Mystery of mercy
From the first days of the war, after the shaft of the German invasion, there was a children's trouble. Having lost their parents, orphans roamed the forest roads. There were many such hungry, feral children in the Polotsk district of Belarus. At the end of 1941, they began to pass on to each other that there is such a foreign school teacher in Polotsk, we must get to him.
Before the war, Mikhail Stepanovich Forinko worked in Polotsk as a director of an orphanage. He graduated from the pedagogical technical school and studied by correspondence at the mathematics department of the Vitebsk Pedagogical Institute. In the early days of the war went to the front. Got surrounded. On the forest roads he began to make his way to Polotsk, which was already occupied by the Germans. At night, Mikhail Stepanovich knocked on the window of his home. He was met by his wife Maria Borisovna and children, a ten-year-old Gena and six-year-old Nina.
For more than a month, Maria Borisovna, as she could, treated her husband for a concussion. And he, suffering from a headache, told her what he had in mind. Passing through the destroyed villages, he saw children orphaned. Mikhail Stepanovich decided to try to open an orphanage in Polotsk. “I am ready to ask, to be humiliated, if only they would be allowed to gather orphans,” he said.
Mikhail Stepanovich went to the burgomaster of the city. He bowed obsequiously, drawing his statement. Forinko asked to hand over an empty building as an orphanage, to single out at least scant food rations. Many more days he went to the reception to the burgomaster, sometimes demeaning to the extreme. There was a case when Mikhail Stepanovich rushed to flush the cabinet flies away from him, persuading him to sign papers. Then he had to convince the occupying authorities of their loyalty. Finally, he obtained permission to open an orphanage in Polotsk. Mikhail Stepanovich and his wife scraped themselves, washed the walls of the dilapidated building. Instead of cots in the bedrooms they spread straw.
The news that an orphanage was opened in Polotsk began to spread rapidly throughout the district. Mikhail Stepanovich took all the orphans - the kids, who brought residents, and teenagers.
Despite the fact that announcements were posted in the city: “residents will be executed for harboring Jews,” Mikhail Stepanovich, risking his life, sheltered Jewish children in the orphanage by miraculously escaped by writing down other names.
A boy from a gypsy family also appeared here - he hid in the bushes when his relatives were taken away for execution. Now the Gypsy Mishka, barely seeing the Germans passing by, immediately climbed into the sack, stored up in the attic.
... A few years ago, when I first came to Polotsk, I managed to find Maria Borisovna Forinko, the wife of Mikhail Stepanovich (now she is dead), his daughter Nina Mikhailovna, as well as the pupils of that orphanage Margarita Ivanovna Yatsunova and Ninel Klepatskaya -Voronovu. Together we came to the old building where the orphanage was located. Walls covered with moss, lilac bushes, a picturesque descent to the river. Silence.
- How did the orphanage survive? - Maria Borisovna Forinko asked. Many residents in the city had their own gardens. And in spite of the fact that the Germans went from house to house, selecting supplies, the women brought potatoes and cabbage to orphans. We also saw something else: the neighbors, meeting Mikhail Stepanovich, shook their heads sympathetically after him: “At this time, we don’t know how to feed our children, but he gathers strangers.”
“We had to work a lot,” said Ninel Klepatskaya – Voronova. - The older guys went to the forest for firewood. With the onset of summer, we gathered mushrooms, berries, medicinal herbs, and roots in the forest. Many were sick. Maria Borisovna Forinko treated us with herbal decoctions. Of course, we did not have any medications.
They recall the fear in which they lived day after day.
Passing by, the German soldiers enjoyed themselves, turning the muzzles of machine guns in the direction of the children playing. They shouted loudly: “Bunch!” And laughed, seeing as the children scattered in fear.
In the orphanage they learned about the arrests of partisans and underground fighters. On the outskirts of the city there was an anti-tank ditch from which shooting was heard at night - the Germans shot everyone who was suspected of trying to resist them. It would seem that in such a situation, orphans could become similar to small, embittered animals, pulling out a piece of bread from each other. But they did not become so. Before them was the example of the Master. Mikhail Stepanovich saved the children of the arrested underground workers, giving them other names and surnames. The children of the orphanage understood that he risked his life by saving the children of the executed partisans. No matter how small they were, nobody let it slip that there are secrets here.
The children, starving, sick, were themselves capable of doing mercy. They began to help the Red Army soldiers who were captured.
Margarita Ivanovna Yatsunova told:
- Once we saw how Red Army prisoners were driven to the river to restore the bridge. They were exhausted, barely able to stand. We agreed among ourselves - we will leave them pieces of bread, potatoes. What they were doing? They decided to play around the river, threw stones at each other, getting closer and closer to the place where the prisoners of war worked. And unnoticeably they threw potatoes wrapped in leaves or pieces of bread.
