Criminal Acts of the Nazi Germany Occupation Regime in the Territory of the Vyazma District of the Smolensk Region in 1941-1943

Abstract

When numerous myths are circulating around the Great Patriotic War on the whole and around the Vyazma Pocket in particular, there is the necessity to study the specific disclosures concerning the tragic period of the occupation of the Smolensk Region by Nazi Germany that can be proved with documents. This determines the topicality of this paper. In our research, we rely on the documents kept in the Central Archives of the Russian Defense Ministry, the Governmental Archives of the Smolensk Region, as well as on the witness memoires. The purpose of this research is to study the Nazi Germany war crimes committed by the occupation regime in the territory of the Vyazma District of the Smolensk Region in 1941-1943. The results of the research demonstrate that in 1941-1943 in the territory of the nowadays Vyazma District of the Smolensk Region, Nazis and their accessories committed the full range of war crimes as defined in the four Geneva Conventions (1949): murder of all kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment and torture; humiliating and degrading treatment; public arbitrary executions; cruel and degrading treatment of prisoners of war, including the wounded and sick. For civilian persons, the whole system of horrification and oppression was created to break down their resistance; the punitive actions were taken regularly. Special cruelty and cynicism were inherent to numerous cases of burning villages together with their residents, who in the war time were mainly the old, women, and children.