On the 19th December 1943, whilst the Second World War raged on Three German soldiers and
one Soviet collaborator were brought to the gallows in front of a huge crowd in the city
of Kharkov.
Kharkov was a battle scarred city, and for those 50,000 people who witnessed the executions
of these enemy soldiers, the gallows served as some form of justice for the suffering
they had encountered during the conflict.
Each of the men were left kicking in mid air, as the executioners kicked out the stool underneath
them.
But these were German soldiers and collaborators who were executed as the war was going on,
the Soviets would carry out swift and brutal justice against these people.
They would not wait for the Second World War to end, but would in their own cities enact
their revenge against the Germans who caused a huge amount of chaos and slaughter when
they launched operation Barbarossa.
Going us today as we look at the executions of the German soldiers of Kharkov, to support
our channel, please make sure to subscribe.
Following the launching of Operation Barbarossa, Hitler’s invasion of the Soviet Union the
German army rampaged through the Soviet lands and Kharkiv or Kharkov would come a focus
of many major battles.
The city would be captured by the Nazis and placed under occupation on the 24th October
1941, and a Red Army offensive failed to recapture the city in May 1942.
It would be retaken in February 1943, but a month later would fall again to the Germans.
This put the city and the people of it under a significant amount of danger and stress,
and before the occupation there were a huge amount of refugees who remained in the city.
But the Jewish population would be slaughtered by the German Army.
They and the Einsatzgruppen, the SS death squads would carry out a huge amount of slaughter
in and around the city, and they would between December 1941 and January 1942 massacre and
then bury around 15,000 jews in a ravine outside of a nearby town.
These had been taken from Kharkov, but also around 30,000 residents were executed by the
Germans as they were suspected of being Soviet Partisans, and 80,000 people also died from
hunger, disease and cold.
Further horror occurred as 60,000 people were forcible transported to Germany to work as
slave labourers, but others were also sent to Concentration Camps.
By the time the city was liberated, the population had been reduced to under 200,000 and 70%
of the city had been destroyed.
It was said in one article that, ‘The city was more battered than perhaps any other in
the Soviet Union except Stalingrad.’
But all around the lands, the Germans would commit a significant amount of slaughter and
execution.
But when the city was liberated for the last time, the officials inside of the city would
then try to punish war criminals who had conducted horror in the city.
Further atrocities were committed by the Wehrmacht and Einsatzgruppen, including hangings and
the use of gas vans.
The Gestapo would round up and shoot 435 patients who were being treated inside of a local hospital
and many of these were elderly people and children.
In March 1943, there were 800 Red Army soldiers who were also shot and many others were burned
alive.
The Soviets would state 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.’
But the Soviets would uncover the mass graves of victims, and there were virtually no jews
who had survived the German occupations.
But then a trial was summoned in December 1943, and this was known as the Kharkov Trial.
The point of this was to bring four war criminals to justice, and these were men who had been
linked to implementing the policies of the Germans which resulted in such horror and
bloodshed.
There were four defendants who had been captured and brought forward, despite hundreds committing
crimes in the city.
The defendants were three Germans, Wilhelm Langheld who was 52 years old, Reinhard Retzlaff
who was 36, Hans Ritz a 24 year old man and Soviet Collaborator Mikhail Bulanov who was
26.
The Germans were members of the Wehrmacht the Police and SS forces, and Bulanov was
a man who was accused of treason against his homelands.
All of the men were charged under Soviet and International law, and Langheld, Retzlaff
and Ritz were accused of participating in the murder and slaughter of Soviet Soldiers.
The officials presiding over the court were military men, and a six person forensic team
provided witness and expert testimony in which they documented the shootings and also the
use of gas.
They would tell the courtroom of the suffering of the victims.
It was claimed that these men were ‘Teutonic Knights of the great eastern expanse who daily
and hourly carried out Hitler’s orders, without feeling good feelings and pity, destroyed
civilians were proud of their cruelty considering them subhuman worthy only of mass destruction.’
Their actions led to ‘many thousands of Kharkiv residents mercilessly having violated
their rights to life, and their right to defence.’
They would claim that ‘everyday killings and executions entered the flesh and blood
of the executioners, including the gestapo,’ and that the defendants were absolutely alien
to the idea of good, and they had no organ for its perception.
The defence of the four men said that they had just been following orders, and this was
acknowledged but was rejected as a sufficient defence, and because of this the four men
were found guilty of their crimes and were sentenced to death.
The court found that Wilhelm Langheld had been personally involved in a number of cases
in which 100 innocent Soviet prisoners of war and civilians were shot and executed.
Hans Ritz had directed the shootings which were carried out by the SD Einsatzgruppe in
Taganrog, and it was found that he beat prisoners with rods and truncheons and tortured them
for information and false statements.
Reinhard Retzlaff was found guilty of torturing Soviet civilians and trying to get false statements
from them.
It was said he ripped out their hair and tortured them with needles, and would order the executions
of dozens of civilians.
It was said he drove prisoners into a murder van, and these citizens then were gassed with
Retzlaff then overseeing their burning after.
Mikhail Bulanov the Soviet was found guilty of betraying the Soviet motherland, and he
voluntarily sided with the Germans and worked for them as a chauffeur for the Kharkov gestapo
branch.
He took part in the executions of civilians using gas vans, and also drove civilians to
their executions where they were then shot.
When the evidence and verdicts were announced to the courtroom, the room turned to stone
as these men were found guilty of being a machine for mass murder and in particular
the treason of Bulanov hurt the Soviets.
This was a man of the city who was a cog in the mass slaughter of the people.
But the routine killing of people shocked everyone.
The men did all plead guilty and they admitted their crimes and described them in detail,
but the Soviets would not wait to carry out the executions of the men found guilty at
the Kharkov Trial.
The very next day the four men were taken out into the public square of Kharkov for
their executions.
It was the 19th December 1943, and at the time in the war viscous fighting would still
be erupting, but in Kharkov there were 50,000 people who came to see the executions of the
German soldiers.
There were four gallows which had been made in the town, and each of the men were brought
out into the square for their execution and they were accompanied by a number of guards
and officials.
Thousands of people were gathered around, and they saw the men hanged.
It was said, ‘"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."
For the people of Kharkov, the executions of the men who had worked for the SS, the
German Army and the Gestapo was some form of revenge and reprisal for the suffering
of the people inside of the city.
IT was a city which suffered greatly and for many people these were the most evil war criminals.
But there were many more who committed crimes during operation Barbarossa who were never
brought to justice.
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