In the forest, collecting brushwood, three boys-orphanage children heard a voice in the bushes. Someone called them. So they met the wounded tanker Nikolai Vanyushin, who managed to escape from captivity. He was hiding in an abandoned lodge. The children began to wear him food. Soon, Mikhail Stepanovich noticed their frequent absences, and they told him about the wounded tankman. He forbade them to go to the forest. Taking with him old trousers and a jacket, Mikhail Stepanovich found a tankman at the appointed place and brought him to an orphanage. Kolya Vanyushin was young, of small stature. He was recorded in detdomovtsy.
“I remember our evenings,” said Margarita Yatsunova. - We sit in the dark on the straw. We are plagued by ulcers, from malnutrition, they fester almost everyone - on the arms, on the legs, on the back. We retell each other the books that were once read, we invent some stories ourselves, in which everything ends with the coming of the Red Army fighters, freeing us. Slowly sang songs. We did not always know what was happening at the front. But even now, when I remember those days, I myself am amazed at how we believed in the Victory. Somehow bypassing the attic, looking into every corner, Mikhail Stepanovich suddenly saw a grenade. He gathered the older guys who often went to the forest. “Tell the guys who brought the grenade?” Is there still in the orphanage weapon? ”It turned out that the children brought and hid several grenades, a pistol and ammunition in the attic. Weapons found on the ground fighting near the village of Fishermen. “Don't you understand that you are destroying the whole orphanage?” The children knew that villages were burning around Polotsk. For the bread handed over to the partisans, the Germans burned the houses with people. And here in the attic weapons ... At night, Mikhail Stepanovich threw a pistol, grenades, ammunition into the river. The children also said that they had set up a cache near the Rybaki village: they collected and buried rifles, grenades and a machine gun found nearby.
Through his former pupil, Mikhail Stepanovich was associated with Polotsk underground workers. He asked to transfer to the partisan brigade information about the cache of weapons. And as he learned later, the partisans took everything that the orphanage had hidden in the pit.
In the late autumn of 1943, Mikhail Stepanovich learned that the German command had prepared a terrible fate for his pupils. Children as donors will be transported to hospitals. Children's blood will help heal the wounds of German officers and soldiers. Maria Borisovna Forinko told: “My husband and I were crying when I heard about this. Many of the orphanages were emaciated. They will not survive donation. Mikhail Stepanovich, through his former pupil, handed a note to the underground workers: “Help save the orphanage.” Soon the military commander of Polotsk called on her husband and demanded to compile a list of orphanages, indicate who was sick. ”No one knew how many days were left for the orphanage to start when fascist execution.
The underground sent a liaison officer to the Chapaev brigade. Jointly developed a rescue plan for children. Once again appearing to the military commander of Polotsk, Mikhail Stepanovich, as usual, bowing obsequiously, began to talk about the fact that there were many sick and weakened children among the pupils. In an orphanage instead of glass - plywood, nothing to drown. We must take the children to the village. It is easier to find food there, they will gain strength in the open air. There is also a place where you can move an orphanage. In the village Belchitsy many empty houses.
The plan, invented by the director of the orphanage together with the underground workers, worked. The military commander, after listening to the report of the director Forinko, accepted his proposal: in fact, it is worthwhile to act prudently. In the village, the children will improve their health. So, more donors can be sent to the hospitals of the Third Reich. The commandant of Polotsk issued passes to travel to the village of Belchitsy. Mikhail Stepanovich Forinko immediately informed the Polotsk underground workers about this. He was given the address of the village resident of Belchitsa, Elena Muchanko, who will help him to contact the partisans. Meanwhile, a liaison officer from Polotsk went to the Chapaev Partisan Brigade, which operated near the village of Belchitsy.
By this time in the Polotsk orphanage under the tutelage of the director Forinko gathered about two hundred orphans. At the end of December 1943, the orphanage set off. The kids were placed on the sleigh, the older ones were walking. Mikhail Stepanovich and his wife left their home, which they had built themselves before the war, left the acquired good. Children Gena and Nina also took with them.
In Belchitsy, the orphanages are located in several huts. Forinko asked his pupils to appear less on the street. Belchitsy village was considered an outpost in the fight against partisans.
There were built bunkers, were artillery and mortar batteries. Somehow, being careful, Mikhail Stepanovich Forinko called on Elena Muchanko, a coherent partisan brigade. A few days later she told him that the brigade command was developing a plan to save the orphanage. We must be ready. In the meantime, to spread the rumor in the village that the orphanage children will soon be taken to Germany.
