Documents on Nazi crimes in the Smolensk region have been declassified
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The FSB has disclosed archival documents about Nazi crimes in the Smolensk region during the Great Patriotic War.
The materials were transferred to the State Archive of Contemporary History of the Region as part of the project “Without a Statute of Limitations.” Among them is the testimony of the captured corporal of the 268th Wehrmacht Infantry Division Hans Farber, who led the pursuit of partisans and civilians in July 1941.
“In March 1942, the partisans settled in one of the villages near Yelnya. We set fire to a village of six to eight houses, most of the partisans disappeared into the forest, and we, having boarded up the houses, did not give civilians and 15 partisans who did not have time to escape the opportunity to escape from burning houses,” he said during interrogation.
Also published was the testimony of German tankman Karl Schneider, who reported the execution of thousands of civilians, including women and children, in 1941.
During the Great Patriotic War, the population of the Smolensk region decreased from two to one million people. German troops entered the region on July 16, 1941 and were driven out in early October 1943.
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