Читать книгу The Nuremberg Trials (Vol.8) - International Military Tribunal - Страница 16

“The German fascist invaders entirely or partially destroyed 334 colleges at which 233,000 students were studying; they removed to Germany the equipment of the laboratories and lecture rooms together with the exhibits, unique of their kind, from the collections of the universities, institutes, and libraries.

“Great damage was inflicted on the medical colleges. . . .

“The occupants destroyed or looted 137 pedagogical institutions and teachers’ colleges. . . . They removed historical material and ancient manuscripts from special libraries, and stole or destroyed over 100 million volumes in the public libraries.”

I omit the next paragraph:

“They destroyed, on the whole, 605 scientific research institutes.”

I omit the end of Page 85 of my report and the first paragraph of Page 86.

“Enormous damage was inflicted by the Germans on the medical establishments of the Soviet Union. They destroyed or plundered 6,000 hospitals, 33,000 polyclinics, dispensaries, and out-patient departments, 976 sanatoria and 656 rest homes.”

I omit the next three paragraphs.

“Destruction of Museums and Historical Monuments.

“In the occupied territories the German fascist invaders destroyed 427 out of a total of 992 museums of the Soviet Union.”

I omit the end of this page and quote the beginning of Page 87 of the report:

“The Germans also destroyed the museum of the peasant poet S. D. Drozhzhin, in the village of Zavidovo, the museum of the people’s poet I. S. Nikitin, in Voronezh, and the museum of the famous Polish poet Adam Mickiewicz, at Novogrudka in the Bielorussian S.S.R. At Alagir they burned the manuscript of the national singer Osetij Kosta Khetagurov.

“The German fascist invaders destroyed 44,000 theaters, clubs, and so-called ‘Red corners.’ ”

Now with the permission of the Tribunal, I should like to submit a documentary film and a certificate testifying to the documentary character of this film. The film is entitled, “Destruction of Art and Museums of National Culture perpetrated by the Germans on the Territory of the U.S.S.R.” This film and the documents testifying to the documentary nature of these reels are submitted to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-98 (Document Number USSR-98). In this film, besides documentary photographs taken between 1941-45, there are also extracts made in 1908, showing Yasnaya Polyana and Leo Tolstoy. Subsequent photographs show what the German invaders did to this cultural relic of the Soviet people.

May I proceed with the presentation of the film, Your Honor?

THE PRESIDENT: Yes, of course.

[Moving pictures were then shown.]

MR. COUNSELLOR RAGINSKY: I must dwell, Your Honors, on one more category of crimes committed by the Hitlerites—the spoliation and destruction of churches, convents, and other places of religious worship.

By destroying monasteries, churches, mosques, and synagogues and robbing their property, the German invaders sadistically mocked the religious feelings of the people. These blasphemous crimes assumed a general appearance in all the territories which were under German rule. Soldiers and officers organized bloody orgies in places of worship, kept horses and dogs in the churches, donned the church vestments, and made sleeping bunks out of the icons.

I shall not trespass on your time by reading all the numerous documents at the disposal of the Soviet Prosecution, and shall merely dwell on some of these, in particular on the documentary photographs, an album of which I present to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-99 (Document Number USSR-99).

With your permission, I should like to read a few more documents and particularly a short extract from the document which has already been presented to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-51(3) (Document Number USSR-51(3)). You can find this extract in your document book on the back of Page 321. I quote:

“The Hitlerite invaders do not spare the religious sentiments of the believing section of the Soviet population either. They have burned, looted, blown up, and desecrated hundreds of churches on Soviet territory, including several irreplaceable monuments of ancient church architecture.”

I omit two paragraphs, and I quote the next one:

“The priest Amvrosy Ivanov writes from the village of Iklinskoye, in the Moscow region:

“ ‘Before the arrival of the Germans the church was in complete order. A German officer ordered me to take everything out of the church. . . . At night troops arrived, occupied the church, brought in their horses. . . . Then they began to smash and break everything in the church and to build bunks. They threw out everything: the altar, the holy gates and banners, and the holy shroud. In a word, the church was turned into a robbers’ den.’ ”

I omit the remaining part of Page 88, and I read Page 89 of the report:

“In the village of Gosteshevo, the Germans plundered the church, broke up the holy banners, threw the books about, robbed the Reverend Mikhail Strakhov and carried him off with them to another district. In the village of Kholm, near Mozhaisk, the Germans robbed and beat up the 82-year-old local priest. In retreating from Mozhaisk, the Germans blew up the Church of the Ascension, the Church of the Holy Trinity, and the Cathedral of Nicholas, the miracle worker. As a rule, before retreating, the Germans would drive part of the population of the villages destroyed by fire into the churches, lock them up, and then set fire to these churches.”

I am now reading into the record a short excerpt from Exhibit Number USSR-312 (Document Number USSR-312), submitted to the Tribunal:

“In a north side-altar of the Znamensky Cathedral, the Germans set up a latrine for the soldiers living in the crypt of the cathedral.

“The Church of the Prophet Elijah on the Slavna was transformed into a stable.

