The search for the Nazis continues until now. And the sentence was first 70 years ago in the freedom of Kharkov, the first four Nazis.

On December 15-18, 1943, the first lawsuit was held here in the world over Nazi criminals and their accomplices.

At the dock, the captain of the military counterintelligence of Wilhelm Langheld, Deputy Commander of the SS Us Unthurmführer Hans Ritz, Senior Efreitor Reongard Reclaslav and the driver of the "Degrees" Mikhail Bulanov. The court sentenced them to the death penalty. On December 19, in the marketplace of the central market of military criminals, they were publicly hung.

About the Kharkov process there are a lot of memories of witnesses, photographs and video materials. Behind his move, for example, such famous writers and journalists, like Alexey Tolstoy, Leonid Leonov, Paul Poochina, Petro Panch, Ilya Erenburg, Vladimir Sosyr, Maxim Rylsky and many others. In addition, the process covered the correspondents of leading foreign agencies and international observers. Photographed and conducted a video filming Military correspondent Kharkovchanin Andrei Napty. Immediately at the end of the court in December 1943, a brochure with a process materials was published. However, historians and local historians continue to find new data on the historical event.

Valery Military Historian Military History says that once the Secretary of the Kharkiv City Committee of the Party of Vladimir Rybalov, who, during the trial, headed over the fascists and the military department of the party during the trial.

Needed and intenseed memories of Fishhalov, written by him in 1961, when he was already retired, I was handed over to me, the daughter of the second wife, "recalls Valery Swethzynan.

According to the historian, Vladimir Rybalov worked closely with Alexey Tolstoy, who arrived in Kharkov as a representative of the Emergency State Commission for the establishment and investigation of the atrocities of the German fascist invaders in September. The Commission was looking for facts and collected the testimony of the witnesses of the German terror. Together with Tolsty fishing, there was a place of mass executions in the Crushes of the Yaru, a forest park and on the truth, where the Germans burned the hospital with the wounded.

"The process was entrusted to the Military Tribunal of the Fourth Ukrainian Front. Of the ten established during the consequences of the main military criminals who committed atrocities in the city and the region during their temporary occupation, there were only four of the defendants, and not the organizers, but "small tsha", just the performers: Captain, Lieutenant SS, Ober-Efreteter and Suderkanda Chauffeur 25 Summer Mikhail Bulanov, who sobbed during the whole process, and even during the last word, "Valery Valery Wamchmyan writing an eyewitness.

Attended in the bit of the Hall and Vladimir Alekseevich with his wife. In memories, he notes that it was difficult to restrain the emotions, hearing the frank recognition of criminals.

Side and rear, and the case, the muffled whisper was heard: "Here, the reptiles, people calmly destroy themselves, and they themselves, the bastards are afraid. It is necessary to shoot them, but a quarter, as with Ivan Grozny, "remembers the eyewitness.

Criminals asked to preserve them

The lawsuit was held in a partially destroyed building of the Opera House on the street of Romanskaya, 21. The entrance was available only to citizens who have a special pass.
Today, such a skip, as well as a copy of the sentencing to Nazi criminals, photos and other documents can be seen in the only museum of the Holocaust in Ukraine.

Unfortunately, eyewitnesses of the famous process are no longer alive - time has passed too much. After all, only an adult population was attended by the court - the authorities considered that he was not worth hearing on the atrocities of the fascists. Larisa Volovik recalls a woman who, being a child, managed to get into the building where the process was passed through the roof. But this witness today is not with us.

The director of the Holocaust Museum, which communicated with eyewitnesses of the process, notes that most of all people hated their compatriot, the driver of the "Degrees" Mikhail Bulanov.

Many have fainted, especially when one woman told how he was saved from the "Shuggings", and her children were taken, - confirms Andrei Naptei.

Valery Swingmanian after acquaintance with the minutes of the court session was amazed by the fact that the criminals were not played in Molchanka, but they talked about their atrocities in all details. The researcher assumes that the suspects still calculated to mitigate the sentence. Obviously, they played the cat-mouse with sentenced, promising them not to execute, express a guappy historian. Not in vain, even in the last word, criminals, recognizing that they committed terrible things, asked to preserve their lives.

Of course, before the court stood the task not only to justly punish those perpetrators in the disgraces of the inhabitants of the occupied territories, but also to make them tell about it for the whole world, "Valery Warhmyan emphasizes. - The newspapers published articles about the atrocities of the Nazis, they talked about the radio and in documentary films, which were shown in the liberated cities and the front line. So, one of the first documentary evidence was a report, filmed in the Kharkov process, where the fascist tells how he personally killed old people and children.

For the death of thousands of Kharkiv, not everyone was replied


According to Valeria, Valery, the main wave of the fascist terror against the local population (with the exception of the executions in the Crushes of the Yar and the plans for the prisoners of war) was covered by Kharkov in March 1943, after the city was occupied for the second time. The punishers destroyed the Kharkiv for the concealment of the Jews, the cut links, the storage of weapons or radio recovers, antinec propaganda, an attempt on life or simply disobedience to the German soldiers and collaborated with them collaborators. If the culprit was not found, residents of the neighboring settlements or streets were shot.

In addition, according to historians, it was in Kharkov that the Nazis tried their "invention" - gaswaren.

Local residents could shoot straight on the street. For example, if the patrol met a person like a Jew or Roma. So died a lot of Armenians, Georgians or Tatars. In the "Book of Memory" and noted: "Killed by the German patrol, was accepted for the Jew," says Valery Mochmeynan.

In the collection of materials "The lawsuit on the atrocities of the German-fascist invaders in the territory of Kharkov and the Kharkov region during their time occupation" is mentioned that in December 1941 the population of the city was 457 thousand people, and by the end of the occupation - about 190 thousand although, Of course, part of the population during the occupation died from hunger, part - left.

In addition, more than 16 thousand Jews were mentioned in the investigation materials of the State Emergency Commission, the director of the Museum of Holocaust Larisa Volovik is stated.

In the documents published after the trial, there is also no one word that Jews were killed in the Crushes Yar. Until now, some consider the burial of a brotherly grave, but this is not the case: only Jews and people of other nationalities have been shot there, who did not want to leave the doomed relatives, "Larisa Volovik is sure.

Why in Kharkov on the bench of the defendants only four executioners? Historians believe that the Germans desperately noticed traces of crimes, destroying documents and witnesses. Sometimes it was impossible to find witnesses even the most massive executions of the civilian population. Although the members of the Emergency Public Commission still managed to establish the names of the heads of the Gestapo and commander of the SS parts, which ordered the destruction of people. The list of criminals was published at the end of the indictment. But, unfortunately, after the war, not all Nazi executioners were convicted of atrocities committed in Ukraine.

The head of the Kharkiv "Sonder CD", Nuturnführer Hanebitter, was executed, but the Americans were judged him, and they did not consider his crimes on the Eastern Front, but only the shooting of the prisoners of war of union troops, "the example of Valery Warheman. "However, for the same reason, many Nazis avoided fair punishment, served their term in prisons and reached freedom.

Some criminals fled at all from Europe to safe countries. For example, the Creator of Gaswagen Walter Ruhh was in Chile, where he became an adviser to the dictator of Augustus Pinochet.

By the way, even Reikomissar of Ukraine Erich Koh, who gave orders for mass executions, was convicted in Poland. He was not awarded the highest measures, although he was behind bars to his death.

Harbiton Nuremberg Tribunal

Witness at the Nazis's atrocity was 17-year-old Igor Maletsky. In order not to get to work in Germany, the guy has repeatedly ran out of custody, and then together with the wounded mother risked and leave the hometown at all. Getting to relatives in the Kirovograd region, he drove her three hundred kilometers on sledding. Mom remained alive, but the coup was still caught. Igor survived concentration camps in Austria and Germany. Now he is headed by the Kharkov Regional Committee of Prisoners of Fascist Concentration Cings.

