The forgotten tragedy of Koryukivka: How the Nazis exterminated a town of 7,000 souls

Russian womenfolk identify their loved ones, executed in numbers by the Nazis, as lines of people wait to conduct the sad search. September 1941

Russian womenfolk identify their loved ones, executed in numbers by the Nazis, as lines of people wait to conduct the sad search. (Photo by Keystone. September 1941

The forgotten tragedy of Koryukivka: How the Nazis exterminated a town of 7,000 souls

Soviet propaganda decided that the massacres perpetrated by the Nazis in the village of Khatyn, Minsk Oblast, Belarus would stand as the ultimate symbol of Nazi atrocities in all the occupied territories of the USSR. For ideological reasons, the murder of close to 7,000 Ukrainians in the town of Koryukivka, Chernihiv Oblast, was not commemorated or made public at that time.

In total, Nazis burnt down and destroyed 1,377 villages in Ukraine. The Koryukivka tragedy was the most massive and bloodiest not only within the territory of the Soviet Union, but throughout Europe. It happened on March 1, 1943

In the French village of Oradour (June 1944), Nazis murdered 642 inhabitants; in the Czech village of Lidice (June, 1943) – 320, in the Belarusian village of Khatyn (March 1943) – 149 (according to contemporary German data – 152). Europeans know about and commemorate these tragedies, but very few know about the massacres in the Ukrainian town of Koryukivka.

In 1941-1943, Chernihiv Oblast was the centre of the most active and belligerent Soviet partisan forces in Ukraine. During the German occupation, Koryukivka became the nucleus of the Soviet partisan movement in Chernihiv Oblast.

In February 1943, a Soviet partisan unit under the command of Oleksiy Fedorov, First Secretary of the Chernihiv Regional Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine, Hero of the Soviet Union, returned from  Bryansk region in Russia and set up headquarters in the thick forests surrounding Koryukivka. The partisans began collecting food from the villages and coordinating attacks against the Nazi invaders. On the night of February 27, 1943, they attacked and destroyed the German garrison in Koryukivka, where only the hospital brick building survived.

In response to the Bolshevik partisan campaign, the order to destroy Koryukivka was given by Oberstleutnant Bruno Franz Bayer (399th Main Field Kommandatur in Konotop, Sumy Oblast). The Kommandatur was subordinated to the Wehrmacht’s Heeresgruppe Sud (Army Group South).

One early morning of the following week, a detachment of German-Hungarian soldiers surrounded Koryukivka and SS guards began searching the houses. Groups of 50 to 100 people were driven into large buildings such as the church, theatre, or restaurant, and ruthlessly executed. Having massacred all the inhabitants, the soldiers set fire to different buildings: some 1,390 homes were completely destroyed and only a dozen brick walls survived the flames.