Original subtitles

Subtitles made for KG by: applesouce & Moerges

...sisters burnt at Poltava.

Comrade, when you'll see on the screen

defendant Retzlaff, the one with glasses.

Remember this terrible picture!

Retzlaff burned Soviet people alive!

Osipenko City, Berdyansk.

Beach by the sea.

Here, these little ones were once swimming and sunbathing.

This is the Germans' doing.

Also Osipenko City.

The whole family burned alive by Hitler's executioners.

Mother and three children.

For what?

We'll ask Germans in court: "For what?"!

The German army is an army of child killers.

There they lie. Torn corpses of mothers.

Little corpses of our kids.

This is done by Hitlerites.

Mines in the city of Stergo.

In these mine shafts, Germans immured thousands of miners.

Look, Comrade, and remember!

Kiev.

These are the dead bodies of our Ukrainian brothers,

shot by Germans.

Darnica.

Camp for prisoners of war.

Here, behind barbed wire,

died of hunger and terrible torture - Soviet people.

This is Taganrog's ditch of death.

Monsters tied up peaceful Soviet citizens, hands behind back,

brought them to the ditch and shot them in the back of the head.

Methodically, in cold blood, German style.

Defendant Hans Ritz,

who we'll see on screen, participated in mass executions at Taganrog.

For your tears, widows!

For your mother's tears! For your tears, orphan!

Our nation will take revenge on bloody Hitlerites!

Be damned murderers!

Unwashable is the blood of innocents on your uniforms!

You'll answer for everything!

Yes, Mother, they will answer for everything.

Mother, look! There they are, caught red-handed.

These are the ones who flooded the land with the blood of innocents.

Wilhelm Langheld, Captain of Counter-Espionage.

This executioner got medals and a cross for the killing of women and children,

for the intimidation of war prisoners with dogs.

Reinhard Retzlaff.

German secret police officer, in the city of Kharkov.

From Berlin. He is covered in blood... He pushed Kharkovers into the gas van.

Hans Ritz. Lieutenant of the SS.

Sadist!

He admired the spectacle of mass execution of Kharkovers.

And himself killed children and women.

Bulanov. Traitor!

Betrayer of motherland.

Worked as a driver for Kharkov's Gestapo.

Drove Soviet people to execution, accompanied them to the gas van.

Took off shoes of tortured and killed citizens.

In the court gathered workers of liberated Kharkov.

Workers, engineers, students, teachers, collective farmers.

Many widows.

Here sit mothers. Their sons were taken to Germany for servitude.

Here, fathers and daughters of those who were torn to pieces by the Gestapo.

This moment, Kharkovers have awaited for two years.

Representatives of the Soviet press, writers and journalists:

Alexey Tolstoy.

Ilya Orenburg.

Leonid Leonov.

Stand! The Court is in Session.

Please, sit down.

Presiding Judge: Chairman Major-General of Justice A. Myasnikov.

Members of the Court: Colonel of Justice M. Kharchev.

Major of Justice S. Zapolski.

State Prosecutor, Justiciary Colonel N. K. Dunayev.

Appointed defence. Advocates:

N. B. Kommodov,

C. K. Kaznacheyev,

N. P. Belov.

Medico-legal experts.

Witnesses.

Every word of this trial is translated into German.

Translators are warned

that they are legally responsible for any wrong translation.

FROM THE INDICTMENT

The indictment in the case of the atrocities committed

by the German fascist invaders in the city of Kharkov

and the region of Kharkov.

As the German fascist invaders are being expelled from Soviet territory,

ever greater crimes committed by the troops of the German Army are coming to light.

After the liberation of the city and region of Kharkov, numerous facts were revealed

on the monstrous extermination of peaceful Soviet citizens by the Germans,

including women, old men and children.

The German fascist troops

under the direction of their superiors,

asphyxiated in specially-equipped gas vans - “gas vans”,

hanged, shot or tortured to death many tens of thousands of Soviet people.

Plundered the property of the State, and of economic, cultural and public organizations.

Burned down and destroyed entire towns and thousands of inhabited places.

