles, who were represented by Eugeniusz Klimowicz, concerning a truce and joint operations against robbers hiding in the forest. The Soviet partisans violated the truce and decided to attack Naliboki.
The massacre
In the early morning of 8 May 1943, Soviet partisans raided Naliboki. According to Chernyshov's report, the "Dzerzhinsky" unit, the "Bolshevik" unit and the "Suvorov" unit took part in the assault and were commanded by the commander of the "Stalin" brigade. Naliboki's self-defense was outnumbered, with only 26 rifles and 2 light machine guns. However, the policemen managed to barricade themselves in the station, located in an unfinished church building, and retreated in the evening after the Soviet partisans left, despite heavy losses.
A few of the Soviet attackers, including a political officer, were killed by the defenders.
Polish men were dragged from their homes and shot individually or in small groups. Mass
looting followed. Many farmhouses were set on fire.
Also killed during the Soviet attack were three Polish women, several teenagers, and a ten-year-old boy. The town's church was set on fire, along with the public school, fire station, and post office. The raid took two to three hours.
The Soviet commander reported to the
NKVD
The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (russian: Наро́дный комиссариа́т вну́тренних дел, Naródnyy komissariát vnútrennikh del, ), abbreviated NKVD ( ), was the interior ministry of the Soviet Union.
...
the killing of 250 people, the capture of weapons, the rounding up of 100 cows and 78 horses, and the destruction of a German garrison. In reality, the number of victims was lower (now estimated at 129),
no Germans were present or killed, and only one
Belarusian auxiliary policeman happened to be sleeping in the town on the night of the attack.
Aftermath
Naliboki was almost completely burned down on August 6, 1943, during the pacification carried out by German troops, as part of the punitive
Operation Hermann. Its purpose was to destroy the partisan movement, as well as the villages in the Naliboki forest that supported it. In Naliboki alone, 100 people were killed and more than 1,500 deported to forced labor in Germany.
The Soviet NKVD persecuted the pro-German Belarusian populace at least as badly as the anti-Nazi Poles. Thousands of Belarusian collaborators were killed, including teachers, local administrators and members of the
Belarusian Auxiliary Police
The Belarusian Auxiliary Police ( be, Беларуская дапаможная паліцыя, Biełaruskaja dapamožnaja palicyja; german: Weißruthenische Schutzmannschaften, or Hilfspolizei) was a collaborationist paramilitary force establi ...
, and dozens of Polish communities were destroyed. Resulting from this, on at least ten occasions the Nowogródek District division
(pl) of the
Armia Krajowa attempted to negotiate with the Soviet partisans to stop the attacks on hapless villages. Those attempts were futile. In May 1943, the entire Polish delegation was murdered by the Soviets in the powiat of
Szczuczyn and the pacifications continued. Apart from Naliboki, other massacres were committed in Koniuchy (
Koniuchy massacre
The Koniuchy (Kaniūkai) massacre was a World War II massacre of civilians, mostly women and children, carried out in the village of Koniuchy (now Kaniūkai, Lithuania) on 29 January 1944 by a Soviet partisans, Soviet partisan unit together wit ...
), Szczepki, Prowżały, Kamień, Niewoniańce, Izabelin, Kaczewo, Babińsk, and Ługomowicze, including murders around Dokudów and near the Narocz and Kromań lakes, as well as in Derewno.
Home Army officer and commander of the self-defense in Naliboki, Eugeniusz Klimowicz, was accused by the Communist prosecutors after the war of "murdering Soviet partisans" because during the Naliboki massacre the defending Poles managed to shoot several attackers. As a "Fascist-Hitlerite criminal", he was sentenced to death in 1951, reduced to life imprisonment. The sentence was overturned in 1957.
In the cemetery in Naliboki, near the church, which was rebuilt in the 1990s, there is a monument with an inscription in Polish: "In tribute to 127 residents of Naliboki murdered on May 8, 1943 Parishioners." Belarusian authorities have refused to clearly identify the perpetrators of the crime.
