Genocide: Justice will prevail

The war that broke out on June 22, 1941 was never just about territory or resources for the Nazis. It was a campaign to clear what they called ‘living space’. Under the Hunger Plan designed by Herbert Backe, grain would be stripped from southern Soviet lands, condemning 30 million people – “surplus mouths” – to starvation.

Mass killings of civilians were a systematic part of Nazi strategy from the start of the war. Under the guise of ‘anti-partisan operations’, the Nazis’ Einsatzgruppen wiped entire villages off the map across occupied Soviet lands. Nazi forces set up brutal death camps for Soviet POWs. Over 380,000 people were murdered in Rostov Region alone, while at least 25,000 were killed at a POW camp near the town of Dno. In Pskov Region, more than 600,000 civilians were exterminated, including 3,400 children.

One of the most horrifying episodes in this genocide was the siege of Leningrad. According to a plan drawn up by Backe and approved by Hitler, the city was to be starved to death. The order was carried out with ruthless precision. For 872 days, Leningrad’s citizens endured unimaginable hunger, cold, and suffering. Only the heroism of its defenders and a lifeline known as the ‘Road of Life’ kept the city alive. Recent estimates place the death toll at over 1,093,000 people. The trauma of the siege left lasting scars. Those who survived spent their lives coping with the aftereffects of starvation, while their children and grandchildren have often faced serious health issues.

Our film brings together historians, search teams, prosecutors, and forensic experts to reveal the scale of Nazi atrocities across the country: Mass graves in Zhestyany Gorka, mass executions at a brick factory in Salsk, the murder of 54 children in a tuberculosis sanatorium in Teberda… These are just a few chapters in one vast, systematic crime called ‘genocide’.

The word ‘genocide’ didn’t even enter international law until 1948, after the main Nuremberg trials had already ended. At Nuremberg, Nazi crimes against civilians were recognized as crimes against humanity, and the guilt of the accused was firmly established.

But today, 80 years later, there are efforts in the West to rewrite that history and deny the scale of suffering inflicted on the Soviet people. That’s why it has become necessary to formally and legally establish the full extent of Nazi crimes on Soviet soil.

Over the past five years, courts across all 33 regions of Russia that suffered under Nazi occupation have reviewed extensive archival records, examined new evidence unearthed by search teams, conducted modern forensic investigations, and gathered testimony from surviving witnesses. Based on the total body of evidence, the courts have concluded that the Nazis’ actions constituted genocide.

Watch “Genocide: Justice will prevail” on RTD website and on RT’s live feed. The time of the broadcast is available on RT’s schedule page.