Has an allied war criminal ever been sentenced?

[David Thompson]

Thanks, George.

[Oleg Grigoryev]

from the Report by the Military prosecutor of the 1st Byelorussian Front to the Military Council of the 1st Byelorussian Front –in regards to execution of the directive of the Stavka of the High Command and Military Council, dealing with attitude change towards German Population…
May 2nd 1945.

from the Report by the Military prosecutor of the 1st Byelorussian Front to the Military Council of the 1st Byelorussian Front –in regards to execution of the directive of the Stavka of the High Command and Military Council, dealing with attitude change towards German Population…
May 2nd 1945.

Considerable changes are noted in the attitude of the Red Army personnel, towards German civilians . The number of illegal and baseless shootings of Germans, lootings and rapes has dropped down considerably, nonetheless, despite the directive, these things still occur.

If the executions and burglaries, presently, has practically ceased, then rapes and looting still present a problem.

Here are some rather fresh examples:

Deputy to the commander of the 1st battery of 334th Guards Self-propelled Heavy Artillery Regiment, senior lieutenant Enchivatov was arrested on the April 25 ,in the town of Falkenzee. Enchivatov while being drunk, was going from house to house, and raping women. The investigation is now complete and his case is being presented before military tribunal.

In the town of Fronau, Servicemen of independent 157th border guards Regiment, Ivanov and Manankov, broke into German house, where Manankov raped ill German woman by the name of Lizelet Lure. Before that - this woman was raped, on the April 22nd, by the group of unknown Soviet Servicemen. After this has happened, she poisoned her, one and half year old, son; Lure’s mother also poisoned herself; Lizelet Lure tried to poisoned herself too but she was revived. This is when, (while recovering form the effects of attempted poisoning) she was raped by Manankov. Meanwhile, Ivanov raped another German woman by the name of Kirhenvitz. Ivanov and Manankov are arrested; case is closed, and sent before military tribunal.

CO of mortar company of 216 Rifle Regiment of the 76 Rifle Division, senior lieutenant Buyanov, proclaimed himself patrol commander, and while being drunk, was stopping all German he met, and stripping them of valuables. His case is currently being presented before military tribunal.

Chief of staff of 278 rifle regiment of the 175 rifle divisions, lieutenant-colonel Losev, send his subordinated to the house where German civilians were hiding, with the order to get him a German woman. Lieutenant found one and Losiev raped her. By the order of Military council of the army Losev has been removed form his position and has been demoted.

On April 22nd at the place called Shenerlinde, master-sergeant of 695 artillery regiment of 185 rifle divisions Dorohin, used his weapon to threaten parents of the 15 year old girl, whom he raped right before their very eyes. Dorohin is arrested his cased is presented before military tribunal.

On April 25th 2nd staff officer of operational department of the staff of 79th Rifle Corps, lieutenant Kursakov, tried to raped German woman in front of her husband and children. Kursakov is being investigated, with criminal charges pending.

There is a whole lot of similar cases.
I would like to underline the following points:

1. COs and Armies Military Council are taking serious measures to stop these outrages, but still, certain commanders are willing to let is slide by, as soon as they mange to achieve some insignificant progress , forgetting that whatever is reported only partially represents that actual state of affairs.
Since quite a few units are passing through the same place, certain commanders are trying to shift the blame to other units. This rather wide spread and alarming tendency.

2. Quite a few rapes and lootings are committed by the repartees – especially Italians and Dutch, and occasionally even Germans- all these however very often is blamed on our soldiers.

3. Occasionally we are dealing with provocations, when locals report a crime which never took place. I personally investigated two such occasions
What is more interesting, sometimes our own personnel reports crimes without checking it first., which when check turns out to be a fiction. …

Signed

Military Prosecutor of the 1st Byelorussian Front, Major-General of Jurisprudence L.Yachenin.