Following the terrible bloodletting of the Rzhev campaign, parts of the SS Cavalry Division returned to anti-partisan duty in White Russia. In the predominantly Jewish area around the town of Dokshitz, partisans and their NKVD advisers prepared a warm welcome for the murderous horsemen. Two Jewish partisans, pretending to be drunk, staggered through the hamlet of Swit demanding money and vodka. When a collaborator ran off to tell the Germans, the SS cavalry saddled up with enthusiasm and rode to the rescue - armed Jews would not be tolerated on their watch. A surprise awaited them.

The Germans rode right into the trap prepared by the partisans, and dozens fell before their machine guns. The partisan brigades in this region of White Russia were never fully subdued, and many of their fighters joined the Red Army after the area's liberation in the summer of 1944. The tale became well known across the Soviet Union, but many of the partisans came to regret their success: The SS cavalry retaliated by slaughtering the entire remaining Jewish population of Dokshitz.