Notice, the Kharkov convicts hung at the fair sentence of the court on the rope, and not how they did in concentration camps, tapped on meat hooks for the chin or edge, says the Chairman of the Committee.

The whole world saw that it was a court, and not a trial or a decreased, - agrees Professor of the Department of History of Russia Henna. V.N. Karazin, Doctor of Historical Sciences Yuri Hair. - It became obvious that civilized norms will be applied to the defeated, and not animal instincts of revenge.

After the Kharkov process, it became clear that they would have to respond to crimes to everyone, and not just to those who gave orders, emphasize historians. It was the Kharkov process that laid the foundation for future tribunals, including Nuremberg, who took place two years later. Moreover, the Nuremberg Tribunal used the materials of the first lawsuit over the fascists in the USSR. By the way, the rector of the Kharkov University, Vladimir Lavrushin, during the Tribunal was the chairman of the Commission of the International Expert Group, who studied the action of "death machines" in concentration camps.

Nazis and policemen are still looking for

As SBU veteran told "Evening Kharkov", and in Soviet times, Mikhail Gritsenko, an active searches and arrests of war criminals continued until the 1980s. They changed the place of residence and surnames, but in the end, the executioners had to look into their eyes to their victims and listen to curses in their address, because the courts were still open and vowels. In 1970-1980, law enforcement personally participated in the wanted and capture of former German accomplices, hurried in Belgorod, Burvenkovo \u200b\u200band Bogodukhov.

Politsy from Barvenkovo \u200b\u200bMayborod was discovered in Donetsk, and Bogodukhovsky Square in Altai, "says Mikhail Petrovich. - All of them lived under strangers. Sklyar went to the execution, and Mayborod received 15 years.

The last process over the employees of the Kharkiv police Alexander Sowing took place in the 1980s. In the autumn of 1988 he was shot.
According to Valery Wowchman, the period of limitations for war crimes against humanity does not apply, so some criminals are still looking for.

The first on the newly liberated territory was found to the Nazis and their accomplices, employees of a special department, which will then name Smerge, - the historian notes. - Then the work continued the NKVD authorities. And now in the archive of the SBU, unfinished affairs, open still at the time. This happened in cases where the suspect was either not found, or found that he lived in the countries with which the USSR had no agreements on the extradition of criminals: the United States, Brazil, Argentina.

The battle for Kharkov has become a natural and very important outcome of the successful actions of the Soviet troops in the Kursk arc. The last powerful attempt of German counteroffensive was turned off, and now the task was in the speedy liberation of industrial regions of Ukraine, capable of a lot to give the front.

Problems of operation

The attack on Kharkov had many tasks. The most important thing can be considered the creation of a springboard for further liberation in general and industrial Donbass in particular (the possibility of flanking strike appeared). It was also necessary to master the city's transport infrastructure (there were airport and airfield airfield) and finally stop the further attempts of the fascists to move into counteroffensive by defeating their Kharkov grouping (significant in numbers and strength).

Why Kharkov?

In connection with which the city was attached such important? The answer lies in the history of Kharkov, who since the XVIII century was the main center of the economic and cultural life of Slobodskoy Ukraine. Already in the middle of the XIX century, the city received a railway communication with Moscow. It was here that in 1805 the first in Ukraine began the work of the New Time in Ukraine (Medieval Academy and Lviv University in this regard did not count), and then the Polytechnic Institute.

In the prewaging period, Kharkov was the largest engineering center, he gave 40% of the products of this industry in Ukraine and 5% - on the scale of the country. Accordingly, there was a scientific and technical potential.

There were ideological reasons. It was in Kharkov in December 1917 a congress of the Soviets took place, which announced the creation of the Ukrainian Soviet Republic. Until 1934, the city was the official capital of the Ukrainian SSR (the "Ukrainian Socialist Soviet Republic" decodes, and not the way the post-war generation is accustomed; in the Ukrainian language there is a difference in abbreviations).

Background question

And the German, and the Soviet parties perfectly understood the meaning of Kharkov. Therefore, the fate of the city in the military period was very difficult. The liberation of Kharkov is 1943 - it was already the fourth battle for the city. How did everything happen? This will be discussed further.

On October 24-25, 1941, the occupation of Kharkov Hitlerians was carried out. He cost them relatively little - the consequences of the recent environment and defeat near Kiev and the Uman boiler, where the losses of Soviet troops were considered hundreds of thousands. The only thing in the city was left by radio-controlled mines (some subsequent underfoot were very successful), and a significant part of industrial equipment managed to remove or destroy.

But in the late spring of 1942, the Soviet command made an attempt to repel the city. The offensive was poorly prepared (in the absence of combat-ready reserves), and the city again passed under the control of the Red Army for just a few days. The operation lasted from 12 to 29 May and ended with the environment of a significant grouping of Soviet troops and their full defeat.

The third attempt was made in more favorable conditions. Even during the Stalingrad battle, part of the South-Western Front began offensive operations in the Donbas. After passing the Pouryus grouping, the Voronezh Front moved to the offensive. In February, it took part of Kursk and Belgorod, and the 16th residents were traded by Kharkov.

Having plans the idea of \u200b\u200ba large-scale counter-finishing operation ("Citadel", which was put to an end to the Kursk Arc), the German leadership could not agree with the loss of such an important transportation unit as Kharkov. On March 15, 1943 by the forces of two divisions of the SS (and should not think that only the Jews were able to shoot and hutni burn - parts of the SS were elite in the Hitler's army!) The city was again captured.

If the enemy does not give up ...

But in July, the plan of the Hitler counterattack failed; Soviet command should have developed success. The attack on Kharkov was considered as the most important for the closest future before the completion of the Kursk battle. When planning the upcoming liberation of Kharkov discussed the main question: does the surrounding surgery or the destruction of the enemy?

We decided to beat for destruction - the environment required a lot of time. Yes, it was brilliantly succeeded in Stalingrad, but further, during the offensive fighting, the Red Army again resorted to him only in early 1944, during the Korsun-Shevchenkovsky operation. At the same time, the attacking Kharkov, the Soviet command even specifically left the "corridor" to exit the Hitler's troops - to finish them in the field it was easier.

Today here - tomorrow there

In the summer of 1943, during the fighting under Kursk, another interesting strategic technique was implemented, which became a kind of "chip" of the Red Army. He was in applying enough strong blows in different places of a fairly extended section of the front. As a result, the enemy was forced to feverish their reserves over long distances. But he did not have time to do it, as the blow was applied elsewhere, and on the first part of the fighting acquired a protracted character.

So it was in the battle for Kharkov. The activity of the Soviet troops in the Donbas and the northern tip forced the fascists to transfer the strength from under Kharkov. It was possible to step.

Forces side

From the Soviet side, the troops of Voronezhsky (the commander - General of the Army of Vatutin) and the Steppe (commander - Colonel-General Konev) of Fronts were operating. The command applied the practice of reinforcing parts of one front to another for the purpose of more rational use. Coordination of actions in Kharkov, Orlovsky and Donetsk directions carried out

In the font troops there were 5 guards armies (including 2 tank) and the air army. This shows how much the operation was attached. At the front site appointed for the breakthrough, an unprecedentedly high concentration of equipment and artillery was created, for which additional guns, self-propelled installations and T-34 and KV-1 tanks were satisfied. He was also transferred to the area of \u200b\u200bthe offensive artillery corps of the Bryansk Front. 2 armies were in the rates reserve.

