Before you continue
This case involves crimes against children. Casepin presents the record in neutral, non-graphic language. Choose whether to continue.
Solved case · 1943
Also known as Yuzif Kaminsky
The short answer
On 22 March 1943, nearly the entire population of the Belarusian village of Khatyn — around 149 people, including many children — was killed by Schutzmannschaft Battalion 118 and the SS-Sonderbataillon Dirlewanger in reprisal for a partisan attack that killed a German company commander.
The coverage index
No one's coverage is attached to this file yet.
Know great coverage of this case?
A documentary, a podcast episode, a careful long-form video. Suggest it and an editor will review it before it appears here.
Suggest coverage for Khatyn massacreThe case file
Khatyn was a small village of 26 houses and 157 inhabitants in the Lahoysk district of the Minsk region of Belarus. On 22 March 1943, during the German occupation of Byelorussia, almost the entire population of the village was killed in a massacre carried out by Schutzmannschaft Battalion 118 — a unit made up mostly of Ukrainian and other Soviet collaborators — assisted by the SS-Sonderbataillon Dirlewanger. The killings were carried out in retaliation for a partisan attack on German troops earlier that day.
According to the historical record, a Battalion 118 unit sent to repair a damaged telephone line near Kozyri village was ambushed by Soviet partisans, killing four policemen including company commander Hauptmann Hans Woellke. The pursuing platoon, commanded by Vasyl Meleshko, retreated and called for reinforcements from the Dirlewanger unit. While awaiting reinforcements, the policemen detained 40 to 50 people from the Kozyri settlement on suspicion of aiding partisans; while being marched to Plyeshchanitsy, the group panicked and attempted to flee, and 26 were killed near the village of Guba.
Reinforcements from the 1st Company and a Ukrainian Platoon of the Dirlewanger unit, under SS-Sturmbannführer Praefke, together with men under Hryhoriy Vasiura, then attacked Khatyn, where fleeing partisans had taken shelter. After a battle in which 34 partisans were killed and most structures destroyed, the remaining villagers were driven into a shed, which was set on fire. Those who broke out of the burning shed were shot. Approximately 149 people were killed, including 70 to 75 children under the age of 16. The village was subsequently looted and burned.
Eight inhabitants survived, six of whom witnessed the massacre. Survivors included children who hid or escaped and an adult, village smith Yuzif Kaminsky, who was later commemorated in a memorial statue depicting him carrying his dying son.
In the postwar period, several individuals identified as responsible were prosecuted. Bruno Pavel, described as the officer who ordered the massacre, was tried at the Riga Trial in 1946 and executed. Ivan Melnichenko, described as leader of the Dirlewanger unit involved, was shot by NKVD agents in 1946 while resisting arrest. Other collaborators were tried in the Soviet Union in later decades: Vasyl Meleshko was tried and executed in 1975, and Hryhoriy Vasiura, chief of staff of the 118th Battalion, was tried in Minsk in 1986, convicted, sentenced to death, and executed in 1987.
Khatyn was designated the national war memorial of the Byelorussian SSR in 1969 and remains a major memorial site, including a Cemetery of Villages commemorating 185 Belarusian villages destroyed during the war along with their populations.
10 dated entries · 1943–2004
Battalion 118 unit ambushed by Soviet partisans near Kozyri; company commander Hans Woellke and three others killed.
Group of 40-50 detained residents from Kozyri panic while being marched to Plyeshchanitsy; 26 killed near Guba.
Schutzmannschaft Battalion 118 and SS-Sonderbataillon Dirlewanger forces attack Khatyn; approximately 149 villagers, including 70-75 children, killed after being burned in a shed or shot.
Bruno Pavel prosecuted at the Riga Trial and executed for ordering the massacre.
Ivan Melnichenko, leader of the Dirlewanger unit involved, shot by NKVD agents while resisting arrest.
Khatyn named the national war memorial of the Byelorussian SSR.
Vasyl Meleshko, platoon commander of the 118th Battalion, tried in Soviet court and executed.
Hryhoriy Vasiura, chief of staff of the 118th Battalion, tried in Minsk and found guilty of all charges.
Hryhoriy Vasiura executed.
Khatyn Memorial renovated.
12 named in this file
Victims first. Every legal label is set from public records and court outcomes, not from the prose.
Twelve-year-old survivor who escaped the village on horseback before it was surrounded.[3]
Twelve-year-old survivor left for dead with leg wounds; treated by partisans.[3]
Survivor who hid in a cellar during the massacre.[3]
Village resident who survived because she was visiting a nearby village that day; later worked at the Memorial.[3]
Village resident who survived because she was visiting relatives in a neighboring village that day.[3]
Seven-year-old survivor who survived the shed fire under his mother's body.[3]
Survivor who hid in a potato pit near his family home; spared after being noticed by soldiers.[3]
Village smith and the only adult survivor of the massacre; wounded and burned, found his dying son afterward.[3]
Officer who ordered the massacre; tried at the Riga Trial in 1946 and executed.[3]
Chief of staff of the 118th Schutzmannschaft Battalion who took part in the attack on Khatyn; tried in Minsk in 1986, convicted, sentenced to death, and executed in 1987.[3]
Leader of the Dirlewanger unit that committed the massacre; shot by NKVD agents in 1946 while resisting arrest (not tried in court).[3]
Platoon commander of the 118th Schutzmannschaft Battalion at the time of the massacre; tried in a Soviet court and executed in 1975.[3]
From the record
3 cited
Coverage is not a source: every fact in this file rests on the records below.
Presskhatyn.byAccessed Jul 7, 2026
Pressilhr.orgAccessed Jul 7, 2026
EncyclopedicWikipediaAccessed Jul 7, 2026
Trust
Are you family of someone named in this file? Corrections and removal requests from victims’ families are prioritized.
Near this case
Credit: Vitaliy Ragulin·CC BY-SA 3.0·SourceSOLVEDListenKastrychnitskaya Metro Station, Minsk, Belarus · 2000s
A bomb packed with nails and ball bearings exploded during evening rush hour at Kastrychnitskaya station in the Minsk Metro on 11 April 2011, killing 15 people and injuring 315. Two men were arrested, confessed, and were later convicted and executed, though the official account has faced sustained international scrutiny.
Credit: Dreamcatcher25·CC BY-SA 4.0·SourceCOLDListenChervyen and the Minsk–Chervyen road, Byelorussian SSR · 1940s
In June 1941, following the German invasion of the USSR, NKVD forces marched thousands of political prisoners from Minsk prisons eastward toward Chervyen and Mogilev, executing an unknown but likely large number of them en route and at Chervyen itself.
Credit: Unknown author·Public domain·SourceSOLVEDListenKfar Etzion, Etzion Bloc · 1948
On May 13, 1948, after a two-day battle, Jewish defenders of the Kfar Etzion kibbutz surrendered to a combined force of Jordan's Arab Legion and local Arab irregulars; most of those who had laid down their arms were then killed, with only four survivors taken as prisoners.
Credit: Unknown author·Public domain·SourceSOLVEDListenKatyn Forest, near Smolensk, Russia · 1940
In spring 1940, the Soviet NKVD executed nearly 22,000 Polish military officers, police, and intelligentsia on Stalin's orders at Katyn Forest and other sites; the USSR blamed Nazi Germany until officially admitting responsibility in 1990.
Zdzięcioł (Dzyatlava) · 1942
In 1942, German forces and local auxiliary police carried out two mass shooting actions three months apart against the Jewish population of the Zdzięcioł (Dzyatlava) ghetto, killing an estimated 2,500–4,200 people.
