Jazep Sažyč

Who was Jazep Sažyč?

Jazep Sažyč was a Belarusian politician and military commander.

Jazep Sažyč was born in Haradzieczna. He graduated from a Polish gymnasium in Navahrudak. In 1938 he was mobilized into the Polish army where he underwent an officer training course. During the German invasion of Poland Sažyč was commander of a minor military unit. He got wounded and taken by the Germans as a POW. He was later transferred to a hospital in Łódź from where he managed to get to Białystok and later to Navahrudak. He worked as an accountant in a village store and became enlisted as student to the University of Lviv.

However, with Germany attacking the USSR Sažyč was mobilized into the Red Army. He soon deserted and returned to Lviv, where he worked at a shop and supported the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists.

He then went back to Navahrudak where he joined Belarusian collaborators organizing Belarusian military units. Sažyč served in the local pro-German police. In 1942 he was appointed commandant of the Under Officer School of the Belarusian Self Help. In February 1943 he was given the task to organize a Belarusian railway guard unit in Lida. From July 1943 he taught at an officer school in Minsk.