With the German side, the defense was held by the infantry and tank army, as well as 14 infantry and 4 later, after the start of the operation, the fascists urgently transferred to the area of \u200b\u200bits reinforcement from the Bryansk Front and Mius. Among these replenishments were such well-known parts as "Totenkompf", "Viking", "Das Reich". From the Hitler's commander, who had attracted to battles near Kharkov, the most famous Field Marshal Manstein.

Communion from the past

The main part of the Kharkiv strategic operation is the actual Belgorod-Kharkiv offensive operation - received a conditional name - the operation "Commissioner of Rumyantsev". During the Great Patriotic War, the USSR abandoned the previously distantized practices from the "imperial" past of the past. Now in Russian history there were examples that could inspire people to war and win. The name of the operation to liberate Kharkov is from this area. The case is not the only one - the operation is known as "Bagration", and shortly before the Kharkov events at the northern tip of the Kursk Arc, Kutuzov was carried out.

Forward, on Kharkov!

It sounds good, but it was impossible to do this. The plan provided first to cover the city in the upcoming parts, it is possible to free the large territory of south and north of Kharkov, and then seize the former capital of Ukraine.

The name "Commissioner of Rumyantsev" was used precisely to the main part of the operation - actually a blow to Kharkov. Belgorod-Kharkiv operation began on August 3, 1943, and already on the same day 2 Hitler's tank divisions were in the "boiler" under Tomarovka. The 5th of the part of the steppe front with the battle entered Belgorod. Since on the same day, the forces of the Bryansky front was occupied by Eagle, in Moscow, this double success was celebrated by the festive salute. It was the first Salute victory during the Great Patriotic War.

On August 6, the Operation "Commissioner of Rumyantsev" was in full swing, the Soviet tanks ended the enemy's elimination in the Tomarovsky boiler and moved to Zolochev. They approached the city at night, and it was half success. Tanks were quiet, with light headlights. When, by entering a sleepy city, they included them and squeezed the full speed, the surprise of the attack predetermined the success of the Belgorod-Kharkiv operation. Further coverage of Kharkov continued with promotion at Bogodhov and the beginning of fighting for Akhtyark.

At the same time, parts of the southern and south-western fronts unfolded offensive actions in the Donbas, moving towards the Voronezh Front. It did not allow the Nazis to transfer to Kharkov reinforcements. August 10 was taken under the control of the Kharkov railway line - Poltava. The Nazis tried to counteratacticate in the area of \u200b\u200bBogodukhov and Akhtyrki (the selected parts of the SS participated), but the results of the counterattack were tactical - they could not stop the Soviet offensive.

Red again

On August 13, the German defense line was broken directly near Kharkov. Three days later, the battles were already on urban outskirts, but the Soviet parts moved forward not as fast as I would like - German fortifications were very strong. In addition, the onset of the Voronezh Front was delayed due to events under Akhtyrka. But the 21sts of the front resumed the offensive, defeating the Akhtyra group, and the 22nd Germans began a discharge from Kharkov their parts.

The official day of the liberation of Kharkov - August 23, when the Soviet army took control over the main part of the city. However, the suppression of the resistance of individual enemy groups and the cleaning of the suburbs continued to the 30th. The complete liberation of Kharkov from the fascist invaders occurred on this day. On August 30, the city had a holiday on the occasion of liberation. One of the honored guests was the future Secretary General N. S. Khrushchev.

Heroes of Liberation

Since the Kharkiv surgery was attached great importance, the government did not shake on the awards to its participants. Several parts as honorary title were attached to their names of the word "Belgorod" and "Kharkov". State awards were distributed to soldiers and officers. But here Kharkov the title of the city of Hero was not awarded. They say, Stalin refused this thought due to the fact that it was finally released the city only with the fourth attempt.

The 183th Infantry Division has the right to the title of "twice Kharkiv". It was the fighters of this unit first to join the main square of the city (I. Dzerzhinsky) and February 16, and August 23, 1943.

Excellent showed themselves in the battle under Kharkov Soviet attack aircraft "Petelkov" and the legendary T-34 tanks. Still - they were made including experts from the Kharkov Tractor Plant! Evacuated in Chelyabinsk, the plant just in 1943 began the mass production of tanks (now it is the Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant).

Everlasting memory

There is no lossless war, and the history of Kharkov confirms this. The city was in this matter by an unknown leader. The losses of the Soviet troops under this city were the most significant for all the great domestic. Of course, implies the total result of all four battles. The liberation of the city and its surroundings cost more than 71 thousand lives.

But Kharkov survived, rebuilt and long continued to work with his hands and head for the good of the common big homeland ... and now this city still has chances ...

Even after the past years, interest in the events of the Second World War does not fade. There are still disputes regarding the interpretation of many of its episodes and events. Unlike earlier wars, this war left behind a huge number of photo documents that captured those terrible events. All new and new pictures that were in closed archives and private collections are becoming available to a wide viewer. Of particular interest are realistic color shots, which are more complete to transmit the atmosphere of those years.

Today we will show a series of pictures of the occupied Kharkov, made mainly in 1942. Part of the buildings in the photos were destroyed after airlinalets and art-rods, but a year later, even more Kharkiv streets will be destroyed when in 1943 the city will again become the arena of brutal battles. On the photos presented in the selection of many streets recognizable, but some buildings in the pictures have not survived to this day, as they were destroyed during the battle or demolished in the postwar years.

In spite of everything, life is continuing on the streets of the occupied city in 1942 - the Kharkiv region leads trade, there are public transport, the signs are singing in German and Ukrainian, passersby consider German propaganda.

1. Citizens against the background of trade pavilions of the Central Market of Kharkov.

2. Passersby on one of the victims of the central streets of Kharkov. On the horizon there is a current building of the Kharkov National University, and in those days - houses of projects. The building suffered greatly during the war years and by 1960 it was rebuilt and was given to the university.

3. Trade in the central market. Against the background of the Dome of the Annunciation Cathedral (right) and the Dome of the Assumption Cathedral, in which since 1986 there is a house of organ and chamber music.

5. Portrait of Adolf Hitler in the store showcase in the occupied Kharkov of 1942.

6. Kharkiv cards are considering anti-Semitic and Aniseetic posters.

7. TEVELEV Square in the occupied Kharkov (currently - the Constitution Square). The building on the right is not preserved, in its place the post-war building.

8. Hotel "Red" in the occupied Kharkov in June-July 1942. Before the revolution, the hotel was called "Metropol". It was one of the most beautiful buildings of the city, but during the occupation, it suffered very much and was not subject to recovery. In his place after the war, a new building was built, usual for that time architecture.

9. Square M.S. Tevelev in the occupied Kharkov (currently - the area of \u200b\u200bthe Constitution). Left - a strongly damaged during the occupation of the building "Red" hotel, demolished after the war. The snapshot is made from the roof of the building of the Poland of Pioneers (the former Noble Assembly), which was also destroyed during the occupation; Now in his place the monument in honor of the proclaiming of Soviet power in Ukraine (now dismantled).

10. German cars opposite Kharkov hotels in 1942, on the central square of the city (now the Freedom Square), which since its foundation for 1996 was named Dzerzhinsky Square. During the German occupation in 1942, the Square of the German army was named. From the end of March to August 23, 1943, the SS leibstandart square was called the name of the secondly seized city in the third battle for Kharkov of the 1st Division of the Labishtandard SS "Adolf Hitler".

14. Embankment of the Lopan River in the Central Market area. On the horizon, the tram and the bell tower of the Assumption Cathedral are visible.

16. Children are considering the baked German tanks collected on the Priminal Square (from the part of the Chief Advanced) of the occupied Kharkov. In the foreground, the commander version of the PZ.KPFW tank. III.

