V. Yakovlev, Deputy Director General for Research
National Memorial Complex «Height of Marshal I.S. Konev», Kharkiv, Ukraine
DOI: https://doi.org/10.17721/1728-2640.2021.150.12
SPECIAL NATURE OF KHARKIV SHOW TRIAL CONDUCTING (dated December 15-18, 1943) OF NAZI WAR CRIMINALS
Abstract. Until the end of 1945 the Kharkiv show trial (dated December 15-18, 1943) was the first and unique process in the USSR of war criminals, Hitler's Germany military personnel. Its conducting took time, which was used for the legal framework forming, evidence gathering, and reaching of the relevant international agreements. In Kharkiv the war criminals were publicly tried for the first time in accordance with the Declaration on the Responsibility of the Nazis for Committed Atrocities and the Decree of the USSR Supreme Soviet Presidium number 39 dated April 19, 1943.
The Kharkiv show trial was a well-organized and stage-managed Soviet process aimed primarily at propaganda tasks. Low-ranking servicemen and local soulless executors of the Nazi leaders evil will were chosen as defendants. To show mass crimes levels committed by the Nazis in the USSR the representatives of various structural units of the Wehrmacht, the SS and the German police were brought to justice. They appeared in the court in military uniform, with insignias and awards. The speeches of the prosecution and the testimonies of the defendants and witnesses were full of horrible details, thought out to the smallest detail and aimed to make a depressing impression on audience. The evidential materials contained not only the denouncing testimony of the defendants, they described the Nazi war crimes, committed not only in the Kharkiv region, but they were also illustrative for all the occupied territories of the USSR. The Kharkiv show trial had to demonstrate the Nazis' plans to kill the peoples of the Soviet Union, regardless of their ethnicity. In order not to focus attention on the categories which were subject of the wholesale slaughter, such as Jews, Roma, people with disabilities and mentally disturbed persons, the Soviet investigation veiledly called them “peaceful Soviet citizens”. Another issue that the prosecution attached importance to and covered in detail in the case file was the gas vans or “murderess” used by the Nazis to kill the civil population.
Despite the propagandist tendency of the Kharkiv trial, it was the first that overtly provided the evidence of Nazi horrific crimes connected with the mass murder of civilians and army prisoners on the occupied territories of the USSR and Poland.
Key words: Kharkiv trial of 1943, military tribunal, Nazi war crimes, show trial, USSR, World War II.
Submitted: 10.08.2021
Download Full Text
References:
1. Archive of Zaporizhia Regional Department of the Security Service of Ukraine, file 20368. Information upon the USSR KGB request № 1954/87 – USSR citizens checking provisions – O.O. Posevina, who was born on October 14, 1916 in Tokmak, Zaporozhye region. Berlin, March 22, 1988, 161 sheets.
2. Archive of Zaporizhia Regional Department of the Security Service of Ukraine, file 20368 (O.O. Posevin), vol. 3, 235 sheets.
3. Archive of Zaporizhia Regional Department of the Security Service of Ukraine, file 20368 (O.O. Posevin), vol. 22, 259 sheets.
4. Archive of Zaporizhia Regional Department of the Security Service of Ukraine, file 20368 (Posevin O.O.), vol. 23, 224 sheets.
5. Archive of Kharkiv Regional Department of the Security Service of Ukraine, fund 4 (R), list 2, file 34417 (P. K. Sirenko), vol. 1, 319 sheets.
6. Resolution of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) "On conducting an open trial in the city of Kharkov in the case of Nazi atrocities" dated November 26, 1943 // Russian State Archive of Social and Political History, fund 17, list 163, file 1385, sheet 83. http://victims.rusarchives.ru/postanovlenie-ck-vkpb-o-provedenii-v-gorode-kharkove-otkrytogo-sudebnogo-processa-po-delu-nemecko. [In Russian].
7. Interrogation report of the army prisoner G. Yanchi about the Dulag-231 prisoner of war camp service, dated November 29, 1943 // Central Archives of the Federal Security Service of Russia, fund K-72, list 1, file 15, sheets 38-78. http://victims.rusarchives.ru/protokol-doprosa-voennoplennogo-g-yanchi-o-sluzhbe-v-lagere-dlya-voennoplennykh-dulag-231. [In Russian].
8. Interrogation report of the accused Mikhail Petrovich Bulanov, a former Gestapo employee, driver of the Sonder Commando SD SK-4A about the Nazi troops atrocities on the occupied territory of the USSR. November 14, 1943 // Central Archives of the Federal Security Service of Russia, fund K-72, list 1, file 15, sheets 263-277. http://victims.rusarchives.ru/19-11-1943-protokol-doprosa-obvinyaemogo-bulanova-mikhaila-petrovicha. [In Russian].
9. Interrogation report of the accused Hans Ritz, former SS Untersturmführer, SS company execution officer Taganrog, Rostov Region onthe Nazi troops atrocities on the occupied territory of the USSR. December 1, 1943 // Central Archives of the Federal Security Service of Russia, fund K-72, list 1, file 15, sheets 176-183. http://victims.rusarchives.ru/index.php/01-12-1943-protokol-doprosa-obvinyaemogo-rica-gansa. [In Russian].
10. Interrogation report of the accused Hans Ritz, former SS Untersturmführer, SS company execution officer Taganrog, Rostov Region on the Nazi army atrocities on the occupied territory of the USSR. November 28, 1943 // Central Archives of the Federal Security Service of Russia, fund K-72, list 1, file 14, sheets 155–171. http://victims.rusarchives.ru/index.php/28-11-1943-protokol-doprosa-obvinyaemogo-rica-gansa. [In Russian].
