Anastasia Antonovna Veras, a resident of the village of Čyrkavičy in the Homieĺ region, shares her wartime experiences from living on the occupied territory. She vividly describes the shifts in village governance during the war. She and her family were later deported. On the way to the main camp, the weak and sick were shot.
„Ende Februar 1944 wurden die Schwachen und Kranken auf Fahrzeuge geladen und zu einem vorläufigen Verteilungslager gebracht. […] Während wir gingen, sahen wir die Leichen von Kindern, Frauen, alten Menschen. Hier befanden wir uns circa 10 Tage.
Am Anfang des Monats März wurden wir unter dem Konvoi aus deutschen Soldaten per Fußmarsch in ein anderes Lager, das Hauptlager, fortgetrieben. Auf dem Weg wurden die Schwachen und Kraftlosen von Deutschen erschossen. Die Menschen baten um den Tod und ich bis zu dem heutigen Tag danke Gott, dass er mir mein Leben bewahrt hat.“ (German original)
“At the end of February 1944, the weak and sick were loaded onto vehicles and taken to a temporary distribution camp. […] As we walked, we saw the corpses of children, women, old people. We were here for about 10 days.
At the beginning of March we were marched under the convoy of German soldiers to another camp, the main camp. On the way, the weak and feeble were shot by Germans. People begged for death and to this day I thank God that he saved my life.” (Translation of the German original)
Source: https://azarycy1944.nghm-uos.de/en/the-concentrations-camps-near-ozarichi/.