Thus, it has been established that the whole weight of responsibility

during their temporary occupation of Kharkov and the Kharkov Region,

the occupation of the city of Kharkov and Kharkov Region,

for the torture and massacre of the peaceful population,

for shooting and asphyxiation with carbon monoxide gas

in specially-equipped vehicles - “gas vans”,

for burning and other forms of extermination of absolutely innocent Soviet people,

including women, old people and children,

is borne by the leaders of the criminal fascist government of Germany

and by the Supreme Command of the German Army.

On the basis of the foregoing exposition, they are charged:

Reinhard Retzlaff, born 1907 in Berlin, of secondary education,

an official of the German Secret Field Police in the town of Kharkov,

senior corporal in the Auxiliary Police.

Hans Ritz, born 1919 in Marienwerder,

a German of higher education,

member of the National Socialist Party since 1937,

assistant commander of an SS company, Untersturmführer of the SS.

Wilhelm Langheld, born 1891 in Frankfurt-on-Main,

a German,

member of the National Socialist Party since 1933,

officer of Counter-Espionage of the German Army, Captain.

Is charged:

While in service of the German Army from 1941 to 1943, to have taken direct part

in the mass and brutal extermination of peaceful Soviet people

by the use of specially-equipped vehicles known as “gas vans”,

and also with having taken a personal part in mass shootings,

hangings, burnings, plunder and outrages against Soviet people.

I.e. in crimes covered by the Order of the Presidium

of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of 19th April, 1943.

Mikhail Petrovich Bulanov, born 1917 at Dzhanibek Station, Kazakh SSR,

a Russian, not in a Party,

is charged with betrayal of the motherland,

having voluntarily gone over to the Germans

and accepted employment in the German punitive organisation,

and together with the Germans,

took a direct part in the mass extermination of Soviet people

by means of asphyxiation in “gas vans”,

and personally shot peaceful Soviet citizens,

among whom were old people, women and children, i.e. in crimes

covered by the Order of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of 19th April, 1943.

Defendant Ritz.

Do you plead guilty to the charges brought against you?

I plead guilty to the charges of the prosecution.

Sit.

I plead guilty to the offences with which I have been charged.

FROM THE INTERROGATION OF THE DEFENDANTS

The defendant Langheld.

On your orders, there were multiple mass executions of unarmed Soviet people.

Tell me how it was done in practice.

...cannot quite remember the individual cases.

I do have recollections of the case at Dergachi...

where...

about twenty officers were shot. No, twenty prisoners were shot.

The defendant stated that he doesn't remember

individual cases, but remembers the event at Dergachi,

where he ordered to execute more than twenty prisoners of war.

In preliminary investigations, you stated that in Dergachi,

you arrested and executed a group of innocent women.

Tell us in detail about the circumstances of this crime.

During the preliminary hearing, you testified

that according to your instructions, a group of defenceless...

women was arrested and shot.

Recount the explicit details of this crime.

The women were brought from the cell where they were locked up

into the trial room.

But not a single one of them would give a proper statement.

They were then, again, subjected to draconian measures.

One at a time, they were laid on a bench,

their backs exposed,

and beaten with canes and, by the sergeant, with his rifle rod.

The women, one by one, were brought from the cell for interrogation.

But not a single one confessed.

Draconian measures were used on them.

Bared back, they were thrown on a bench, and beaten with sticks and rifle cleaning rod.

What did you do to a woman with child.

This woman, too, did not confess.

She was therefore thrown to the ground

and beaten as well.

In the meantime...

At first, the child had clung to her,

but then...

it fled into a corner...

and...

watched...

this act in horror.

That women didn't confess to anything.

Then she was thrown to the ground and beaten.

The child at first clung to its mother,

and then in terror crept away to a corner and impassively observed what was happening.

The woman had lost consciousness by now

and was brought back to the cell by my men.

The child was brought along.

The woman lost consciousness and was returned to her cell.

The child too, to the same cell.

Meanwhile, I wrote a note to local command,

saying that I...

had six women here. No, that I had five women.

That was another day.

That I had five women who were under suspicion

of having established a connection between prisoners and partisans.

And that I would hand them over to local command for further processing.