11. Interrogation report of the accused Hans Ritz, former SS Untersturmführer, SS company execution officer Taganrog, Rostov Region on punitive activity in the occupied city. November 26, 1943 // Central Archives of the Federal Security Service of Russia, fund K-72, list 1, file 14, sheets 141–154. http://victims.rusarchives.ru/index.php/26-11-1943-protokol-doprosa obvinyaemogo-rica-gansa. [In Russian].
12. Interrogation witness report of the army prisoner K. Kosh about the use of "gas cars" for killing the Soviet citizens. November 27, 1943 // Central Archives of the Federal Security Service of Russia, fund K-72, list 1, file 15, sheets 26-37. http://victims.rusarchives.ru/protokol-doprosa-svidetelya-karla-kosha-voennosluzhaschego-79-y-pekhotnoy-divizii-vermakhta. [In Russian].
13. Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR No. 39 “On punishment measures for Nazi criminals guilty of murder and torture of Soviet civilians and captured Red Army soldiers, for spies, traitors of the Motherland from among Soviet citizens and their accomplices”. April 19, 1943 // Central Archives of the Federal Security Service of Russia, fund R-7523, list 4, file 164, sheets 118-120. http://victims.rusarchives.ru/ukaz-prezidiuma-verkhovnogo-soveta-sssr-no-39-o-merakh-nakazaniya-dlya-nemecko-fashistskikh-zlodeev. [In Russian].
14. Birstein, V.Ya. (2018). SMERSH Stalin's deadly weapon. – Moscow: AIRO-XXI. [In Russian].
15. Senekina, O. (1945). The documents are accused: collection of documents about the monstrous crimes of the Nazi invaders on Soviet territory. Issue 2. – Moscow: State Publishing House of Political Literature [In Russian].
16. Epifanov, A.E. (2001). Responsibility for war crimes committed in the USSR during the Great Patriotic War. Unpublished thesis (D.Sc. (Law)) MVD Administration Academy of Russia. [In Russian].
17. Zvyagintsev, A.G. (2010). The Nuremberg Trials. Non classified “Top Secret”. - Moscow: Astrel: AST. [In Russian].
18. Yasnova, O.V. (1991). Katyn drama: Kozelsk, Starobelsk, Ostashkov: the destiny of interned Polish military personnel. – Moscow: Politizdat. [In Russian].
19. Lebedeva, N.S. (1975). Preparation of the Nuremberg Trials. – Moscow: Science. [In Russian].
20. Gromyiko, A.A., etc. (1957). Correspondence of the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR with the Presidents of the United States and the Prime Ministers of Great Britain during the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945. Vol. 2. Correspondence with W. Churchill and K. Attlee (July 1941-November 1945) / USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs. – Moscow: Gospolitizdat. [In Russian].
21. Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. Article 33. Retrieved from: https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/995_588#Text
22. Bezverhniy, A.G., etc. (2003). "Smersh": Historical essays and archival documents. – Moscow: Glavarkhiv Moscow Publishing House; OJSC Moscow Textbooks and Cartolithography. [In Russian].
23. Gromyiko, A.A., etc. (1984). The Soviet Union at international conferences of the Great Patriotic War period, 1941-1945: Collection of documents / Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the USSR Vol.1 Moscow Conference of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the USSR, USA and Great Britain (October 19-30, 1943). – Moscow: Politizdat. [In Russian].
24. Lebedeva, N.S. (2012). The USSR and the Nuremberg Trials. Unknown and little-known pages of history: Collection of documents. – Moscow: MFD. [In Russian].
25. Zhadobin, A.T., etc. (2000). The Stalingrad Epic: USSR NKVD and military censorship materials from the Central Archive of the FSB of the Russian Federation. - Moscow: Zvonnitsa MG. [In Russian].
26. The trial in the case of the atrocities of the Nazi invaders and their accomplices on the territory of Krasnodar and Krasnodar region during the period of their temporary occupation. (1943). – Moscow: OGIZ – Gospolitizdat. [In Russian].
27. The trial in the case of the atrocities of the Nazi invaders on the territory of Kharkiv and Kharkiv region during the period of their temporary occupation. (1943). – Moscow: OGIZ – Gospolitizdat. [In Russian].
28. Liakhovych, M. (1944). The trial of the atrocities of the Nazi invaders on the territory of Kharkiv and Kharkiv region during the period of their temporary occupation. Kiev; Kharkiv: Ukrainian State Publishing House. [In Ukrainian].
29. Vokhmyanin, V. (2008). Kharkiv, 1943. Freed forever! Collection of documents and materials – Kharkiv: “Raider” Publishing House. [In Russian].
30. Kalyuzhnaya, N.K., etc. (1975). Kharkiv region during the Great Patriotic War (June 1941-1943). Collection of documents and materials. - Kharkiv: Publishing House “Prapor. [In Russian].
31. Foreign Relations of the United States: Diplomatic Papers, 1943, The British Commonwealth, Eastern Europe, The Far East, Volume III, Document 699. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1943v03/d699
32. Foreign Relations of the United States: Diplomatic Papers, 1943, The British Commonwealth, Eastern Europe, The Far East, Volume III, Document 701. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1943v03/d701
33. Foreign Relations of the United States: Diplomatic Papers, 1943, The British Commonwealth, Eastern Europe, The Far East, Volume III, Document 703. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1943v03/d703
34. Michael J. Bazyler, Kellyanne R. Gold The Judicialization of International Atrocity Crimes: The Kharkov Trial of 1943. // San Diego International Law Journal. – 2012. – 77. – P. 77-138. https://digital.sandiego.edu/ilj/vol14/iss1/4/
35. Stevens E. Russia is no riddle. New York: Greenberg, 1945. 305 с. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.$b674901&view=1up&seq=1