Unsubstantiated claims of Jewish perpetrators
The allegation that Jewish
partisans were among the perpetrators of the murder appeared in 1993 in the memoirs of Wacław Nowicki, who had obtained the information from witnesses.
This was later picked up by Polish and Belarusian historians.
[; ] In February 2001, the
Canadian Polish Congress
The Canadian-Polish Congress ( pl, Kongres Polonii Kanadyjskiej, KPK, CPC) is a Canadian not-for-profit organization federally integrated on the 7th of February 1933 in Winnipeg, Manitoba which was previously known as the Federation of Polish Soci ...
(CPC), a right-wing society for Polish emigres in Canada, successfully petitioned the Polish
Institute of National Remembrance
The Institute of National Remembrance – Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation ( pl, Instytut Pamięci Narodowej – Komisja Ścigania Zbrodni przeciwko Narodowi Polskiemu, abbreviated IPN) is a Polish state resea ...
(IPN) to open an investigation into ethnic crimes committed by Soviet partisans — especially Jewish groups — across the
region
In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics ( physical geography), human impact characteristics ( human geography), and the interaction of humanity an ...
, including the
Koniuchy massacre
The Koniuchy (Kaniūkai) massacre was a World War II massacre of civilians, mostly women and children, carried out in the village of Koniuchy (now Kaniūkai, Lithuania) on 29 January 1944 by a Soviet partisans, Soviet partisan unit together wit ...
and Naliboki massacre.
Contemporaneously, the right-wing Catholic daily ''
Nasz Dziennik
''Nasz Dziennik'' ("Our Daily") is a Polish-language Roman Catholic daily newspaper published six times a week in Warsaw, Poland. It is connected to the Lux Veritatis Foundation. Its viewpoint has been described as right-wing to far-right (har ...
'' published a series of articles on the Naliboki massacre, all blaming the Jews; Hanna Maria Kwiatkowska perceives the sudden focus as a balancing counterweight to the culpability of Poles in the
Jedwabne pogrom
The Jedwabne pogrom was a massacre of Polish Jews in the town of Jedwabne, German-occupied Poland, on 10 July 1941, during World War II and the early stages of the Holocaust. At least 340 men, women and children were murdered, some 300 of whom ...
whose details were coming to light. A local branch of the CPC even claimed, wrongly, that in Naliboki "Jewish partisans
adboast
dof killing
..130 Poles".
Jan Grabowski concludes that these insinuations about Jewish involvement were the product of a right-wing political climate.
The IPN investigation recorded multiple witnesses supporting the presence of Jewish combatants, especially, the Bielski partisans, during the massacre; however, IPN did not find any documentary evidence to support such accusations.
Archival records rejected the presence of Bielski's unit in the area; they would move to the vicinity of Naliboki months later, in July 1943.
In conclusion, the IPN held the massacre to have been carried out by partisans from the "Stalin" brigade, accompanied by those from the "Dzerzhinsky", "Bolshevik", and "Suvorov" units.
See also
*
List of massacres in Belarus
The following is a partial list of selected massacres that are known to have occurred in the territory of modern-day Belarus (some numbers may be approximated):
References
{{Europe topic , List of massacres in
Belarus
Massacres
*
Massacres ...
*
List of massacres in Poland
*
Skidel revolt
References
Bibliography
*
*
*
Further reading
*
*
External links
Massacres in Koniuchy and NalibokiNaliboki Catholic cemetery
{{DEFAULTSORT:Naliboki Massacre
1943 in Poland
Massacres in 1948
Jewish Belarusian history
Jewish Polish history
Massacres in Belarus
Massacres in Poland
Poland–Soviet Union relations
Soviet partisans
Mass murder in 1943
Soviet World War II crimes in Poland
World War II crimes in Belarus
May 1943 events