Looking round the famous all over the country farm Zaosie, which is considered a cradle of the famous Belarusian-Polish poet Adam Mitskevich, it is worth visiting the village called Koldychevo. It is situated only 5 km fr om Zaosie, but even so it is interesting and unusual in its own way.  The poet himself often came here in due time, however it is remarkable not only for this. a splendid estate of the Shalevich family was located there in the 19^th century, and there was a tragically known Koldychevo concentration camp a century later.

Historical review

The Shchara River, a full-flowing tributary of the Dnieper, flows through the lands where the cities of Slonim and Lyakhovichy are situated. According to one of the versions, it takes off from Lake Koldychevo.  

The lands wh ere Koldychevo is situated have become known since the 16^th century.  In due time, they were a part of the possessions belonging to the Gorunovich and Takhtamysh dynasties. Since 1523, the village of Koldychevo has been mentioned as a private possession of a famous duke of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania who was known as Sigizmund. During its long and eventual history, the village changed its owners several times. Among them we should mention the Oleshkovich and Yambekovich families, after whom Koldychevo again became a personal possession of not a Prince but the Polish king Stefan Batory.  Tomas Shalevich was the last one who owned those lands (up to 1932). The estate, that once had stood there, was named after its last owner.

Unfortunately, information about the building almost did not leave and the building itself did not preserve as well. It had been destroyed long before the notorious concentration camp was located in Koldychevo. The Soviet-Polish War, covering its military actions on those lands in 1919-1920, deprived us, the descendants, of happiness to admire the architectural monument.  Only a magnificent park, that you can see here, keeps the memory of the former greatness.

It is possible that the ruins of the estate could have been restored if during the Great Patriotic War the Nazis had not deployed the construction of the death camp, terrible in its cynicism and cruelty, located on the territory of the estate of Shalevich. According to the official information, about twenty-two thousand people were being killed there in the most savage ways in the period from the date of its opening until 1944. You must admit that the number is terrible. Not every modern district center can boast even ten thousand residents.

Surprisingly, but the information about this terrible place has been fallen in oblivion for a very long time. The obelisk, perpetuating the memory about the huge number of innocent victims in Koldychevo concentration camp, appeared there only ten years ago and that was after a direct appeal to the President of the Republic of Belarus.  That is why now over a mass grave bears the mourning watch “Grieving mother”, showing current and future generations that nothing has been forgotten and no one been forgotten...