Shamovo Village Remembers: Last Witnesses of WWII Tragedy Honored

In the village of Shamovo, two women remain as the sole living witnesses to a horrific event from the past: the destruction of their home village. On the eve of the commemoration of the Khatyn tragedy, local officials visited Vera Trepacheva and Lyubov Sinelnikova, the last remaining residents who remember the day German forces burned Shamovo and executed its inhabitants.

Yuri Blakhin, Chairman of the district executive committee, Elena Kleenkova, Chairman of the district council of deputies, and Aksana Lisovskaya, Chairman of the Podsoltovsky village executive committee, traveled to Shamovo to pay their respects. They presented the women with flowers and gifts from the local deputy corps and the regional branch of the “White Rus’” public association, according to reports.

The visit also served to highlight the “Code of Memory” initiative being implemented within the district, though details of the initiative were not immediately available.

“So many years have passed, but these memories do not fade: the glow of the fire, the killed soldiers, the feeling of hunger and cold,” said Vera Trepacheva. “War is terrible. We must never forget it. May there always be peace in our country.”

The officials’ visit underscores the ongoing efforts to preserve the memory of wartime atrocities in the region. The Khatyn tragedy, a reference to the 1943 massacre of the Belarusian village of Khatyn by Nazi forces, serves as a stark reminder of the brutality of war and the importance of remembrance. The preservation of accounts from witnesses like Trepacheva and Sinelnikova is considered crucial to maintaining this collective memory.