The Last Massacre

The report breaks off on 29 July 1944, when the camp as well as the "fortified village" of Maly Trascjanec had been cleared and abandoned by the guards and residents - shortly before the Red Army reached it.

Seiler hints at the last documented massacre in the camp:

"One car after the other came with 'evacuees' from all areas. In our camp there was a barn that was 60 metres long and 20 metres wide. The evacuees were taken there too. Civilians were not allowed to enter this barn."[1]

A group of about 6,500 people, consisting of inmates from the Minsk prison and the forced labour camp, were taken to a barn in the camp. There the prisoners were shot and then burned.

The Seiler family managed to escape at the end of June 1944 in the confusion of the camp's dissolution. They are among the approximately 70 known survivors of the camp.

Malyj Trostenez, S. 146 (10).png

Photograph of the remains of the burnt down barn where hundreds of prisoners had been locked up before the barn was set on fire.

Source:

[1] Seiler report, p.11.