The next day, I wrote a dispatch to the local commandant's office

that I'd arrested five local women in connection with partisans,

and proposed to the commandant's office that they take them.

At the commandant's office, the victims of Langheld were executed.

The mother of the child died from the beating.

The child was shot.

What do you know about the usage of the so-called - gas van?

In which people were poisoned with CO gas.

...know about the "gas van",

in which the Germans poisoned their victims with carbon oxide?

From other officers,

I have heard that such gas vans

are used in all major cities of the Ukraine and Russia.

From other officers I know that:

gas van was used in many towns of Ukraine and in other occupied Russian territories.

Did you yourself see this gas van?

I saw the gas van one time.

Yes. I saw it personally.

Examination of Langheld ends with a summary of his activity on the Eastern Front.

Before the court passed terrible pictures of the defiled Kharkov, defiled by Germans.

There, the bloody path of the murderer Langheld.

On whose orders were shot at least a hundred humans - innocent Soviet people.

Tell us, Ritz, what do you know about the extermination of Soviet people

by using the so-called gas van.

Tell us what you know about the extermination of the Soviet people

by the Germans, by means of the so-called gas van.

For this as well, I can give a number of examples

from my own experience.

To begin with, I had to... with Lieutenant Jacobi...

I had to discuss my accommodations here in Kharkov,

because I had to stay here for a few days.

I immediately noticed

that Lieutenant Jacobi was unusually busy.

He constantly made phone calls and...

went outside to issue orders, and that sort of thing.

So I inquired why he was so busy.

When I asked him why he was so busy, he explained to me, well,

that the ones currently housed in the prison, meaning the housed prisoners,

were creating a lot of trouble and difficulties for him.

But that he hoped to soon be able to employ the special method

invented and introduced here by Major Hahnebutter,

to cleanse the prison.

I can tell you about a few incidents I witnessed myself.

I first met Lt. Jacobi in order to receive a flat,

as I had just arrived in Kharkov to stay for a few days.

I noticed that he was very busy with work.

He was receiving phone calls, went out of the room and gave orders.

To my question about his busy work, he answered:

That they have many problems in connection with

too many arrested persons detained in the Kharkov prison.

And that Hanebitter ordered a special method of clearing the prisons of arrested persons.

Then I asked what special method that might be.

Whereupon Lieutenant Jacobi explained, well, that would be the gas van.

I asked him what this special method was, Jacobi answered that this was the gas van.

That immediately brought to mind

something I had already heard during my stay in Germany.

I remembered that I had heard about this vehicle in Germany.

It was around September 1942.

I was in the city of Łęczyca, near Warsaw.

And there, I saw how a considerable number of people...

unreliable civilian population was "evacuated" there.

--Gas van.

In September '42, during my stay in Łęczyca near Warsaw,

I saw the "evacuation" of the unreliable population of Warsaw, using a gas van.

Were you present at the mass shooting of Soviet citizens?

Tell us in detail about it.

On the 2nd of July, early in the morning,

Major Hahnebutter drove...

and then... with various of his officers, and me,

he drove out to a village.

I think it was called Soborsk or Podrovki.

Roughly six to eight kilometres from Kharkov.

On 2nd June, Major Hanebitter took me and several officers and drove out

to the village of Podvorki, located 5 to 8 kilometres from Kharkov.

For the moment, we passed those vehicles

and then arrived at the firing squad execution site,

which was located in a small belt of trees, specifically in a clearing.

At the same time, I realised three sizeable pits had already been dug,

and furthermore that the clearing was guarded by SS soldiers.

We overtook vehicles with prisoners.

These vehicles were going in the direction of Podvorki too.

We arrived at a forest clearing where pits had been prepared.

This clearing was surrounded by SS men.

Soon after, after we had got out of the cars,

the vehicles with the prisoners appeared.

Specifically, according to Major Hahnebutter,

that day, there were about 300 prisoners who were supposed to be shot.

They were then marched off the vehicles,

were stood next to the pits in smaller groups,

and then shot by a group of SS men with submachine guns.

Also, I do not want to conceal my own part in this...

