| Kharkov Trial | |
|---|---|
| Court | Sovietmilitary tribunal Kharkov,Soviet Union |
| Indictment | War crimes Treason |
| Decided | 18 December 1943 |
| Case history | |
| Related action | Moscow Declarations |
TheKharkov Trial was awar crimes trial held in front of a Sovietmilitary tribunal in December 1943 inKharkov,Soviet Union. Defendants included one Soviet collaborator, as well as German military, police, andSS personnel responsible for implementing the occupational policies during theGerman–Soviet War of 1941–45. The trial was the first time that German personnel had been tried forwar crimes by theAllies during and after World War II.
Units of the GermanWehrmacht first occupied Kharkov on 23–24 October 1941. German forces, including theEinsatzgruppen (mobile death squads), killed tens of thousands ofJews, as well asCommunists, Soviet prisoners of war, and other "undesirables". Shooting, hanging, andgas vans were used. Fifteen thousand Jews were murdered on 15 December 1941 in a mass shooting inDrobytsky Yar. The Gestapo also shot 435 patients, many of whom were elderly people and children, who were being treated at the local hospital. In March 1943, 800 wounded Red Army soldiers were shot and burned alive. Overall, the Soviets said that in the Kharkov region, the "German-fascist invaders had shot, hanged, burned alive, and poisoned by carbon monoxide gas more than 30,000 peaceful completely innocent citizens, including women, old people, and children."[1][2]
The city was temporarily retaken by the Red Army in February 1943 and then by the Wehrmacht in April 1943. Already in the spring of 1943 Soviet authorities discovered mass graves of the victims, mostly Jews. By the time that Kharkov was liberated for good in August 1943, virtually no Jews survived in the city.[1]
The tribunal heard the case against four defendants: Soviet collaborator Mikhail Bulanov, 26, and three Germans, Wilhelm Langheld, 52, Reinhard Retzlaff, 36, and Hans Ritz, 24, members of the Wehrmacht, police, andSS forces, respectively.[3][4] They were charged both under the Soviet and international law, theMoscow Declarations. All four were accused of participating in the murders of Soviet citizens, and Bulanov was also charged with treason for collaborating with the Germans. Prosecutors, defence counsel, and judges were military. A six-person forensic team provided expert testimony and a report concluding that the manner of killings was consistent with shootings and the use of gas.[5]
All four men pleaded guilty, admitting to the crimes and describing them in detail, including the use of the gas vans, mass shootings, and murder of women and children, encouraged and rewarded by their superiors. Langheld admitted to personally killing approximately 100 Soviet citizens. Defence counsel's strategy amounted to arguing that the accused were following orders. The prosecution acknowledged that the men were indeed acting onsuperior orders, but rejected this as a sufficient defence, using the decision of theLeipzig War Crimes Trials as a precedent. The trial concluded on 18 December 1943 with guilty verdicts and death sentences.
The findings of the court:[6]
The defendants were all hanged in the public square ofKharkov the next day.[7]
"It was all over in a few moments. The defendants were hoisted into the back of four open trucks and stood on stools. Then the nooses were looped around their necks. There was no blindfolding. During the preliminaries three of the four prisoners had to be propped up. Bulanov had fainted; Ritz and Retzlaff had turned pasty white; they drooled at the mouths and their knees gave way. Only Langheld, the old soldier, remained stiff as a ramrod throughout, never once flinching. Once the nooses had been adjusted, at a signal the trucks pulled away and the four were left dangling and kicking in mid air."
The proceedings were published in English for an international audience.