“Stables were built in the following Pskov churches: Bogoyavlenie on Zapskovie, Kozma and Demian on the Gremiatchy Hill, Constantine and Helen, and in the Church of Saint John the Evangelist.”

The document which was presented to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-279 (Document Number USSR-279) describes facts of blasphemous mockery which took place in the town of Gjatsk where the churches were transformed by the Germans into stables and warehouses. In the Church of the Annunciation the Germans set up a slaughterhouse for horned cattle.

The document which I am now presenting to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-246 (Document Number USSR-246) is a report of the Extraordinary State Commission of the Soviet Union and contains general data relating to the churches, chapels, and other institutions of religious worship which have been destroyed or damaged. This document states:

“The German fascist invaders completely destroyed or partly damaged 1,670 churches, 69 chapels, 237 Roman Catholic churches, four mosques, 532 synagogues, and 254 other buildings for religious worship.”

Your Honors will find in the document, submitted to the Tribunal as Exhibit Number USSR-35 (Document Number USSR-35), these general data on the subject. I will not burden the Tribunal’s attention by reading the document into the record in full, but I should like to quote a few very short excerpts from it. I quote:

“The material responsibility by the Germans cannot make complete amends for the destruction of ecclesiastical buildings, and of the most ancient historical monuments; the majority of these can never be restored.”

Omitting the remainder of the page, as well as the first four paragraphs of Page 91 of the report, I read the last paragraph of this page:

“Many churches, historical monuments of antiquity, were destroyed by the German invaders in Bielorussia. Thus, in the city of Vitebsk, they destroyed the Church of the Nativity, an interesting monument of Bielorussian architecture of the 12th century. They completely destroyed the wooden Apostle and Saint Nicholas Churches, built in the 18th century.

“Almost irreparable damage was done to the Voskresenko-Zaruchjevsky Church, built in the 18th century. This church was an interesting example of the Bielorussian classic style of architecture. In the same area, in the city of Vitebsk, the Germans destroyed a Roman Catholic church built in the 18th century. . . .

“In the town of Dyesna, of the Polotsk region, the Germans burned a Roman Catholic church founded in the 17th century, after plundering its property.

“Timoschel Rudolf, German garrison commandant of the town of Rozhnyatov, in the Stanislav region, used three synagogues for barracks and later on destroyed the buildings after plundering the property contained therein.”

I omit the next paragraph.

“Before destroying buildings of various religious cults the Germans plundered and destroyed all their equipment. A great number of icons and church decorations were removed from ecclesiastical buildings to Germany.

“The Joseph-Volokalamsky Monastery was plundered and the ancient shrouds of the monastery, together with the personal belongings of Joseph Volotsky, founder of the monastery, have disappeared. . . .

“In 1941 German soldiers and officers stole from the Staritzki Church all the vessels, altar crosses, crowns, miters, and tabernacles.

“In the town Dokshitza, in the Polotsk region, the Germans looted and took away all the property of the local mosque. The same fate was shared by nearly all the churches in the territories occupied by the Germans.

“Everywhere the Germans plundered Orthodox and Catholic churches, synagogues, mosques, and other buildings of religious worship.”

The Hitlerite conspirators not only actually plundered, tortured, and murdered, but they also strove to humiliate the believers morally and to rob them of their spiritual treasures.

Such, Your Honors, is the conclusive evidence concerning the crimes against culture, committed by Rosenberg, Frank, Göring, Ribbentrop, Keitel, and the other participants in the conspiracy. The crimes of the defendants against culture are terrible indeed in their consequences. Even though it be possible, by a tremendous effort, to rebuild the cities and villages destroyed by the Hitlerites, even though it be possible to restore the factories and plants blown up or burned down by them, mankind has lost for all time the irreplaceable art treasures which the Hitlerites so ruthlessly destroyed, as it has lost forever the millions of human beings sent to their death in Auschwitz, Treblinka, Babye-yar, or Kerch.

Having inherited the savage hatred of all mankind from the dim ages of the past, the modern Huns have far surpassed, in cruelty and vandalism, the darkest pages of history. While arrogantly challenging the future of mankind, they trampled under foot the finest heritage of mankind’s past. Themselves without faith or ideals, they sacrilegiously destroyed both the churches and the relics of the saints.

But in this unparalleled struggle between culture and obscurantism, between civilization and barbarism, culture and civilization prevailed. The Hitlerite conspirators who had aspired to world domination, who had dreamed of destroying the culture of the Slavs and of all other nations, now stand in the defendants’ dock. May a just punishment be theirs.

THE PRESIDENT: Will you continue until 5 o’clock?

MR. COUNSELLOR RAGINSKY: As you wish, Your Honor.

THE PRESIDENT: Yes; will you go on until 5 o’clock?

MR. COUNSELLOR RAGINSKY: I should only like to ask for a few minutes’ interval in order to collect some documents. It will literally take only a few moments.

THE PRESIDENT: It would be hardly worth while if you want a short interval. We shall stop at 5 o’clock.

MR. COUNSELLOR RAGINSKY: It would perhaps be more convenient to begin again at 1000 hours tomorrow.

THE PRESIDENT: Then we will adjourn now.

[The Tribunal adjourned until 22 February 1946 at 1000 hours.]