The tragedy of Nova Sloboda, 1942

Sumy region, village of Nova Sloboda, 2002. SDTRK. Program “Don't ask for whom the bell tolls.”

Program author Raisa Stoyan and residents of the village of Nova Sloboda recall the tragic events that took place in the village on July 7, 1942.

The program uses video and photo chronicles from World War II.

Comments: local residents Kateryna Larionova, Ulyana Matveeva, and Fedir Gudymov.

Reference: On July 4, 1942, during World War II, Sidor Kovpak's Soviet partisan detachment took up position in the forest near the village of Nova Sloboda in the Sumy region. On July 6, a battle took place between Kovpak's men and the Nazis, in which the Germans were defeated. The next day, July 7, a punitive battalion of the 105th Hungarian Royal Division entered the village and carried out an act of revenge against the local peasants: in less than an hour, 586 residents of two streets, Kovalevka and Baidarivka, were killed.