Case Grischino

The Grischino case is the investigation into alleged war crimes committed by members of the Red Army in February 1943. In the eastern Ukrainian city ​​of Grischino , hundreds of members of the Wehrmacht , other German organizations and soldiers of allied armed forces are said to have been killed during the brief Soviet occupation of the village during the course of the German-Soviet war .

incident

The eastern Ukrainian city ​​of Grischino (from 1934 Postyshevo, from 1938 Krasnoarmejsk, from 2016 Pokrovsk) was an important traffic junction. The through road IV , also known as “Rollbahn Süd”, ran here. The "SS road" was originally supposed to lead to the Crimea and the Caucasus , but ended in 1943 east of Stalino, today's Donetsk .

The traffic junction was temporarily occupied by the Soviet 4th Guards Panzer Corps on the night of February 10th to 11th, 1943. After the reconquest by the 5th SS Panzer Division "Wiking" with the support of the 333rd Infantry and 7th Panzer Divisions , numerous dead were discovered on February 18, 1943, showing mutilations and traces of abuse. While a large part of the investigation files have been lost, a brochure published by the Wehrmacht investigation agency on behalf of the Federal Foreign Office has been preserved in the Federal Archives .

A total of 596 prisoners of war, including nurses, construction workers and news workers, are said to have been killed. According to the results of the investigation by the Wehrmacht Investigation Board (WUSt), the victims included 406 members of the Wehrmacht, 58 members of the Todt organization (including 2 Danish nationals), 89 Italian soldiers, 9 Romanian soldiers, 4 Hungarian soldiers, 15 German officials, 7 German civil workers and 8 Ukrainian volunteers.

See also

• War crimes committed by the Red Army in World War II

literature

• Joachim Hoffmann : Germans and Kalmyks, 1942–1945 . Verlag Rombach, Freiburg 1974, ISBN 3-7930-0173-3 , p. 107 ff .
• Alfred de Zayas : The Wehrmacht investigation center. German investigations into Allied violations of international law in World War II . 7th edition. Universitas-Verlag, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-8004-1051-6 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Wolfgang Benz (Ed.): Encyclopedia of National Socialism . dtv, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-608-91805-1 , p. Keyword "DG 4", pp. 431–432 .
2. ^ Andrej Angrick : Annihilation and Labor: Jews and Thoroughfare IV in Central Ukraine . In: Ray Brandon, Wendy Lower (eds.): The Shoah in Ukraine. History, Testimony, Memorialization . Indiana University Press, Bloomington 2008, ISBN 978-0-253-35084-8 , pp. 190-223 .
3. ^ Zayas: Wehrmacht investigation center . Munich 2001, p. 318 .