‘Soul Destroyers’: Soviet Reporting of Nazi Genocide and its Perpetrators at the K rasnodar and K har′kov Trials

The Soviet war crimes trials at K rasnodar, in July 1943, and K har′kov, in December 1943, are rarely considered, or thought to contribute to understanding of the H olocaust. This article argues that, despite their propagandist aims, unsound legal basis and silence over the specific fate of the J ews, the trials were discussed by the S oviet press in ways which anticipate understanding of the H olocaust. The picture of systematic gassings of civilians in gas vans, termed ‘soul destroyers’ by the S oviets, pointed to the industrialized approach to mass murder which defines the H olocaust and the camps. At K har′kov, in journalistic reports, especially those of K onstantin S imonov and I l′ia E renburg, the mentality of the murderers was for the first time revealed as one of bureaucratic routine and self‐interest, rather than demonic or animal brutality, thus pre‐empting H annah A rendt's analysis of A dolf E ichmann as an example of the ‘banality of evil’. Likewise, the defendants' insistence that they were following orders foreshadowed the same defence at N uremberg, and this issue was addressed in the S oviet press. Despite the insight into the criminals granted by this reporting, the N azis' targeting of the J ews in the K rasnodar and K har′kov regions was virtually passed over in silence during the trials, but extensively discussed in articles published separately by A leksei N ikolaevich T olstoi. These materials enable us to trace anew the process by which the reality of the H olocaust was first apprehended.