Partisans and Reprisals Behind the Lines

Behind the German front lines, Soviet partisans fought a guerrilla war, especially in the forests and marshes of Belarus. They sabotaged railways, ambushed convoys and gathered intelligence, and from 1942 Moscow organized and supplied many of the groups. In summer 1943 partisans carried out a coordinated 'Rail War' to disrupt German supply lines. German forces responded with brutal anti-partisan operations, burning villages and killing their inhabitants in collective reprisals.

In March 1943, at Khatyn in Belarus, 149 villagers, including children, were killed, one of more than 600 Belarusian villages destroyed together with their people. Partisan warfare was also complex: some groups attacked civilians suspected of collaboration, and in western Ukraine nationalist insurgents fought both Germans and Soviets. Belarus lost perhaps a quarter of its population during the war, one of the highest proportions in Europe.