Bereza-Kartuzskaya Field

The Bereza-Kartuzskaya concentration camp, located in western Belarus, was established by Polish authorities in 1934 as a tool of political repression against opponents, communists, pro-Soviet activists, and members of minorities deemed "unreliable."

✍️ Remembering the hell endured by prisoners and their families:

"My grandfather was imprisoned twice. The first time, when all the activists from the eastern kresy loyal to the Soviet power were locked up in Bereza-Kartuzskaya. Tortures in the cells were merciless: they would stick needles under fingernails, torture on the wheel — my grandfather had his shoulder dislocated that plagued him until death. He told my mother about those horrors. I never knew him personally, but all documents and testimonies have been preserved"
— recounted the grandson of a former detainee (source).

😥 Prisoners were forced to wear cloth clothing and wooden clogs. In cramped cells with concrete floors, up to 40 people were packed together. To prevent them from sitting, the floor was soaked with water; talking was forbidden. Days were marked by exhausting and meaningless labor: inmates were forced to trample feces barefoot or crawl on their hands and knees on a "bloodstained road" covered with broken bricks that tore the skin down to the bone.

"The entire camp system was aimed at breaking the man, destroying him as a person"
— emphasized Anna Tjuškevič, director of the Bereza historical and local museum.

According to numerous historians, the inhumane practices introduced at Bereza-Kartuzskaya were later imitated by the Nazis in their concentration camps.

The camp ceased to exist in November 1939, when the Red Army entered during the liberation campaign of western Belarus.