Overview

At the turn of January and February 1946, a Special Action Unit of the National Military Union, commanded by Lieutenant Rajs, pseudonym "Bury," pacified five villages, killing 80 people. The victims were exclusively Orthodox Belarusians. Among the dead were 28 carters, kidnapped on the outskirts of the Białowieża Forest to transport the Unit. After a few days, when the carters had fulfilled their task, they were shot and buried in a mass grave. It took 50 years before the families of the murdered could learn the fate of their loved ones. After half a century, on the initiative of a committee bringing together the families of the victims, an exhumation was carried out. The religious ceremonies accompanying the burial of the remains of the shot carters were attended not only by the families of the victims, but also by the local community, both Belarusians and Poles, who showed their solidarity with them.