Today in Labor History March 22, 1943: The Nazi-affiliated Schutzmannschaft Battalion burnt alive everyone from the village of Khatyn, Belarus, near Minsk. They did it in retaliation for an attack on German troops by Soviet partisans. Himmler created Schutzmannschaft police units in 1941. By 1942, they had over 300,000 members. They slaughtered Jews throughout the Baltics, Ukraine and Belarus. They also served as guards at forced labor camps. In total, Nazis and Nazi collaborators slaughtered over 2 million people just in Belarus during the three years of Nazi occupation. This was nearly 25% of the entire population. Of these, 800,000 were Jews, or about 90% of the Jewish population.

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