Soon afterwards, the lorries arrived with the prisoners. Hanebitter said

that about 300 people would be shot that day.

The prisoners were brought to the pits in small groups

and were shot in turns by SS men with automatic rifles.

I do not wish to conceal my own participation in this operation.

There, pits, near the village of Podvorki.

Here, German criminals were murdering Soviet people.

If we dug a bit, you would be able to see hundreds of big and small skulls.

Hans Ritz - participant in mass executions at Podvorki.

FROM WITNESS EVIDENCE

Witness Heinisch, tell us

what were your occupation and activities while you were Commissar in Melitopol?

As regional commissioner, I had orders to transport to Germany

all those items produced by businesses and factories

that weren't required for the troops.

Those who refused to comply with the requirements and deliveries

were arrested by the Gestapo and the SD, and liquidated. [SD: SS secret service]

My duty as Commissar of District was

to confiscate agricultural produce to supply the Army and the German rear.

Those who resisted and refused to deliver the required produce

were arrested by the Gestapo and liquidated.

What does it mean - "liquidated"?

"Liquidated" means "exterminate", "shoot".

To liquidate means to destroy, to execute.

How long have you known of the existence of this gas van?

I learned of the existence of the gas van-- of this year.

On the occasion of the regional commissioner conference in Melitopol,

the SS-Brigadeführer [a major general of the SS]

and General of Police von Alvensleben

spoke about the gas van and about the trial in Krasnodar.

I learned of its existence in January this year

during the conference of District Commissars of Melitopol

at which Lieutenant General of Police von Alvensleben made an announcement

about the usage of the gas van and the Krasnodar trial.

Brigadeführer von Alvensleben explained that the trial in Krasnodar

had been evaluated in an exceptionally propagandistic way

by the Russian and the Allied press.

At that conference, von Alvensleben stated

that the trial in Krasnodar was used by Russians and Allies

for anti-German propaganda.

That it was forbidden to talk about the gas van.

And that violations would be punished by the judiciary authority of the SS.

Von Alvensleben said

that Hitler had ordered that there should be no open talk about the gas van,

and that infringers will face trial by a special court of the SS.

Do you know of any document formulating the policy of the German Government

in occupied countries, in particular in the temporarily occupied districts of the USSR?

I do not know of any documents.

I'll choose his words: "To keep the Russian people obedient.

An order so that the populace

complies with the instructions of the Wehrmacht and the civil administration."

I do not know of such documents.

Considering that it would be very difficult to keep the Russian people in subjection,

the orders prescribed ruthless application of reprisals against civilian population

so it wouldn't disturb the plans intended by the German commanders.

Shying away from arrests and shootings was not tolerated.

Only thus was it feasible

to keep the populace in constant fear and to force them into obedience,

in order to conduct the colonisation of the country.

...accomplished a weakening of the people,

and thereby a degradation of their own substance.

Not to hesitate at arrests and executions.

Because this was the only way to keep people in subjection and to colonise the country.

The strength of the people was to be weakened by reducing the number of people.

Reich Commissioner Koch, in August of last year...

no, of this year,

on the occasion of the regional commissioner conference,

spoke about the difficulties

in sending a forced-labour workforce back to Germany.

And about the application of any and all available means

to ensure sufficient labourers for the needs of the Reich.

In August this year, at a conference of District Commissars,

Reichskommissar of the Ukraine, Koch, spoke of the difficulties in recruitment

of labour power to dispatch to Germany.

Koch demanded the ruthless application of all means at their disposal

to dispatch the required contingents of workers to Germany.

...of the populace had to be destroyed in any circumstance.

So the Russian people are weakened.

Koch stated that all unwanted elements need to be destroyed to weaken Russian people.

In the time from the 1st of September 1942

to the 14th of September 1943,

approximately three to four thousand residents of the area were exterminated.

[In non-idiomatic German] Is the witness not downplaying the number

when he states the figure "three, four thousand"?

In the first year, '41 to '42, after the occupation by the Wehrmacht,

the SD arrested and exterminated all existing alternative political circles.

That explains the smaller number in the year '42/'43.