In the early 1940s, the Kharkov Historical Museum became one of the largest in the Ukrainian SSR, its meetings were more than 100 thousand items. During the Great Patriotic War, the museum was damaged and then restored and replenished with materials from the regions of the region. Currently, next to Mark V is the T-34 tank.

19. Square M.S. Tevelev in the occupied Kharkov (currently - the area of \u200b\u200bthe Constitution). View of the building of the Noble Assembly (1820, Architect V. Lobachevsky). Asspensky Cathedral is visible.

Before the revolution, once every three years, several hundred Kharkov nobles were collected in the building and elections were held in the noble assembly. On March 13, 1893, a speech was held in the building of the noble assembly in Kharkov. Tchaikovsky. From 1920, the All-Ukrainian Central Executive Committee was working to transfer the capital of Soviet Ukraine to Kiev in the building of the Nobility Assembly. In 1935, after the translating of the capital to Kiev and the move of the government, the building was transferred to the first Poland Poland in the USSR.

During the battles for Kharkov in 1943, the building was completely destroyed. Now in its place there is a monument in honor of the proclaiming of Soviet power in Ukraine (now dismantled).

21. Damaged bombing and art fixers of the quarters around the Annunciation Cathedral, which, like other Kharkov churches, was opened for worships during the years of fascist occupation. The Cathedral building was not injured during the war years.

23. Boat crossing over the Lopan River. Against the background - the bridge and the Annunciation Cathedral exploded during the retreat of the Soviet troops.

24. TEVELEV Square (now the Constitution Square) and the top view of Sumy Street. In the foreground - the house of science and technology.

During the German occupation of 1941-1943. On the first floor there was a stable, on other floors at the beginning of the occupation there were monkeys who escaped from the zoo located next to the building. Until August 23, 1943, there were three macaques-resusions in the Larz, which at the 65th anniversary of the liberation of the city, in August 2008, was opened a monument on the territory of the zoo. Before the retreat in August 1943, during the so-called "cleaning" of Kharkov, the Germans mined the rulers, like many other city buildings, but the explosion was prevented by an unknown patriot, which at the same time died. Then the building was set on fire, but the reinforced concrete roster did not harm it.

26. A resident of Kharkov looks at the propaganda German poster. The inscription in Ukrainian is "for the freedom of peoples."

27. German Adjustment near the delonom in the occupied Zhytomyr (the angle of the streets of Big Berdichevskaya (with tram rails) and Mikhailovskaya). Over the store transparency with the inscription in German: "Welcome!". Photo is often mistaken to a well-known series of color photographs of occupied Kharkov.

Here I will defier from the "straight line" of my memoirs and in the following 6 chapters I will try to characterize the overall environment - which happened in Kharkov, and also, in part, in other cities of Ukraine after the seizure of the fascist troops of the huge territory, touched upon the painful theme of the Jewish Genocide. The reason for the description of the tragic events of this period was the fact that, trying to find some traces of the last days of the life of my loved ones (grandparents, grandparents, who died in the Kharkov and Nikolaev ghetto), I, immersed in a huge array of scattered data available in The Internet, was suppressed by the numerous embraced me, often very contradictory details and details.
Commissioning and "Hanging" on each other, they create a "holistic" and terrible picture of horror illustrating all the abominations and murderous meanness, to which "Homo Sapiens", armed with false, feast and destructive ideology, which justified " The mission of the Aryan Blonde Bestness "on this earth ... as well as often encouraged by atrocities - alas - primitive and low-lying animals by instincts, not limited elementary concepts and laws of human morality ...
There will have to touch the topic of cooperation with the occupiers of traitors from among the local residents of non-Jewish nationality, which helped the Germans in the destruction of Jews and, in particular, some motives of behavior during the occupation and after the war of various apologists of Ukrainian nationalism and informal state anti-Semitism ...

I found my duty to clarify (at least for myself) and bring some incomplete and tendentious materials to some kind of conditioned general denominator, and to try as objectively as possible, briefly and intelligibly convey the essence of a number of contradictory interpretations of individual events. Finally, - to remind your descendants about the tragic events of the Holocaust, the victims of which are among more than 5 million. Jews, became some of their ancestors of relatives ...

Most of the following actual materials relating to the death of Jews in Kharkov and Nikolaev (where my relatives were destroyed), as well as in Kiev during the occupation by the Germans of Ukraine and the Western regions of the RSFSR, taken from various sources on the Internet, in particular from the publications of my countryman, known Felix Rakhlin writers (see site< ПРОЗА.РУ >
Some texts are partly compiled, redesigned and presented with my comments and - where detailed, and where and schematic - interpretations of events. As illustrations used photos of German occupants, "photographers" and shots from the trophy German newsreel, placed on the Internet.

May the Lord will help those who read below the sorrowful descriptions of the terrible events of those years to preserve their strength at least a little peaceful peace of mind, faith in a person and the celebration of justice ...

... Kharkov was one of the first major cities in the country, in which state evacuation plans were fully fulfilled: all the equipment of the plants were exported, all the stocks of bread were removed to leave anything. All that could not take out, destroyed. Power station and waterproof were blown up. Food stocks that did not have time to take out, were actually given to the plundering of the population. All the remaining residents of Kharkov suddenly turned out to be without work, without information and, in the end, without livelihood ...

Kharkov left the Red Army, the Germans took no fight on October 25, 1941. In the first weeks of occupation in the city, punitive operations began in response to sabotage acts from the left-minded Soviet underground. Caught underground workers hung. Jews usually took hostages, who were no longer returned home.
According to the memoirs of Maya Reznikova (currently lives in Germany), after the city flew to the air on the street. Garden, in which the German general and 28 officers died, and when the Germans on the radio announced that 500 Jews with documents came to the hotel "International" (as hostages, until the guilty partisans are found, and then they will be released "), her mother herself voluntarily went to the hotel.
Then still believed in the "humanism" of the new authorities. Fortunately, the annoyed Swiss sent her back with the words: "What are you all go and go, there are already so full of people. Leave immediately!" It was November 1941.

In general, in the first week after the capture of Kharkov, the lives of Jews, in the sense of their safety, did not particularly differ from the life of all the remaining in the city of Kharkiv. It would seem that nothing foreshadowed. But in early December, ads of the Kharkiv City Administration in the 3rd Languages \u200b\u200b(German, Russian and Ukrainian) on the registration of the entire population of Kharkov by December 8 were hidden in the city. Only Jews were recorded in a separate list, regardless of their religion. In paragraph 12 of the announcement, in particular, it was indicated that information about nationality should be filed in accordance with the actual national origin, regardless of the nationality specified in the passport ... This "clarification" was certainly the result of the active participation of anti-Semites from the local population in the compilation of "announcements " The invaders in such "subtleties" did not delve. Having experience in mass expulsion at the end of the 30s and the subsequent destruction of the Jews in Germany itself, they fully relied on the activity of local "enthusiasts -Antisemites" who have so worked to live by "Zhidovsky" good. In the head of the ads instead of the word "Jews", the expression "Jews" was used. For the passage of registration from each adult, a fee of 1 ruble was charged, and with "Zhids" - 10 rubles. "

Registration of Jews in Kharkov took place on pre-harvested yellow sheets. Hence the name "Yellow Lists", rooted in the press and documents. Not a single mention was found to whom the idea came to mind so to name these "transcriptions", but the fate of the "Yellow Lists" was already predetermined. They were waiting for the sad fate - to get into the "ghetto". This name was originated in the Middle Ages in Italy to designate the area, which is the place of isolated residence of Jews). But the fascists have acquired an ominous meaning: as it turned out, they moved people to the ghetto only to destroy them later.

