October 26, 1941. The Nazis, who had come to Minsk, decided to stage a show trial – it became the first on the occupied territories of the Soviet Union. If, in the thirties, former allies of the Nazis with crimson-brimmed hats took people out secretly at night, now the murders were put on display. With brazenness and incredible pomp, the Nazis led three underground fighters to their execution. There was only one goal – to intimidate the remaining population of the Belarusian capital and deprive them of their will to resist.

A middle-aged man, a young girl, and a boy were hung from the arch of a bread factory in Minsk. People wondered who the victims were in the huge queue forming at a nearby store. Some said it was a father, son, and daughter; others said they were not related. Most, however, were sure of one thing: Soviet underground fighters had been executed.

In the Soviet film "Executed at 41", released in 1967, the identity of the boy is revealed – Volodya Shcherbatsevich. The film also tells about another man who was hanged – Kirill Trus. His daughter was present during the execution of her father and his comrades, and she saw everything with her own eyes. The filmmakers knew nothing about the young girl who was executed alongside Trus and Shcherbachevich.

But soon, a group of Soviet journalists would discover: the executed girl was 17-year-old Merke Bruskina, a nurse in a prisoner-of-war hospital. Merke, known as Masha to her loved ones, was Jewish. Due to the severance of diplomatic relations with Israel, Communist officials decided that a girl of the "wrong" nationality couldn't be a Soviet heroine. Masha, who is mentioned at the end of the film as an "unknown," will remain so in official historiography for years to come. The obelisk erected at the execution site in 1976 also claims that the girl's name has not been revealed, though this was not true.

Masha Bruskina was born in Minsk in 1924 into the Jewish family of Lia (Lucy) Bugakova and Boris Bruskin. She lived on Proletarskaya Street at first, then her parents moved to Starovilenskaya Street and she was transferred to school No. 28, where she graduated in June 1941.

Classmates remembered her as an excellent actress and an indispensable member of all school performances. She was a true leader and helped her friends with various subjects. Even on a reconnaissance mission, you could trust her! On June 21st, 1940, she had her graduation and the next day, the war started.

Sofya Andreevna Davidovich, a pre-war acquaintance of the Bruskin family, recalled that, almost immediately after the occupation of Minsk by German troops, Masha Bruskina found a job at a hospital for prisoners of war. The hospital was located in the building of the Polytechnic Institute and housed wounded soldiers from the 5th Rifle Corps.

To avoid being discovered, Masha dyed her hair blonde and introduced herself as Bugakova, using her mother's surname. Some researchers believe she also changed her name to Anya, pretending to be a native of Siberia or another region of Russia. As the walls of the ghetto were not yet built, Masha was able to move around the city freely without a yellow star on her clothes. The Bruskins were also forced to destroy some family photos and documents.

Working as a nurse in the hospital, Masha soon began to deliver medicines there. Her mother, Lia Moiseevna, a former employee of the republican book trade department of the BSSR, spent all her free time obtaining fabric and bedding wherever possible, which she used to make bandages. Soviet soldiers were dying from their wounds, but the guards didn't care – the hospital wasn't supplied with either medicine or dressings.

Soon, Masha asked Sofia Davidovich for some men's clothes. As it turned out later, the girl had joined an underground group organized by a 41-year-old man named Kirill Trus. Trus was a worker at a Minsk car repair factory. Together with some other prisoners of war, he decided to rescue Soviet soldiers and transfer them from the hospital to his own people. Every morning, Masha would grab bundles of worn-out trousers and jackets and hurried to the hospital. Unlike her colleagues who carried pots of food from the hospital at the end of their shifts, she refused to steal meager rations from prisoners of war for the sake of secrecy. Although it would have been easier to do what everyone else did, in wartime people often think only of their own families.

One day, Masha timidly asked Sofia Andreevna if she could borrow a camera somewhere. The failure to surrender and possession of photographic equipment in occupied Minsk could be punished by death. But the resistance movement desperately needed a camera. In the early days of the war, prisoners of war were still able to escape from Nazi clutches. However, to successfully escape, not only civilian clothes but also "papers", which patrols checked everywhere, were required. With the aid of a camera, daredevils forged documents. Soon, Bruskina obtained a "Fed" camera purchased by Davidovich prior to the war. This allowed the production of forged documents, thanks to a brave girl. Additionally, according to witnesses, Masha disseminated reports from the Soviet Information Bureau, which she had received from the Truce – they had a radio transmitter hidden in the attic.

Prisoners of war were changed into clothes prepared by Masha Bruskina, received fake documents and made their way from the hospital to the city. Before leaving Minsk, everyone gathered at the apartment of Olga Shcherbatsevich's underground worker, a cultural worker at the 3rd City Hospital, the mother of schoolboy Volodya Scherbatsevitch, who was executed along with Masha later. The apartment was located on Kommunisticheskaia Street. Some were hidden at Olga's sister Nadezhda Yushkevitch, Minsk residents Anna Makeychick and Elena Ostrova, as well as other city residents. There they ate, rested, and waited for transportation. One group was even taken out of the city comfortably in an old truck. Most prisoners of war later joined partisan units or went to the front lines. It is believed that the brave men managed to rescue 48 people during the operations of the underground unit.

But the period of relative calm ended soon. One of the leaders of the underground, a Soviet commander named Volodya, ordered Masha not to come to the hospital anymore. It is unknown whether the underground feared that someone would eventually recognize the girl as a Jew and immediately turn her in, or whether they were going to go to their own people. Masha Bruskina no longer appeared at work in early October 1941.

Several groups of fugitives left Minsk at once in early October. Boris Rudzyanko was among them. He was a technical quartermaster of the second rank who had been rescued from a prison camp. The group stumbled upon a patrol and was taken back to Minsk. Rudzyanko betrayed all members of the resistance known to him during the first interrogation and subsequently went to work for the Germans.

The Nazis captured Masha Bruskina on October 14, 1941. The girl was sitting at home when two young men suddenly appeared in the yard. They asked the children in the yard if Masha, the blonde, lived there. Hearing that she was being sought through the open window, the girl looked out and said that she would go with them. Running out of the house, she shouted to her mother that the guys had come and that she'd be back soon.

As children who ran after Bruskin and the strangers told later, two armed Germans approached them right outside the gates of the ghetto. Her companions did not fight the soldiers, but took police armbands out of their pockets and tied them on each other's arms.

Masha ended up in prison. Lia Moiseevna was beside herself. By a miracle, a policeman turned up who agreed to take a bribe to bring her daughter a parcel to prison. The girl's mother soon received a note with roughly the following text: "Dear Mommy! Most of all, I am tormented by the thought that I have caused you great concern. Don't worry. Nothing bad has happened to me. I swear to you that you will not have any other troubles because of me. If you can, please send me my dress, a green blouse and white socks. I want to look good when I get out..."

Lia Moiseyevna and her friend and colleague, Sofia Davidovich, were horrified. They realized that Masha had hinted that she had undergone torture and had not defamed anyone. And why was there such a festive look on her face - clearly not just for getting out of prison... The women packed Masha's autumn boots and her favorite dress into the parcel. In exchange for bringing the bundle, the police officer received Liya's watch.