The Gas Vans: A Critical Investigation - Holocaust Handbooks

SANTIAGO ALVAREZ, THE GAS VANS 111
corded the trial, and edited segments were shown in cinemas around
the Soviet Union.”
Although it has been suggested that this trial and others of its kind
had been staged by the Soviet Union as a “retaliation” for the German
propaganda exploiting the discovery of the mass graves at Katyn (Sanford
2005), this is not entirely true, as the indictment against the defendants
actually dates from 13 February 1943 (ibid.), that is, before the
discovery of the Katyn mass graves, hence the proceedings as such
were not influenced by Katyn, yet probably their propagandistic exploitation
(p. 260). In fact, at least as important was the need to deter the
population of the Soviet Union from collaborating with the Germans,
whom they conceived as their liberators from Stalinist oppression, or as
Bourtman puts it (ibid.):
“There is reason to believe that the Soviet leadership, its views
clouded by ideological assumptions concerning a supposed ‘friendship
among nations,’ underestimated the willingness of Soviet citizens
to engage with and assist the German occupying forces. Officials
hoped that the widespread media coverage of the trials held
during the war would have the effect of minimizing ongoing collaboration
in the still-occupied Soviet lands and preventing future collaborationist
activities. The Soviet authorities knew that some citizens
in the borderlands had welcomed the German occupiers as liberators;
rooting out these and other ‘enemies of the state’ was essential
to the reaffirmation of the Soviet regime’s authority. Trials of
Soviet collaborators sent a clear message that those who participated
in national movements aimed at usurping the power of the Soviet
state would be dealt with harshly.”
That these trials were indeed nothing else put propaganda shows can
be gleaned from their conditions. Here is, for instance, what Bourtman
writes about the methods used during the Krasnodar trial to extract confessions
from the defendants (pp. 253f.):
“Some historians, including Hostettler, have noted that Soviet interrogators
used coercive methods to extract confessions: ‘The
methods used during months of interrogation included confinement
in a punishment cell too small to move in, intolerable pressure by
teams of inquisitors working for hours and days at a stretch, savage
beatings, prolonged deprivation of sleep, and promises of leniency
or pardon in return for co-operation.’ Prusin suggests further that,
at least for more senior individuals, ‘the descent from a position of