Authors

Yukiko Matsumoto¹;  ¹ Hokkaido University, Japan

Discussion

During and after the fighting on the Eastern Front of World War II (1941-1945), the Soviet Military Tribunal held trials of German soldiers and their collaborators in courts. These "show trials" were attended by many citizens as witnesses and observers. After the trials, the execution of the sentence was opened to the public.

This study examines how the records of wartime violence were used in and out of the courts by analyzing the results of forensic examinations and testimonies of sexual violence. The findings provide "evidence" of the horrific detruction to the human body.

During the war, forensic examinations were conducted in the Soviet Union and numerous reports were prepared for use as "objective" evidence in the trials, some of which were presented by the Soviet delegation at the Nuremberg Trials. Studies of the trials in the Soviet Union analyzed forensic documents as evidence of harm to civilians. In Russia, studies on forensic medicine have focused on the medical aspects, dealing with the activities of forensic scientists and the honors received by them after the war. The reason for analyzing the records of sexual violence is to refer to the Nuremberg Trials and the issue of narratives. The victims who survived faced significant barriers in speaking out owing to social norms and the fear of being shamed. In addition, sexual violence was concealed from society and the community.

Thus, this paper focuses on the social aspects of the trial and examines how the results of forensic investigations and records and testimonies about sexual violence were handled in and out of courts as well as their impacts on postwar society.

In the courts, both the defendants and witnesses revealed their wartime actions through words. However, forensic evidence and victims of sexual violence were difficult topics for public discussion. The widespread coverage of the war damage during the trials, in courtrooms where citizens gathered and in newspaper reports, had an impact on society.

The decisions of the Soviet military and authorities on how to deal with the results of forensic evidence and reports of sexual violence in the courts were related to how postwar society dealt with wartime brutality. The trials revealed not only the brutal destruction of corpses but also provided an arena for the regime to manage popular feelings of retribution against German soldiers and to prescribe emotional norms for citizens. Between 1943 and 1945, the Soviet authorities sought to control outbursts of hatred by the crowds. The regime's management of citizens' feelings of revenge was illuminated by examining how the courts handled records of war damage to civilians.