"Yellow lists" are of interest not only as a documentary confirmation of the existence in the city of a large number of Kharkov Jews, who remained at the beginning of the occupation, their age, professions (and this is important, since whole families were often destroyed and there was no one to fill this gap). These lists are of great psychological interest. The entry in the column "Nationality" by those who conducted registration was performed in different ways - in some lists the usual - "Jew", "Jewish", in others - aggressive-offensive "liquid", "Jidom". They wrote, of course, "their own" - the occupation authorities did not give any specific settings. The Germans themselves were actually impossible ("Yes and underwent") - without housebooks and other documents - distinguish and accurately determine who is a Jew, and who is not ... grabbed and local diligent collaborators.

Unfortunately, it should be noted a very negative role of some residents of Kharkov - not Jews -, which, due to domestic anti-Semitism and / or mercantile interests (rebuilding someone else's property, seize the "Zhidovskaya" apartment and expand, thus, their living space), came to their neighbors) Jews ("reminded" about them by the German authorities or "clarified" who are in mixed families) ... Although there were also cases where Russians and Ukrainians, honest and noble people - often with a huge risk for their lives - many Jewish families saved By helping them with fake documents or saving and hiding Jewish children ...

Nevertheless, as an example of a negative "diligence" of some occupation officials from local traitors, you can cite the "List of the Children's House of N 3 of the Health Department" on 80 pupils filled on a conventional white sheet. There, director of the orphanage Mitrofanov, Leonid Ivanovich filled on his own initiative, also "Yellow Sheet" - a sentence. In it, among the three girls of two and three years old, one - Kozelets Antonina (the surname is typically Ukrainian), 1939, got into an orphanage on November 13, 1941 as a podkin! And now this two-year-old girl-podkinch underwent the head of the head was for some reason it was recorded by the Jew and given to the executioners. One of the three little girls were sent by the pen, the man set to take care of their pupils - to death!

Kharkiv city administration ("Miska Support") - something like an occupying city council - consisting of terry nationalist traitors and diligent German servants, published many all sorts of decrees and orders regulated by the Jewish population every step and behavior in the occupied city - with numerous prohibitions and restrictions .
On photographers of ads spreading in many cities during the occupation of the German army of Ukraine, it is clear that many declarations in Ukrainian die threatening warnings at the address "Neukraintsev". Their list included instructions on Zhydivsky Naulanni (the Zhidovsky population) on the need for mandatory registration (for the convenience and speed of implementation of subsequent punitive events), the ban is gathered together in the premises and in the open sky. The places were listed, where the entrance to the Jews was banned ("Zhadam Vshid Zabondano). The local population was forbidden to give the shelter to Jews, to provide them with food and things, etc., which was punished with death (see "Rearrangement" - a warning).

Most of the Jews, like our family, managed to leave Kharkov before his occupation. From the remaining in the city first, not all the Jews of the city were in the "yellow lists" mentioned above. A certain part of the Kharkov Jews in the premonition of the tragedy tried to give himself to Russian or Ukrainians, but all these attempts the occupational power mercilessly exposed (unfortunately, mainly with the assistance of local "assistants" from the non-Jewish population).
By the 12th of December 1941, the registration of the population was completed. There are archival references in German and Ukrainian with a list of nationalities and their quantitative composition. Jews - 10271 people. In memoirs (and Soviet and German), sometimes the figure is about 30 thousand. This discrepancy is caused by the fact that many Jews-Kharkiv region initially deliberately decounded from registration, but subsequently they were "issued" or "caught" with the help of the local population. In addition, the Jews refugees from the Western regions of Ukraine (the so-called "Polish" Jews) later got into this "registration" (with all its consequences) (the so-called "Polish" Jews), many of which got into Kharkov in the hope of going away from the Germans East, "but not having time to leave here, divided the tragic destiny of Kharkov Jews ...

On December 14, 1941, in Kharkov, the infamous order of the German commandant about the relocation on a two-day period until December 16 of all the Jews, including infants, in the barracks of the Tractor and Stankowing on the eastern outskirts of Kharkov. Disobedience punishable. All the Jews were ordered to gather ("with valuable things") on the outskirts of Kharkov. Unfortunately, in the official Soviet presets of the 50-70s, the words of this vile document were perverted in order not to emphasize the selectivity of the Hitler's attitude towards the Jews, which were always and everywhere should be exposed to total destruction first. In all post-war Soviet editions of those years, instead of the words of the order "All Jews should" we read: "All residents of the central streets must" move ... Of course, the Nazis killed not only the Jews. Killed Russians, Ukrainians, Armenians ... But if in relation To other nations, the selective destruction of dismissal - somehow partisans, communists, Komsomol residents, underground workers (regardless of their nationality), then the Jews destroyed everyone in a row - regardless of age, social status and merit - without any occasion - just for the fact that They are Jews!

The mention of the "Central Streets" was likely to be invented by the then Soviet Polytrosvet to shift the national aspect of the genocide of Jews by German occupiers to the side of purely social discrimination of only rich inhabitants, which, allegedly, could only live in the city center ... as a "consolation" of domestic Anti-Semites such a linguistic (and in fact - purely ideological) reflective could be, if desired, perceive and as a hint of the predominant national composition of these mythical "residents of the central streets"
All this was, of course, blatant not. Kharkov Jews, making up the medium over the prosperity of the population, historically worked mainly in the service sector, in part, medicine and culture (doctors, teachers). They lived, mostly not at all in the center, but in more "quiet" the outskirts of the city, as, for example, we are in the eastern part of Kharkov, in the area, referred to as the foundation built up with one-story houses without any amenities. The center of the city was inhabited, mainly the party and administrative nomenclature, the leading production and technical apparatus of factories, factories and various institutions - the so-called (in Soviet times) "ITEREEKS" (from the abbreviation "ITR" - engineering and technical workers), and Also creative intelligentsia.

... On the appointed day, the crowds of people from all over the city stretched under the cone to the ghetto organized by the fascists. For two days with breaks through the streets of Kharkov, people were flowing. These streams merged into one big human river, which slowly flowed on Stalin Avenue (now Moscow Prospect). There were thousands of Jews of the city. These were humiliated, robbed, expelled from their homes, mostly women, old men, elderly people and children. For several days, in the Lut Frost, they went towards their death. Only a few managed to find a submission to move. Most people went on foot, dragging sledges, trolleys, troughs with the necessary things collected by higs. Mothers carried in the hands of children, someone is a paralyzed mother, an old grandfather. Somewhere in these columns among the unfortunate and doomed people were my grandmother of Cily with Uncle Grisha ...
People walked voluntarily and because until the last moment they hoped that, "Summary", the new authorities will send them somewhere on the settlement, where they hoped on, albeit hard, but at least some existence. Optimists even believed that over time they would have moved to Palestine to Palestine - the promised land. No one could even imagine that they would suffer and what, in the end, waiting - hope is dying the latter ...

The multi-kilometer path through the cruel frost was far from all - the avenue along the path of the exiles was littered with corpses. Some women, guessing something - foreseeing their tragic fate - and wanting to save their children, were decided on a desperate step - they pushed them on the pavement from the crowds continuously moving under the convoy, hoping that any of those who stood on the sidelines ( Not Jews) will save them, will not give them the abyss ... At the end of the sorrowful path, this Calvary of the XX century - the unfortunate, who did not know the fate of people (in the overwhelming majority - women, old people and children) were driven to 500 people in the calculated By 70-80 people, the barracks of the tractor and unfinished through the dirty corps of the stankower.