The gas van is a prison van...

that is hermetically sealed...

with an extended exhaust pipe...

that ends in a rubber tube, which leads into the vehicle's interior.

When the engine is running, when it labours,

the occupants of the van are exterminated by the exhaust gasses.

The ten thousand prisoners of war who still remained in Vyazma

were brought to a camp.

This camp was located in a factory compound.

The camp was so packed with people that one couldn't set foot in it at first.

No! The camp was so overcrowded that initially it was impossible to enter.

The weather was very bad. Wet, rainy, and cold.

Yes, after a large part of the therein detained had perished.

Yes. After the majority of the war prisoners there had died.

There were particularly many bodies stacked right next to the factory hall.

There lay those who had been shot down from the roof and now lay there, smashed.

There lay those who...

had sought shelter at the wall, from wind and cold, and died there

sitting and even standing upright, pressed into some nooks,

and now still sat and stood and lay there.

...at the outskirts of the camp, there were several deep pits,

in which water had collected and formed small ponds.

There were bodies in there as well, bloated from the water,

and discoloured, green and blue.

There, too, lay corpses, blue and swollen from water.

Some of these pits were used as latrines by the detainees.

In there as well, lay detainees who apparently had fainted

while relieving themselves, had fallen down,

and therefore, in this terrible manner, had suffocated in human waste.

Tell us, witness Kosch, what you know about methods of exterminating the Soviet

civilian population, practised by the German Army, in temporarily occupied territory.

What do you know about the methods of extermination

deployed against the peaceful Soviet populace

of the territories temporarily occupied by Germans.

Apart from the mass shootings and hangings, and killings

of which the National Socialists availed themselves

to exterminate innocent Russian civilians,

I know another, a special method,

of which I heard once in a while at the time, and which I have seen, too.

That is: the gas van.

Besides mass shootings and hangings to which National Socialists resort to

to exterminate innocent Soviet civilian population, I also know of a special method,

about which I had heard previously and which I have seen too, i.e. - the gas van.

I--

--punishment, in my eyes, would be...

if the time came soon when the cronies of the National Socialist leadership

themselves would take a seat in that van for their final ride...

to the place where they have chased thousands upon thousands

of innocent people into a horrible death.

It would be just if the ruling gang of Germany was given a ride in this gas van,

which they conceived to the world's disgrace.

It was early May of this year.

Our battalion was stationed in Sretenka, roughly eight kilometres from Volnovakha.

One day, I had dealings in Volnovakha.

"Ha, we have more than enough room. Step right in."

When he opened the rear doors of the van,

a terribly malodorous smell streamed out from the van's interior.

And it was a completely empty box.

And the instant I saw that van,

what I had heard about the gas van came to my mind.

And I knew in that instant: this is likely the gas van you have heard so much about.

...appalling atrocities

that the National Socialists have allowed themselves in this war,

in my eyes, is this death..., this gas van.

Culprit of all atrocities of torture invented by National Socialism -

is this deadly gas van.

This gas van will also go down in the shameful history of National Socialism,

as an eternal indictment.

This gas van will be historical evidence in the case against National Socialism,

as an eternal document of its disgrace.

WITNESS COMRADE BESPALOV

I lived in the village of Sokolniki, where I saw a mass execution of Soviet people.

In July '42, I saw how Germans, for several hours, brought in open trucks.

Soviet citizens, including children, women, and elderly people.

All were stripped of their clothes, then the mass execution started.

Fascist monsters tore the children from their mother's arms,

and threw them into the pit alive, the mothers were shot on spot.

This is Kharkov's forest-park near Sokolniki.

Here, the Gestapo, day and night, brought peaceful citizens of Kharkov.

The forest screamed and cried.

Mothers with children in their arms are trying to hide behind trees.

That's how the mass execution of Soviet women at the village of Sokolniki happened.

...Punisher-Recon agency of the German Army: R. Retzlaff, W. Langheld, H. Ritz and

collaborator and traitor to the motherland: Mikhail Bulanov.

All the accused in the present case, namely: Retzlaff, Ritz, Langheld and Bulanov,

have plead guilty to the charges brought against them

and have given detailed...

