The events that will be discussed took place in the winter of 1943-44, when the Nazis made a brutal decision: to use the pupils of the Polotsk Orphanage No. 1 as donors. The wounded German soldiers needed blood.
Where can I get it? In children. The first to defend the boys and girls was the director of the orphanage Mikhail Stepanovich Forinko. Of course, for the invaders, pity, compassion and, in general, the very fact of such atrocities did not matter, so it was immediately clear: these were not arguments.
But the reasoning became weighty: how can sick and hungry children give good blood? No way. They do not have enough vitamins in their blood or at least the same iron. In addition, there is no firewood in the orphanage, the windows are broken, it is very cold. Children catch colds all the time, and patients - what kind of donors are they?
Children should first be cured and fed, and only then used. The German command agreed with this "logical" decision. Mikhail Stepanovich proposed to transfer the children and employees of the orphanage to the village of Belchitsy, where a strong German garrison was located. And again, iron, heartless logic worked.
The first, disguised step to save the children was taken … And then a big, thorough preparation began. The children were to be transferred to the partisan zone and then transported by plane.
And on the night of February 18-19, 1944, 154 children from the orphanage, 38 of their educators, as well as members of the underground group "Fearless" with their families and partisans of the Shchors detachment of the Chapaev brigade left the village.
The children were from three to fourteen years old. And that's all - everything! - were silent, they were afraid to even breathe. The older ones carried the younger ones. Those who did not have warm clothes were wrapped in scarves and blankets. Even three-year-old kids understood the mortal danger - and were silent …
In case the fascists understand everything and set off in pursuit, partisans were on duty near the village, ready to join the battle. And in the forest, a sleigh train was waiting for the children - thirty carts. The pilots were very helpful. On the fateful night, knowing about the operation, they circled over Belchitsy, diverting the attention of the enemies.
Promotional video:
The kids were warned: if flares suddenly appear in the sky, they must immediately sit down and not move. During the journey, the column landed several times. Everybody got to the deep partisan rear.
Now the children had to be evacuated to the front line. This had to be done as quickly as possible, because the Germans immediately discovered the "loss". It became more and more dangerous to be with the partisans every day. But the 3rd Air Army came to the rescue, the pilots began to take out the children and the wounded, at the same time delivering ammunition to the partisans.
Two aircraft were allocated, under the wings they attached special capsule-cradles, which could accommodate several additional people. Plus, the pilots flew out without navigators - this place was also saved for passengers. In general, more than five hundred people were taken out during the operation. But now we will talk about only one flight, the very last.
It took place on the night of April 10-11, 1944. Lieutenant Alexander Mamkin was carrying the children of the guard. He was 28 years old. A native of the village of Krestyanskoe in the Voronezh region, a graduate of the Oryol financial and economic college and the Balashov school.
By the time of the events in question, Mamkin was already an experienced pilot. Behind his shoulders - no less than seventy night flights to the German rear. That flight was for him in this operation (it was called "Zvezdochka") not the first, but the ninth. Lake Vechelje was used as an airfield. We also had to hurry because the ice became more and more unreliable every day. The R-5 plane accommodated ten children, their teacher Valentina Latko and two wounded partisans.
At first everything went well, but when approaching the front line, Mamkin's plane was shot down. The front line was left behind, and the P-5 was on fire … If Mamkin were alone on board, he would have gained altitude and jumped out with a parachute. But he was not flying alone. And he was not going to give up the death of boys and girls. It was not for this that they, who had just begun to live, fled on foot at night from the Nazis in order to crash.
And Mamkin was flying the plane … The flame reached the cockpit. The temperature melted the flight goggles, sticking to the skin. Clothes, a headset were on fire, it was hard to see in the smoke and fire. From the legs, only bones slowly remained. And there, behind the pilot, there was a cry. The children were afraid of fire, they did not want to die.
And Alexander Petrovich flew the plane almost blindly. Overcoming the hellish pain, already, one might say, legless, he still stood firmly between the children and death. Mamkin found a site on the shore of the lake, not far from the Soviet units. The partition that separated it from the passengers had already burned out, and some of the clothes began to smolder.
But death, swinging a scythe over the children, could not lower it. Mamkin did not. All passengers survived. Alexander Petrovich in a completely incomprehensible way was able to get out of the cabin himself. He managed to ask: "Are the children alive?"
And I heard the voice of the boy Volodya Shishkov: “Comrade pilot, don't worry! I opened the door, everyone is alive, we go out …”And Mamkin lost consciousness. The doctors could not explain how a man could drive the car, and even put it safely in, in whose face glasses were melted, and only bones remained from his legs?
How could he overcome the pain, shock, with what efforts did he keep consciousness? The hero was buried in the village of Maklok in the Smolensk region. From that day on, all the fighting friends of Alexander Petrovich, meeting already under a peaceful sky, drank their first toast "For Sasha!" … For Sasha, who grew up without a father from the age of two and remembered childhood grief very well. For Sasha, who loved boys and girls with all his heart. For Sasha, who bore the surname Mamkin and himself, like a mother, gave the children life.
They were shot at dawn
When the haze was still white.
There were women and children
And this girl was.
First they told them to undress
And then stand with your back to the ditch, But suddenly a child's voice sounded
Naive, clean and lively:
Shall I take off my stockings too, uncle?
Without condemning, without scolding, Looking straight into the soul
Three year old girl's eyes.
"Stockings too" - and confusion for a moment the SS man
The hand of itself with excitement suddenly lowers the machine.
He seems to be constrained by a blue gaze, and it seems he has grown into the ground, Eyes like my daughter? - uttered in strong confusion.
He involuntarily shuddered, The soul woke up in horror.
No, he can't kill her, But he gave his turn in a hurry.
A girl in stockings fell …
I didn't have time to take it off, I couldn't.
Soldier, soldier, what if a daughter
Here, this is how yours lay …
Because this little heart
Pierced by your bullet …
You are a Human, not just a German
Or are you a beast among people …
Chagall SS man sullenly, Without looking up from the ground, for the first time maybe this thought
The poisoned brain lit up.
And everywhere the gaze flows blue
And everywhere is heard again
And it will not be forgotten to this day:
Uncle, take off your stockings too?"
Musa Jalil
