“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.”