Sit.

Defendant Ritz.

Do you plead guilty to the charges brought against you?

I plead guilty to the charges of the prosecution.

I plead guilty to the offences.

Sit.

I plead guilty to the offences with which I have been charged.

WITNESS COMRADE DZHINCHVELADZE

I was at a hospital at the time the Germans occupied Kharkov.

...I went to the 2nd floor, to an operation room.

There, I heard the sound of an explosion coming from 1st floor.

I ran out, and headed downstairs.

Near the stairs, nurses and nursemaids came running towards me.

They looked horrible, pale and dishevelled, some had burns.

They told me that Germans had thrown in incendiary bombs,

barricaded the doors, and that fire had broken out in the building.

Not understanding what was happening, I headed down to the 1st floor.

Where I saw a horrible picture of violence against patients.

Patients were on fire. Clothes, beds were on fire.

In panic, they tried to jump out through the windows.

But Germans were standing in the courtyard and shoot at them.

WITNESS COMRADE KOZLOVA

While in service of the Red Army, my husband was wounded

and sent to Kharkov for treatment.

On the 15th, I decided to visit him.

When I got to the site of the hospital, I could not recognise it, it was destroyed.

Nearby were strewn the bodies of charred, tortured, burned...

I was beside myself...

...and I rushed into the block, were my husband was.

...bed was covered with blood. I started to cry...

I saw the mutilated body of my husband... I said my goodbyes...

...I heard a human voice, which was asking for help...

...I couldn't do anything... A nurse accompanied me home.

This is the destroyed hospital in Kharkov.

Patients were heavily-wounded soldiers of the Red Army.

They were burned alive by the “Adolf Hitler” SS Division.

At the same time, they burned the international law

prohibiting the torture of prisoners of war.

FROM THE SPEECH OF THE STATE PROSECUTOR

Before us, Comrades Judges, at this trial were revealed again and again the bloody,

terrible misdeeds of the Hitlerite brigands who have shed an ocean of blood

of peaceful Soviet citizens - children, women and old people -,

who have committed many of our towns and villages to the flames and to ruin,

who have brought incalculable disasters and sufferings upon our people.

At this trial, before the eyes of the world,

there has been demonstrated and proved again and again the monstrous guilt of all accused

- of those who are already in the dock and of those who will yet be there.

The defendants Retzlaff, Ritz, and Langheld,

who have committed bloody crimes on the territory of the Soviet Union,

should bear responsibility as criminals before the Soviet Court,

under the laws of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

Their bloody crimes have been exposed and proven.

Concluding my speech for the prosecution, I appeal to you, Citizen Judges,

to inflict severe punishment on the three base representatives of fascist Berlin,

and on their abominable accomplice, who are sitting in the dock,

to punish them for their bloody crimes, for the sufferings and the blood,

for the tears, for the lives of our children,

of our wives and mothers, of our sisters and our fathers!

Today, they are answering to the Soviet Court, to our people, to the whole world,

for the crimes they committed on a scale and of a meanness far surpassing

the blackest pages of human history, the horrors of the Middle Ages and of barbarism!

Tomorrow their superiors will have to answer the chieftains of these bandits who invaded

our peaceful, happy land on which our people worked, reared their children,

and built their free happiness.

I accuse Retzlaff, Ritz, Langheld, Bulanov of crimes specified in Part 1 of the Decree

of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, dated 19th April, 1943.

In the name of the law and of justice, in the name of tens of thousands

of people maimed and tortured to death, in the name of the entire people -

I, as State Prosecutor, beg you, Citizen Judges,

to sentence all four mean criminals to death by hanging.

At this court are present representatives of the international press.

They will tell the whole world - the truth about the Kharkov trial.

THE FINAL STATEMENTS OF THE DEFENDANTS

THE DEFENDANT WILHELM LANGHELD

...as well as civilians...

Soviet... innocent Soviet citizens...

sentenced to death...

were... so causing them to be shot.

I have beaten Russian prisoners of war.

On my orders, civilians were arrested and subsequently executed.

But I ask...

to consider...

that I was not alone in committing these acts.