The conditions were terrible - the premises were literally naked by people, so on the first night everyone who came here lived, could only stand, closely pressing each other. A miracle saved witness says: "It was so closely and cold in the barracks, stood such a SMRAG that people already there were hundreds there. People were practiced under themselves, faded, there was no place to sit down. The corpses were not allowed to carry out of the room, dead and living They laid ahead. Many went crazy, but they were also left in a common room. "
In fact, the systematic destruction of prisoners began from the first days of their stay in this hell. In the created ghetto, the Jews Morious hunger. Sees in the slightest violation of the "regime" were immediately shot. And the first victims were disabled, old men and those who have lost their minds. Soon, everyone finally realized the meaning of what was happening (in which it was impossible to even believe it at first) and realized that they were taken here simply to destroy ...

It took 10 days - in the terrible conditions of the unknown, expectations at least some clarity in his fate and with each day of the hope of hope for the best ... But, here, on December 26, the Germans announced an entry for "wishing to leave" - \u200b\u200ballegedly "move" to Poltava, Romny and Kremenchug. It was allowed to take with me only "valuable personal belongings". The next day, closed cars arrived to the barracks. People, who understood the provocation, refused to sit down in them, but the German soldiers from the "Sonderkanda" - Special Commands "- by force pushed them into the body and exported from the camp. For several days, the Jews on these cars (as well as on foot), the parties of 300-500 were taken and led to the herbalist valley to the deserted crushes of the Yar, near the Chuguev highway. Here the final of the terrible tragedy was completed ...

Near the two pre-divergent huge catlers, people began to ruthlessly shoot ... "Technology" of destroying in the Drobitsky Yar was "rational and simple": people were collected at the edge of the pit and shot from the machine gun. Bodies "packs" fell into the pit. At one of the many burials, a trunk was found from the German machine gun, this trunk was broken: the shootings were carried out continuously and so long that even the metal was not kept, it was broken ... Resisting and did not want to go to the shooting to the pit thickened there strews and finished out of pistols. At the children, the bullets were often not spent, threw themselves alive in the pit. Those remained there to lie or crawl near the killed parents until they were buried together with the dead. A few days after the promotion, the moans were heard here and literally moved the earth above the badly supassed bulldozer terrible burial ...

From the memories miraculously saved (at that time another child) Elena p .: "They were taken out of the crowd of people who worked in the horror who felt that they were already waiting for them, 20-50 people and were there. Announced: "Those who have gold, fail!". Parked them aside and shifted first those who had nothing. Then they took the jewels for those who stood aside, and killed them. Then they led the following group. "

"Chioreli-executioners", "In order not to do" after the execution in the bloody clothes in search of hidden jewels, before execution, forced women to undress (first only to underwear). But many women, hoping to escape, hid in clothes, intimate places and often swallowed valuables (gold rings, pendants, clock, etc.). Therefore, the parties of the doomed, where there were especially many women, shot without the outerwear, and then at all the ruined Donag. And only after the "completion of the operation", the murderers in the pursuit were accounted for and inspired by the heaps of the shot people lying down and finished themselves and finished themselves ... Then a truly German accuracy rummaged in piles of clothing just killed, once again checking it for jewelry : Thoroughly shook it in order to find hidden valuables.

In addition to the Germans from Ainzattsand in shooting and confiscation of Jewish property, the local police participated in which various traitors and scum came from the local population. But besides the Germans themselves and the police, "on their own initiative", there were also individual marauders who came from the suburbs and the surrounding villages. However, the occupiers like "ammunition" were not encouraged and such "competitors", also who wanted to live well, did not complain. Some local residents for the routing of the soldiers of Ainzattsand and Politsai sometimes were also killed - "for the company" (mainly - so that there were no unnecessary witnesses of their own crimes).
By mid-January, all the inhabitants of the ghetto were completely destroyed - about 16 thousand people who were in the barracks were taken out in cars in the Crobitsky Yar and are shot from machine guns and automata ... It was the "first approach." In the future, the additionally identified hidden Jews were shot here and shot, as well as caught singing underground workers and partisans ...

In early 1942, a special car "Ghavagen" appeared on the streets of Kharkov, intended for additional destruction of people and the people's nicknamed "gentleman." The reason for widespread use in the execution of this "technical assistance" was the indication of the "sensitive" Ober-executioner of the Himmler, who, somehow attending mass executions in August in Belarus, received from the nervous shock seen and ordered to develop "more humane murder methods than the execution "
These machines have become usually used by the Germans to kill women, children, old people and patients. Before landing in the van, people were ordered to pass all valuable things and clothes. After that, the doors were closed, and the gas supply system shifted to release. In order not to cause prematurely fear of the victims, there was a light bulb in the van, which turned on when the doors were closed. After that, the driver turned on the neutral gear engine for about 10 minutes. After the cries of the chips of the people and any of their movement in the van stopped, the corpses were drifting to the burial place and unloaded (there were also cases when Gazvagna was placed right at the RVs).

The first models of Ghavagenov had a constructive drawback, due to which people placed in them painfully died from suffocation, and the body then had to be removed from the excrement, vomiting blaume, blood and other discharges, which caused the discontent of the "service personnel". Loading the lightingup was considered to be a worker: one thing - a man of thirty-forty to shove each of the cars, and quite another - pull out the corpses from them, bang them, and then wash the vans. The Germans did not crap, and, as a rule, traitors were engaged in the maintenance of the ruined to the side of the fascists. One of the Russian Politsaev pruderkanda SS 10-A complained: "Always in the mud, in human shit, the bathrobes were not given, the mittens were not given, the soap was missing, and they needed to clean carefully!" In general, the Germans guess - did not provide poor assistants with workwear and detergent. It is time to sympathize with bastards ... Since the beginning of the spring 1942, this "defect was eliminated" - the gas supply rate was adjusted, placed in the body first gradually lost consciousness and then died ...

Such a car with hermetically closed body was also regularly "chased" and through the streets of the city during the fields in order to "prophylactic purification from non-saying elements." It was treated simultaneously up to 50 "suspicious" residents - mainly "decomposed" from relocation to the ghetto of Jews, which later died in terrible torments due to the poisoning of a specially injected carbon monoxide - "cyclone-b". "Finding" with parents in the area of \u200b\u200bsmall children who were very crying and resisted, gave sniff wool, soaked with some kind of liquid, and they lost consciousness. In this form, they were thrown into the "shuttle". Gazvagen "worked" on the go, and when he drove to the dugouts in advance, the corpses of the people had already fallen there ...

Later, throughout 1942, the Crushing Yar and other places brought small groups of additionally catchy hiding Jews and Gypsies, where they were shot and buried into new pits ... Here, "empty", periodically kiced around the city "Ruzhigkka", where they were driven out Time is often completely random people who did not have the necessary documents with them.

Actress Lyudmila Gurchenko wrote in his memories - the book "My Adult Childhood" - how accidentally also almost got into such a cloud in the Kharkov market ... "Imagine that you go down the street, and suddenly the cry of" Wasp! ". You have enough Where did people have in German uniform come from and pushing into the ruining. In ten minutes you stop breathing. Everything ... This could have happened with each inhabitant always and everywhere "!

Subsequently, only more than ten places of mass destruction of people were witnessed in Kharkov. Among them - Drobitsky Yar, Forest Park, camp of prisoners of war in a cold-headed prison and the district of the HTZ (destroyed Jewish ghetto), the Salt village (a place of execution of patients of Saburova Dacha - a crazy house), the clinical town of the regional hospital on the street. Trinker (place of burning in the burning of several hundred wounded), public councils on the street. Sumy and in the Blagoveshchensky Bazaar, the courtyard of the International Hotel (place of the hostage) ... One group is about 400 people - locked in the synagogue on the street civil, where they died from hunger and thirst. Among the dead - outstanding figures of culture and science: Mathematics A. Efros, musicologist Professor I. I. Goldberg, Scripache Professor I. E. Bukinik, Pianist Olga Grigorovskaya, Ballerina Rosalia Alidort, Architect V. A. Estrovich, Professor Medicine A. Z. Gurevich and others. All these places have become memorial monuments and remind you alive on the crimes of the occupiers.

