A Transcription of:

Report of the Extraordinary State Commission, Kretinga Region, Mosedis Area

(Translation by Natalya Nirkova.)



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About the Extraordinary State Commission:

From an Abstract of:
Journal of Genocide Research
Volume 5, Number 4 / December 2003; pages 587 - 602
Soviet investigation of Nazi crimes in the USSR: documenting the Holocaust
KIRIL FEFERMAN

Abstract:
In the years 1943-1945 a thorough investigation of the crimes committed by the Germans during their occupation of the Soviet areas was conducted within the framework of the Extraordinary State Commission on Reporting and Investigating the Atrocities of the German Fascist Occupants and their Henchmen and the Damages inflicted by them to Citizens, Kolkhozes, Public Organizations, State Enterprises (henceforth ESC, or the Commission). The Commission collected a considerable number of findings demonstrating that the Germans perpetrated atrocities against civilian population and caused tremendous damage to the economy in the occupied areas of the Soviet Union. Numerous findings pertaining to the Holocaust of the Soviet Jews were also gleaned. The Commission represented only the tip of the iceberg in the ramified network of Soviet investigation activities. Many Soviet agencies and individuals got involved in this work. However, only a tiny part of the ESC findings were made public in the Soviet Union. For the most part, they were kept in the Soviet archives, inaccessible to independent scholars. Soviet authorities sanctioned to use these sources very rarely throughout the postwar history, when they transferred to the West some material collected by the ESC in order to support accusations against former Nazis pending in Western courts. As the Commission's files were made accessible after the collapse of the Soviet Union some studies based on the ESC findings emerged. However, the way the Commission functioned and the impact of this process on documenting the Holocaust drew only scarce attention from scholars.