But rather that this was the case in the entire Wehrmacht.

Yes. That the atrocities

were a lot worse even

than what was heard here during the interrogation of the witnesses.

But I beg you to take this into consideration: I am not the only one.

The whole German Army is the same.

...even greater monstrous brutalities than we had opportunity

to hear here in the testimonies of the witnesses.

I do not mean to palliate my guilt

but I must declare

that the underlying reason is found in the attitude of the government.

I do not want to minimise my guilt in any way,

but I would like to point out -

that the underlying reasons should be sought in the German Government.

And at the same time I ask to take into account my advanced age

when the final verdict is decided,

and also that I told the truth at all times during the preliminary hearings.

Before passing sentence, I ask you to consider my advanced age,

and also the fact that both during the preliminary investigation

and during the trial, I told the whole truth.

THE DEFENDANT HANS RITZ

Honourable Judges.

The proceedings are drawing to an end,

and you have allowed me the right to say these final words to you.

Gentlemen Judges, the trial is nearly over,

and you have given me the opportunity to make my last plea.

I want, however, to express to you my sentiments about everything

that was heard here, with the utmost clarity and sincerity.

...that you have gained the impression during trial and preliminary hearing

that I had the strong and unfaltering will

to do everything from my side to shed light upon the crimes discussed here,

by giving clear and open testimony.

What I would like to do, however, is to make a perfectly frank statement

of my attitude to everything that has taken place here.

I want to leave you with the impression

that I have always talked frankly about everything,

during both the preliminary investigation and during the trial,

desiring to reveal completely the crimes that were committed.

The defendant Ritz ended the last plea asking for a pardon.

THE DEFENDANT REINHARD RETZLAFF

I have the burning wish...

to open the eyes of the German people to the mendacity of its oppressors.

I want to open the eyes of the German people

to the falseness of theirs oppressors.

For this reason,

I ask to be pardoned...

and to be given the opportunity... to be allowed to return to my homeland

so I can put this wish of mine into practice.

For this reason - I ask you to grant me a pardon.

To give me the opportunity to return to Germany and put my wish into action.

THE DEFENDANT MIKHAIL BULANOV

In my last plea, I have to say...

Have to...

Tell my feelings, which I have undergone...

Being at... at a place of savagery of fascists.

Which I committed under threat of German arms.

...can't express my feelings. This is all!

18TH OF DECEMBER, 23:40 THE MILITARY TRIBUNAL

OF THE 4TH UKRAINIAN FRONT ANNOUNCED THE SENTENCE

In the name of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

From 15th to 18th December, 1943, Military Tribunal of 4th Ukrainian Front.

In public session in Kharkov, has examined the case relating

to the atrocities of the German fascist invaders in the city and region of Kharkov.

On the basis of Article 296 of the code of criminal procedure

of the Ukrainian SSR and the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR

of 19th April, 1943, the Military Tribunal of the Front sentences:

W. Langheld, H. Ritz, R. Retzlaff, and M. P. Bulanov to death by hanging.

The hour has struck for retribution, in a square of Kharkov.

People gathered around the gallows, composing an implacable and bitter wall.

Here came mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters of those tortured to death,

executed, asphyxiated. People came to execute the knavery,

whole Hitlerite plunder, all disgraceful schemes of German fascism.

At this square in Kharkov, surrounded by crippled buildings, people came to say

to the whole of fascist Germany: "We don't joke, Germans."

They trampled moral values, all cities and villages occupied by them.

Get what you deserve, Hitlerite scum!

This is the will of the people, which they wanted to destroy.

Take the son in the eyes of Russian people, disgraceful death - traitor, Bulanov.

Who sold out his own motherland.

It is done.

Forty thousand Kharkovers, as one strong and implacable arm,

tightened the noose on the criminals.

But the trial is not over, the trial is ongoing.

This is the start of retribution, the first page of a worldwide trial,

which will continue across the lands of Europe.

And which will punish all murderous Hitlerites for their crimes.

Nations of the USSR and free nations of the world

already are writing the verdict for the fascist Germany.

The trial is ongoing, in the name of peace, life and happiness...