In record time, a sparkling high-rise building in the center of Gomel was built - the Belorusneft enterprise built a new building of its BelNIPIneft institute in a historic place on Knizhnaya street.
But soon after the building was put into operation, some employees of the institute began to retell scary stories to each other: at night in the building an alarm began to go off and mystical things happened.
- At first, everyone thought that the new equipment was bad. But after the local dining room was handed over for the wedding, the real horrors began. Moans, screams, cries, knocks began to be heard from the dark corridors. The guards never found any strangers.
People are sure that mystical things are happening due to the fact that the new building is built on bones. This place used to be a Nazi prisoner of war camp, in which more than 100 thousand Soviet soldiers died.
“I personally haven’t heard or seen anything, but I’m afraid to stay at work until late,” admitted one of the institute employees. - There may not be ghosts as such here, but the concentration of negative energy is clearly felt.
After waiting for twilight, the correspondent of "KP" went to the building. The guard girls from the "Security" department greeted us warmly and cheerfully. Although it was late at night, there was no shadow of fear on their faces:
“The whole Gomel talks about it, but I'm not afraid,” the guard admits. - We have elderly colleagues who tell these fears. After the night, they ask with horror: well, did you hear anything? Yes, and in my presence the fire alarm went off, because the equipment is new, and somewhere the battery will run out. At two o'clock in the morning I walked alone across all the floors - and it's okay, I didn't meet anyone. The building has 12 floors, and the ventilation here is such that you can hear anything, especially in strong winds.
The leadership of the institute officially refused to talk about ghosts. And the correspondent of "KP" also got it for a call on a similar topic.
Promotional video:
- Shame on you in a scientific institution to talk about some kind of mysticism! Nobody saw any ghosts, they just tell each other some nonsense, but no one takes it seriously. And there was no concentration camp here - he stood further, where the memorial plaque now hangs.
HISTORIAN'S OPINION: DOCUMENTS CONFIRM THAT HERE WAS A CAMP
Local historians and social activists applied to the Gomel City Executive Committee at the very beginning of the construction of the institute.
- Digging a foundation pit, excavators raised mountains of human bones to the surface. Residents of neighboring houses testified to this, however, no one had time to take photos. I sent an appeal to the city executive committee demanding that the remains be exhumed according to all the rules, - says the famous Gomel historian Yuri Glushakov. “But they told me from the city executive committee that they did not have information about human burials in this place. The construction was not stopped and they did not look for the remains. But anyone understands that the camp, in which 100 thousand people died, could not be in a small area marked with a memorial plaque. There are open historical documents that confirm: there was a Knizhnaya Camp on the territory of the present street, and people died here.
By the way, public activist Konstantin Zhukovsky is now collecting signatures under an appeal to the local authorities demanding to cancel the entertainment events on the territory of the former camp.
PSYCHOLOGIST COMMENTARY
Rumors were born out of the terrible history of this place.
- The history of this place is frightening enough, it cannot but touch, cannot but excite. It causes various strong experiences, sometimes unconscious. Sometimes fear begins to stir in the subconscious, and this is how our psyche works: if a person begins to be afraid of something, he needs an object of this fear. The psyche produces something to be afraid of this something. And "mind games" begin: something seemed to flash, something was heard. And there is the effect of mental infection: an emotionally told story to one, to another begins to live its own life. And many people have an attitude: there is something mystical here, so many people talk about it, people are not idiots! And so half the city begins to talk about history, - says psychologist Christina Balako.
But the other day, someone sent in a short video of a moving light spot. The author of the video, who introduced himself as one of the company's employees, claims that this is a video recording from the institute's video surveillance camera.
As you can see from the video, a monitor is filmed on the mobile phone, which displays the camera recording. There is indeed movement of the light spot in the frame. However, the institute's night guards do not believe that this is something mystical:
- There are people who are poorly versed in technology. Indeed, you often look at the monitor, and it seems that something is moving in the frame. But these are just optical effects. The room is pitch dark, so the picture is snowing, something flickers. We do not pay attention to it, - says the fearless girl-employee of the department "Protection".
By the way, recently in the building at night they stopped turning off the lights in the corridors. Perhaps just for the beauty of the cityscape …