Seeing local "registrars" (from Ukrainian nationalists and traitors-Russians) gradually "entered the taste of cleaning" of the city from the remaining "disguised zhids." They began to look around and capture the few hidden Jews including lonely old people, who, by age or illness, could not move independently and leave the house.
Here is the letter of Burgomistra 17th district of the city council of CUBCITSKY: "To Pan Oberburgomister M. Kharkov 1941 R .: ..." 5 Zhired families left for the 17th district of the 17th district, which have not left< к месту сбора >because some of them are sick, others old. Their addresses:
1. Chernyshevskaya ul. N 84 - one person
2. "N 48 - one person
3. Mironositsky ul. N 75 - two people
4. Sumy ul. N 68 - one person
5. Pushkinskaya ul. N 67 - "-"
Please give your disposal what to do with them. "
Such, here, concern was manifested ...

Personal reports appear, like: "Police Chief of the 17th district of Kharkov: I am informed that the lists of Jews are filed, in which Yakubovich Raisa Nikolaevna is submitted ... on the house book registered as Russian, currently passport does not submit, claims that she lost him. I believe that Yakubovich Raisa is actually a jig, although, in about 1904, he accepted the Orthodox faith and was crowned in the church. The passport, which she does not impose, is it, it would be desirable to search for the search for a passport. January 5, 1942 Governing Homes of Dutov. "
Also a diligent cattle ...
I note that even their belonging to the Orthodox confession was not helped by baptized Jews. They were all destroyed "on the root" only because of their origin ...

Such statements in the archives are found in the set. An indicative letter for N 146 on the form of the Kharkiv city government of January 6, 1942 (translation from the Ukrainian language):
"All art institutions of Kharkov.
In coordination with the German government, I immediately offer no later than 12.1. S.G., conduct a thorough check of the personnel of employees and students of your institution in order to identify all the Zhid elements or kindly associated with supplies (wives, parents, etc.), as well as to identify communists and the Komsomol members. The check must be carried out according to metrics, military tickets and passports (in the absence of metrics and military tickets - require other reliable documents). Personal responsibility for the accuracy of the inspection and loyalty of the statements is assigned to the rectors, their deputies or heads of establishments. On the identified jews or natively related associated with them, as well as the Communists and Komsomol members, it is necessary to draw up lists and send the latter in the art department. " Signed - "Head of the Arts Department of Prof. IN.
Kostenko. What can you say about this "professor-art historian" ...

"Hunting" for everyone who could only be suspected of belonging to the remaining and "disguised girding" continued throughout the German occupation of Kharkov. Euphoria from the successful shares on the mass liquidation of the Jewish population of Kharkov in the Crushes of the city and the calm attitude of the city's residents to her (support and even the complicity of the population in the "events" of the occupiers), in general, tightened measures applied to those national "halves" and " Quarters "from mixed marriages, etc., who previously hoped to escape. All of them, everyone, too, was gradually revealed, "collected" in groups and additionally shot. Therefore, the "conveyor of death" and then worked for another month. In the same place, in the Crushes of the Yar, they later shot the "revealed additionally jews and half-breeds", as well as prisoners of war and mentally ill. Archival materials are still studied and will bring a lot, if not discovering historical nature, they will be undoubtedly the richest material for sociological and psychological research ...

On August 23, 1943, Kharkov was finally released from the Nazis. The city on these days was a terrible spectacle. The writer Alexei Tolstoy (Chairman of the Emergency Commission for Investigation of the Crime of Fascists) ... wrote the following lines about what he saw: "That was probably Rome, when the hordes of Germanic Varvarov swept through him - a huge cemetery ... The Germans began their horseship<здесь> In the fact that in December 1941, they killed, falling into the pits, the whole Jewish population, about 23 - 24 thousand people, ranging from breast babies. I was during the excavations of these horrific pits and certify the authenticity of the murders, and it was made with extreme sophistication to deliver victims as much m; ki ... I believe that there are still many people living away from the war, with difficulty and even with distrust represent to yourself anti-tank Rips, where under the full ground - half the meter to the depth, one hundred meters stretch - they are honorable citizens, old women, professors, wounded before that, the Red Army, together with crutches, schoolchildren, young girls, women who are pressed by the eliminated hands of babies who have medical Examination found the land in the mouth, as they were buried alive. "

The poet N. Nikhonov, who survived the Leningrad blockade, wrote about the Kharkiv tragedy, about the destroyed Kharkov: "This is a cemetery, a cluster of empty walls, fantastic ruins." In the forest park, as well as in the crusk yar, giant rally filled with corpses were excavated. According to the emergency commission calculations (organized specifically for investigating the atrocities of the Nazis in Kharkov) there were no less than thirty thousand. The remaining sacrifices were revealed in other burials.

According to the conclusions of the Commission for the Investigation of Crimes
The fascists in the occupied Soviet lands, Kharkov after Stalingrad became the most destroyed from all major cities of the USSR. The permanent population of the city has decreased at least 700 thousand people. With refugees - more than a million. By the time of liberation of the city from the Germans, his population was less than 190 thousand people. And the Jewish population of Kharkov, who made up 19.6% of all its inhabitants before the war, was completely exterminated.

Video "Drobitsky Yar":
http://objectiv.tv/220811/59611.html#video_attachment
(Insert directly into the top window of the Yandex by clicking on the mouse in the words "insert and go"; the video materials at the end of the site).

In December 1943, the first trial in the history of Wars began in Kharkov. The trial was decided not to transfer to Moscow, but to hold here where everything happened. Despite the obvious crimes, the defendants were allocated lawyers. Grably managed many, but judged those who gave orders.
The attention of the whole world was riveted to the lawsuit that lasted four days. The trial in Kharkov in December 1943 became the first legal precedent of the punishment of Nazi war criminals. It was on this Kharkov court who first spoke about the desires and bloody mockery of the Nazis over defenseless people. For the first time, the German commanders themselves talked about their crimes, called specific numbers. For the first time at the court, it was stated that the reference to the order of the Chief does not exempt from liability for the commission of war crimes.

Four were accused of: the officer of the German military counterintelligence Wilhelm Langheld; Deputy Commander of the Company SS Untersturmführer SS Hans Ritz; The smallest of the title, the senior corona of the German secret field police (Gestapo) Ringard Reclaslav and a local resident - the chauffeur of the infamous Kharkiv Machine, "Suggki" Mikhail Bulanov.
This is how the writer and journalist of the newspaper "Red Star" is described by the Kharkov process, Ilya Erenburg: "The court occurs in the wounded, offended Kharkov. Here and stones scream about crimes ... Over 30 thousand Kharkiv killed, cursed by the Germans ... The defendants are not the pathology of the three sadists, did not raise three geeks. This is the fulfillment of the German plan for the extermination and enslavement of peoples. "

On December 18, 1943 after the indictment of the prosecutor, the Military Tribunal of the Front sentenced all four defendants to the death penalty. The verdict was carried out on the next day in the market area, where over forty thousand Kharkiv gathered. While the execution went, the crowd on the square was silent ...

Video film: "Court in Kharkov over war criminals in March 1943"
http://varjag-2007.livejournal.com/3920435.html - insert directly into the upper Yandex window by clicking on the mouse in the words "insert and go"; Video itself - at the end of the site).

Before the war, Kharkov was the second largest city in Ukraine - 900,000 people of different nationalities (according to the 1939 census: 50% of Ukrainians, 40% of Russians, 16% of Jews, etc.). In July-October 1941, even 600,000 inhabitants of neighboring regions fled there. Basically, these were women, old people and children. Survive the first (October 24, 1941 - February 15, 1943) and the second Nazi occupation (March 10 - August 23, 1943) was a few - only 200,000 depleted people remained in the final liberated city.

