Unknown War. "Berlin"
In the first material of the new cycle I want to tell about the little-known episode of the Great Patriotic War. Which, nevertheless, cost us dearly in terms of casualties.
The events took place in the summer of 1942 in the Ostrogozhsky district of the Voronezh region. On the Liskinsky direction there were fierce battles. Their goal was to seize the largest railway junction of Liski, in order to establish a normal supply of Wehrmacht units in Stalingrad and in the Caucasus direction.
But parts of the Red Army tightly clung to Liski. 196 fascists fought for the defenders of the city for days and nights, but could not do anything. And the Southeastern Railway remained in the hands of the Soviet troops, and along it went the loads to the south and to Stalingrad.
In order to somehow remedy the situation, the German command decided to build a railway bypassing Liski. You can see her route on the German map of the time. 35-kilometer segment would significantly reduce the time of delivery of goods, since the need for reloading and transportation by road would disappear.
And the construction of the railway from the Kharkov highway to the Rostov railway began. This site and received the name "Berlin", or "Road to the blood."
To provide labor, a concentration camp was organized in the city of Ostrogozhsk. And the workers' camps were created all along the route from the Severny hamlet to Evdakovo.
In total, more than 40 thousands of Soviet prisoners of war were involved in the construction of the road. The main part was captured during the unsuccessful Kharkov attack. Naturally, the majority of those who worked in construction died.
The main service for the protection of prisoners of war was carried by the Hungarians from the 2 of the Hungarian army. Hungarian soldiers deservedly left behind a memory as executioners. 17 September 1942, the Hungarians committed an act of massacre of Soviet prisoners of war and civilians near the Northern Farm (then the Small New Mill), where the road began.
According to the local historian Viktor Vasilyevich Strelkin, at first a simple barbed wire pen was arranged on the field near the hamlet, where at first our prisoners of war were kept under the open sky.
Toward the fall, our soldiers were allowed to build a willow of similarity barracks, which at least minimally protected from the weather. In the barracks even put barrels that were used for heating and drying clothes.
On September 17, while all the people were at work, the nonhumans of the Hungarian bottling laid hand grenades into the barrels. When tired and drenched people who had come from hard labor, lit fire in barrels, grenades began to explode, killing and maiming people. Naturally, the prisoners began to run out of the burning barracks. The Hungarians opened fire from manual weapons and machine guns.
Locals tried to help the prisoners, but the Hungarians shot at those who tried to approach the burning barracks. Not spared anyone.
The result of this day was the death of an estimated 450 people. Although in reality, the figure is likely to be larger, as people died later from wounds, burns and injuries sustained in the crush.
And this is just one of the episodes. It is difficult to say today how many similar crimes there were. But the fact that these 35 kilometers cost us more than one thousand lives of our citizens is an indisputable fact.
The road was actually built. Thanks to Viktor Vasilyevich and his work, we have at our disposal documentary shots that were taken by photos and cameramen of the Hungarian army. And on these frames you can see how this happened.
Photos were made by a Hungarian doctor in Ostrogozhsky district
Out of almost three hours of the chronicles telling about the "victories" of Hungarian soldiers, we were able to find a few moments that tell about the construction of this damned road.
The construction of this vital road for the Wehrmacht was interrupted in January 1943. In the course of the Ostrogozhsk-Rossosh operation, the Wehrmacht’s plans to assist and deploy the Paulus 6 Army, as well as the Hungarian 2 and 8 Italian armies, were scattered into dust.
Today, the involuntary builders of the "Berlin" are still underground. Not all found, a small fraction of those who are found identified. Works are carried out from 2010 year to the present.
The fact that these people died in captivity and almost 75 years lie like this, the restless, today puts the responsibility on us before them. It is not their fault that they died that way, and that they were taken prisoner. These are our people.
We are sure that this is the first, but not the last material, made in close cooperation with search engines. Their task is to search for our soldiers, ours is to make previously unknown facts of our past the property of all Russian people who are not indifferent to this.
We express our deep appreciation to Viktor Vasilyevich Strelkin and Evgenia Popova (VROO IPPO Don) for the materials provided.
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