America's Nazi Secret: An Insider's History (46 page)

Dr. Mikalai Minkevich (left), who married Ostrowsky’s daughter, Melina (right).

The leadership council of the Byelorussian Self-Help Committee in Minsk, 1942. Seated at far left: Ivan Kosiak, later a provincial governor; seated fourth from left: Dr. Ivan Ennachenko; at far right: Vadlay Ivanousky, later mayor of Minsk; standing, second from right: Anton Adamovitch

Joachim Kipel, president of the Second All-Byelorussian Congress.

Jury Sobolewsky, vicepresident of the Byelorussian Central Council.

 Emanuel Jasiuk, who as mayor of Kletsk directed the killing of 5,000 Jews in a single day, and was later minister of immigration in the Ostrowsky government-in-exile.

Left: Major Michael Vitushka, who was sent by Otto Skorzeny behind Soviet lines in the winter of 1944-45. He was purported to be the leader of a large underground army at a time when he was probably already dead. Right: Major Dimitri Kasmowich, the collaborationist police chief of the Smolensk region during World War II. Forces under his command burned entire cities and towns suspected of aiding the Soviets.

Father Mikalaj Lapitski, who forged baptismal certificates for Byelorussians in German DP camps after World War II. He is buried under a large monument in South River, N.J.

The official roster of the leadership of the Byelorussian Central Council at the time of the Minsk convention in 1944. The top listing includes R. Astrouski (Radoslaw Ostrowsky) (1) as president of the Council, Yu. Sabaleuski (Jury Sobolewsky) (3) as second vice president and social affairs minister, and Frantzishak (Franz) Kushel (7) as war minister. The first name on the bottom list is that of Stanislaw Stankievich, as representative of Baranovitche county.

Headquarters of the Byelorussian Central Council in Minsk in 1943.

Monument to Byelorussian war veterans in the White Ruthenian (Byelorussian) Orthodox Cemetery of St. Euphrosynia in South River, N.J. Inside the cross at the top is the emblem of the Belarus SS division. (Washington Post photograph by Bill Snead)

Endnotes

Chapter One

¹
For background on Wisner see William R. Corson,
The Armies of Ignorance
(Dial Press, 1977), pp. 306-10; Thomas Powers,
The Man Who Kept the Secrets
(Alfred A. Knopf, 1979), pp. 32-33; obituary in the
Washington Post
, October 30, 1965.