Nazis diverse (but systemically "new order") destroying civilians and prisoners of war: they burned hundreds of children from the Kharkov hospital alive alive, burned 300 wounded redarmeys, shot about 16,000 Jews in the Crushes of Yar, they worry tens of thousands of Kharkiv. However, as Senior Efreitor R. Reclaw said, "mass executions by hanging and executions seemed to the German command too bloody and slow means." Therefore, as in Krasnodar and other cities, the occupiers and their accomplices were used for mass executions ("Gazenvagen") - hermetic trucks, where people were poisoned by exhaust gases. The use of the "ignition" was kept secret (therefore, by the way, there were no cars themselves, there are no photos), for secrecy, the corpses of poisoned Kharkiv became burned. How many names and crimes were hidden by the Nazis - unknown. In 1943, the investigation was able to establish only 30000 documented killings with specific perpetrators. Some managed to catch - for a fair trial.

December 15, 1943 began first in the world Open process over Nazi criminals. There are three German executives on the dock: the captain of military counterintelligence V. Langheld, Ritz, R. Reclaw. Next to them was sitting by the Soviet traitor - their healthy M. Bulanov.

Employee of Gestapo Reclav knocked out the testimony of torture, including accused of 25 Kharkov workers in antigherman's activities (of which 15 were shot, 10 poisoned in the "geeks"). Personally immersed 40 people in the "geek", helped burn corpses. The deputy commander of the company SS RIC was beaten arrested and shot innocent people.

The officer of military counterintelligence Langheld Putyut prisoners of war, fabricated a number of cases that were shot to a hundred people.

Gestapo Bulanov's chauffeur ruled the "shuttle" (and also cleaned and repaired it after use), drove the Kharkiv on executions, including 60 children. For this, he received 90 brands per month, buckles, and those owners who were dominated by the Germans.

Their wines were outlined by trophy documents, forensic examination, testimony of victims, interrogations of German prisoners of war, acts of the CHG. Worked qualified translators and three in the USSR of lawyers.

The accused themselves in detail and even everyday life talked about their crimes. They emphasized that many invaders make a similar one, because the authorities (Hitler, Himmler, Rosenberg) directly spoke about the destruction of the "lower races", called upon to punish the inhabitants for any resistance. Therefore, in Kharkov, they were judged, in fact, not only three executioners and a traitor, but also the entire Nazi inhuman system.

Defendants (right to left): Captain V. Langheld, Senior Efreitor R. Reclaw, Lieutenant, Ritz, summer Gestapo M.N. Bulanov at the meeting of the Kharkov trial over German war criminals.
Photo A.B. Kapustyansky
Storage location: Russian State Archive of Film Documents (Arch. No. 0-320085)
Photos from the site "Victory. 1941-1945 "(All-Russian Portal" Archives of Russia ")

For the main Soviet newspapers, the court covered well-known writers - Ilya Erenburg and Konstantin Simonov ("Red Star"), Alexey Tolstoy ("True"), Leonid Leonov ("Izvestia). For Ukrainian: Yuri Smolich, Maxim Rylsky, Vladimir Sosyr, Pavel Poochina, Vladimir Lidin. Foreign correspondents "New York Times", "Times", "Dili Express" and others worked in the world, one of the best movie documents (Oscar "in 1943 for the film" The defeat of German troops near Moscow ") Ilya Kopalin directed a documentary "The court goes" about the process. After a month, all Soviet cinemas have shown him, and then in a variety of countries.

All the defendants in the last word recognized their guilt, that is personal participation In the murder of thousands of Soviet citizens. Despite this, the Germans were justified by the "system" and the hierarchy of orders. Everyone asked for the preservation of life - Langheld referred to his "old age", Ricks and Reclavlav promised to conduct anti-Hitler propaganda for the German people, Bulanov wanted to redeem the blame.

The court sentenced them to the highest punishment - the death penalty. The verdict was performed on the marketplace on December 19, 1943 in the presence of tens of thousands of Kharkiv. The court and execution approved not only they, but also dozens of millions of readers, listeners, movie walkers around the world.

International response to the Kharkov process

A source: Lebedeva N.S. Preparation of the Nuremberg process. M. 1975.

Chapter 1: Policy of the USSR, USA and England in relation to war criminals in 1943-1944, paragraph "The policy of the USSR, USA and England in relation to war criminals in 1943-1944."

It should be noted that the role of the lawsuit in Kharkov as the first legal precedent of the punishment of Nazi war criminals. This process was the implementation of allies declarations about the punishment of military criminals and attached the irreversible nature of government statements. At the same time, the Kharkov process provided a kind of pressure on the allies governments, making it impossible to refuse such processes. It was here that for the first time with all certainty, it was stated that the reference to the order of the head does not exempt from responsibility for the commission of war crimes.

US Ambassador to the USSR A. Harriman in the report of the State Department emphasized that "The process does not leave doubts about the intention of the Soviet authorities to raise the German government and the Supreme Command for crimes and atrocities committed by their name and order." He also reported that American correspondents present in the Kharkov process were convinced of the guilty of the accused, validity of the charges and noted strictly compliance with the court of legal norms. The ambassador recommended this case to conduct a wide campaign of protests against war criminals. However, neither the State Department nor the Military Ministry not only found it necessary to support this proposal, but they expressed serious concern about the conduct of such a process. The question was viewed by the London Political Military Coordination Committee, which decided that in any case, to avoid repetition of processes, "In which the statements would be made that they enter or go beyond the Moscow Declaration" . Thus, the ruling steepness of England and the United States feared, no matter how suspected them in involvement in the implementation of practical measures to punish military criminals held by the Soviet government.

The world community highly appreciated the significance of the actions of the Soviet Union on the punishment of military criminals. American Senator K. Pepper wrote in July 1944: "The Soviet Union has already made certain steps that are instiving confidence that military criminals will be punished. Emergency Public Commission prepared a documentary report on war crimes and criminals in the Russian territory. Three Nazis and one traitor are already judged and executed on the spot where they committed their crimes " (This refers to the Kharkov process. - N.L. ) .

Many lawyers and public figures of the United Nations noted the timeliness of the trials conducted in the Soviet Union over German military criminals, the strength of their legal framework, the public nature of the trial and justice of sentences. So, for example, Czech lawyer V. Benesh to the merits of the Soviet government carried the Kharkov process, which showed that "The punishment of military criminals is not only an employee for discussions among lawyers and politicians, but in the first place the practical necessity, which should be carried out without delay. In addition, the Kharkov process demonstrated to the world that the punishment of war criminals can be successfully implemented in a well-organized society and at the same time all necessary guarantees of material and procedural law can be observed.» .

The editor of the American Association of Foreign Policy, a well-known Publicist Vera M. Dean emphasized that the goal of the Kharkov process was not only to condemn three German criminals and one of the Russian traitor, but also to receive from the defendants to accusing genuine inspirationors of all crimes - Hitler, Himmler, Rosenberg and etc.

True, in Western countries, the voices expressed "anxiety" and "fear" were distributed about the fact that the USSR allegedly conducts the policy of mass executions. In this regard, the Washington Correspondent of the Kolieierz newspaper G. Kril wrote: "Nothing in the Kharkov process gives the right to fear ... that the court violated the legal norms in any way. Although the court was military, and not a civil ..., defendants were provided with lawyers to protect. The process was opened for the public and press ". G. Krl compared this process with a closed American military court over the eight of German saboteurs and noted the great democraticness of the Kharkov process. The justice of the sentence of the Kharkiv court recognized the well-known American lawyer Sh. Glitch.