On January 14, a commemorative meeting dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the Ola village tragedy took place at the memorial complex with more than 1000 attendants.

Among the participants are the Administrative Officer of the President of Belarus Yuri Nazarov, Deputy Prime Minister Igor Petrishenko, Prosecutor General Andrei Shved, Minister of Education Andrei Ivanets and other honored guests.

Ola is a symbol of the tragedy of the Belarusian people, all the innocent dead, tortured and burned civilians during the war.

The participants laid flowers and wreaths, and the sound of bells echoed in the air - a kind of roll call of burned villages. The memory of the innocent victims was honored with a minute of silence.

An exhibition and presentation of the joint information project of the Svetlogorsk District Prosecutor’s Office, the editorial office of the regional newspaper “Svetlagorsk Naviny” and the State Institution “Svetlogorsk History and Local Lore Museum” “Without a Statute of Limitations” was organized at the site near the museum pavilion. It is based on articles with reliable facts about genocide in the region. There was also a presentation of the song “Ola”, the author of the lyrics is Sergei Parkhomenko.

Unfortunately, the village of Ola no longer exists. It is not on a map; it is not in the list of settlements. However, this settlement dates back to the 19th century. It was established on the right bank of the river of the same name, surrounded by ancient forests and impenetrable swamps. The village, surrounded by forests of the Stuzhsky forestry, was part of the Rakshinsky village council of the Parichsky district.

In 1941, there were 34 households in Ola and 168 residents. On the eve of the war, 35 students graduated from primary school. Residents worked on the “Put’ Socialisma” collective farm. The farm was famous for its high yields of flax, hemp, millet, and vegetables. River meadows and pastures contributed to the development of livestock farming.

In the winter of 1943-1944 the village found itself in the front-line zone. Since it was located in a remote area, refugees from neighboring villages flocked here. Hence such massive casualties during the punitive operation in January 1944. Not only residents of the village of Ola, but also residents of 12 surrounding villages who were hiding here from the Nazis, died at this place. The refugees were mainly old people, women, and children.

Why did they burn Ola? What on Earth might have caused such exorbitant cruelty? The principle of “collective responsibility” was applied here. Germans loved such brutalities on the occupied territories. In Belarus, a mass practice was used: if at least one German soldier died near a village, then, under the guise of fighting partisans, the entire village, from infants to old people, was destroyed. According to one version, a military courier feldjeger of the German army postal service was shot dead on the bridge. This was the reason for the Nazi revenge that fell on innocent civilians.

The tragedy happened early in the morning of January 14, 1944, when a German punitive detachment surrounded the village. Initially, everyone who could move independently was herded into a large collective farm barn, which was located on the northwestern outskirts of the village. This was done under the guise of registering for evacuation. Then, in groups of 30-40 people, people were taken to the other side of the village, driven into houses and outbuildings, which were then blown up and set on fire. Those who tried to escape were shot with machine guns and hunted down by dogs. 1,758 civilians were shot and burned, including 950 children. They did not live to see the liberation of the village for only two weeks. On January 27, 1944, a terrible ashes appeared before the soldiers of the 41st Infantry Division of the 48th Army.

In 1945, a trial of war criminals, including those involved in the burning of the village of Ola, took place in Bryansk. One of the few surviving residents, Artem Ustimenko and Olga Kurlovich were present at the trial as witnesses.

In 1958, a monument was erected at the mass grave - a sculpture of a kneeling warrior with a machine gun on his chest. The mass grave is a historical monument and is included in the State List of Historical and Cultural Treasures of the Republic of Belarus. The civilians who died here are also buried next to the liberating soldiers.

The burnt land of the village of Ola is located in the village cemetery in the Khatyn memorial complex. A capsule with earth from the village of Ola is located in the crypt of the Church of All Saints in Minsk.

Every year there are fewer and fewer living eyewitnesses to the events of the Great Patriotic War. The only witnesses will be memorial sites of the war, places of death of soldiers and civilians. This is a memory that we have no right to forget, we must preserve and pass on to subsequent generations.

And the leitmotif is the words engraved on the Ola memorial complex: “We live while we remember. We are alive as long as we are remembered."