How many people in the rear of the enemy will risk their lives in order to save the orphans unknown to them. A partisan radio operator transmitted a radiogram to the mainland: “We are waiting for aircraft to support the partisan operation”. It was February 18 1944. At night, Mikhail Stepanovich raised children: “We are leaving for the partisans!”. “We were delighted and confused,” recalled Margarita Ivanovna Yatsunova. Mikhail Stepanovich quickly distributed: the older children will carry the babies. Stumbling in the deep snow, we went to the forest. Suddenly, two planes appeared over the village. Shots were heard at the far end of the village. Elder teenage orphanages walked along our sprawling column: they made sure that no one got behind, not to get lost. ”
To save the orphans, the guerrillas of the Chapaev Brigade prepared a military operation. At the appointed hour, planes flew over the village on a low-level flight, German soldiers and policemen hid in shelters. At one end of the village, the partisans, having reached the German posts, opened fire. At that time, at the other end of the village, Forinko led his pupils to the forest. “Mikhail Stepanovich warned us not to scream or make any noise,” said Margarita Ivanovna Yatsunova. - Frost. Deep snow We got stuck, fell. I was exhausted, in my arms baby. I fell into the snow, but I can't get up, I have no strength. Then the partisans jumped out of the forest and began to pick us up. There were sleds in the forest. I remember: one of the partisans, seeing us, who were chilled, took off his hat, mittens, and then the short fur coat — he covered the little ones. He himself remained light. ”Thirty sleds took the children to the partisan zone. More than a hundred partisans participated in the operation to save the orphanage.
The children were brought to the village of Yemelyaniki. “We were met as relatives,” MI Yatsunova recalled. - Residents brought milk, pigs with food. It seemed to us that happy days had come. Partisans staged a concert. We sat on the floor and laughed. "
However, soon the children heard how in the village they were anxiously saying that “the blockade was going on”. Scout brigades reported that around the partisan zone German troops are being tied up. The brigade command, preparing for the upcoming battles, was also concerned about the fate of the orphanage. A radiogram was sent to the mainland: “Please send airplanes. We must take the children. " And the answer was: "Prepare the airfield." In wartime, when everything was not enough, two aircraft were allocated to save the orphanage. The guerrillas cleared the frozen lake. Contrary to all technical standards, the aircraft will land on ice. The director of the orphanage, MS Forinko, selects the most weakened and sick children. They will go the first flights. He himself and his family will fly away from the partisan camp with the last plane. That was his decision.
In those days, Moscow cameramen were in this partisan brigade. They captured footage remaining for the story. Pilot Alexander Mamkin, heroic-looking, handsome, with a good-natured smile, takes the hands of the kids and sits them in the cockpit. Usually flew at night, but there were day flights. Pilots Mamkin and Kuznetsov took on board 7-8 children. The sun was warm. Airplanes hardly rose from the melted ice.
... On that day, pilot Mamkin accepted the 9 children on board. Among them was Galina Tishchenko. She later recalled: “The weather was clear. And suddenly we saw that a German plane was above us. He fired at us with a machine gun. From the cockpit of the pilot burst flames. As it turned out, we have already flown the front line. Our plane began to decline rapidly. Sharp punch. Landed. We began to pop up. The elders were pulling the kids off the plane. Fighters ran up. Barely carried towards the pilot Mamkina, as the gas tank exploded. Two days later, Alexander Mamkin died. Being seriously wounded, he planted the plane with the last effort. Saved us. ”
In the partisan village 18 detdomovtsev left. Every day, together with Mikhail Stepanovich, they went to the airfield. But there were no more planes. Forinko, guiltily with his head down, returned to the family. I sent other children, but I didn’t manage my own ones.
No one else knew what terrible days they had ahead. Closer cannonade. The Germans, surrounding the partisan zone, are fighting on all sides. By occupying villages, they drive residents into houses and set fire to them.
Guerrillas are on the breakthrough of the ring of fire. Behind them on carts - wounded, old people, children ...
A few scattered pictures of those terrible days remained in the children's memory:
- The fire is such that cut the tops of the trees. Cries, moans of the wounded. Partizan with broken legs shouts: "Give me a gun!"
Ninel Klepatskaya-Voronova said: “As soon as there was silence, Mikhail Stepanovich, taking my hand, said: Let's go look for the guys.”. Together we walked through the forest in the dark, and he shouted: “Children, I'm here! Come to me! ”Frightened children began to crawl out of the bushes, gather around us. He stood in ragged clothes, stained with earth, and his face was enlightened: there were children. But here we heard shots and German speech. We were captured. ”
Mikhail Stepanovich and the orphanage boys were driven into a concentration camp. Forinko had a cold, weakened, could not get up. The guys shared with him pieces of food.
Maria Borisovna Forinko, together with her daughter Nina and other girls of the orphanage, got into the village, which they were preparing to burn with the people. Houses pounded with boards. But then came the partisans. Freed residents.
After the liberation of Polotsk, the Forinko family gathered together. Mikhail Stepanovich worked for many years in school as a teacher.
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