Unichtoz︠h︡itʹ kak moz︠h︡no bolʹshe...: latviĭskie kollaborat︠s︡ionistskie formirovanii︠a︡ na territorii Belorussii, 1942-1944 gg.
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In the collection of documents offered to the reader's attention, there is a lot of evidence about the blood-curdling horrors created by Latvian collaborators in Belarus. The collection includes documents from the National Archive of the Republic of Belarus, the Central Archive of the Federal Security Service of Russia and the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. "Winter Magic" was originally planned against the population. It was supposed to create an exclusion zone in the territories of Belarus bordering Latvia, in which the partisans could not operate. And for this, the entire population in the zone had to be eliminated. All able-bodied people were planned to be driven away to work, and all populated areas were to be destroyed. Everyone who received instructions to carry out these actions could not even understand what terrible results they would lead to.
Thus, this operation deserves the name punitive more than others.
The exact number of victims has not yet been established.
The punitive forces did not keep accurate records of the population being destroyed, and their data could be wrong even by an order of magnitude. But the number of stolen cattle and people was strictly counted and recorded.
According to Alexander Dyukov, given in his work “Operation “Winter Magic,” 7,275 people were kidnapped by the Germans for work. Many of them died. This number does not include residents who were driven away by the Latvians themselves. Some sources indicate that in total over 12 thousand people were driven away to work.
About two hundred partisans died, civilians from 4-5 to 10-12 thousand. 156 villages and one regional center were burned.
In Germany, Operation Winter Magic is recognized as a crime against humanity. The Latvian government refuses to admit the guilt of Latvian military personnel in the crimes committed.
