Editing Nuremberg trials (section)

===Soviet prosecution===
[[File:Главный обвинитель от СССР на Нюрнбергском процессе Р.А. Руденко.jpg|thumb|[[Roman Rudenko]] opens the Soviet case.]]
On 8 February, the Soviet prosecution opened its case with a speech by Rudenko that covered all four prosecution charges, highlighting a wide variety of crimes committed by the German occupiers as part of their destructive and unprovoked invasion.{{sfn|Hirsch|2020|pp=216–218}}{{sfn|Priemel|2016|p=109}} Rudenko tried to emphasize common ground with the other Allies while rejecting any similarity between Nazi and Soviet rule.{{sfn|Priemel|2016|p=109}} The next week, the Soviet prosecution produced [[Friedrich Paulus]]—a German [[Generalfeldmarschall|field marshal]] captured after the [[Battle of Stalingrad]]—as a witness and questioned him about the preparations for the invasion of the Soviet Union.{{sfn|Hirsch|2020|pp=221–222}} Paulus incriminated his former associates, pointing to Keitel, Jodl, and Göring as the defendants most responsible for the war.{{sfn|Hirsch|2020|p=223}}

More so than other delegations, Soviet prosecutors showed the gruesome details of German atrocities, especially the death by starvation of 3 million [[German mistreatment of Soviet prisoners of war|Soviet prisoners of war]] and several hundred thousand [[siege of Leningrad|residents of Leningrad]].{{sfn|Priemel|2016|p=116}} Although Soviet prosecutors dealt most extensively with the [[The Holocaust in the Soviet Union|systematic murder of Jews in eastern Europe]], at times they blurred the fate of Jews with that of other Soviet nationalities.{{sfn|Priemel|2016|pp=116, 118}} Although these aspects had already been covered by the American prosecution, Soviet prosecutors introduced new evidence from [[Extraordinary State Commission]] reports and interrogations of senior enemy officers.{{sfn|Hirsch|2020|p=225}} [[Lev Smirnov]] presented evidence on the [[Lidice massacre]] in Czechoslovakia, adding that the German invaders had  [[anti-partisan warfare|destroyed thousands of villages and murdered their inhabitants]] throughout eastern Europe.{{sfn|Hirsch|2020|p=230}} The Soviet prosecution emphasized the racist aspect of policies such as the deportation of millions of civilians to Germany for [[forced labor in Nazi Germany|forced labor]],{{sfn|Priemel|2016|p=115}} the murder of children,{{sfn|Hirsch|2020|pp=230–231}} systematic looting of occupied territories, and theft or destruction of [[cultural heritage]].{{sfn|Hirsch|2020|p=232}} The Soviet prosecution also attempted to fabricate German responsibility for the [[Katyn massacre]], which had in fact been committed by the [[NKVD]]. Although Western prosecutors never publicly rejected the Katyn charge for fear of casting doubt on the entire proceedings, they were skeptical.{{sfn|Hirsch|2020|pp=225–226, 335}} The defense presented evidence of Soviet responsibility,{{sfn|Hirsch|2020|pp=247, 329}} and Katyn was not mentioned in the verdict.{{sfn|Hirsch|2020|p=372}}

{{external media|video1=[https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn616417 ''Atrocities Committed by the German Fascist Invaders in the USSR''], 57 minutes; shown on 19 February 1946|video2=[https://perspectives.ushmm.org/item/nuremberg-trial-testimony-of-avrom-sutzkever/collection/the-holocaust-and-the-moving-image Testimony of Abraham Sutzkever], 27 February 1946}}

Inspired by the films shown by the American prosecution, the Soviet Union commissioned three films for the trial: ''The German Fascist Destruction of the Cultural Treasures of the Peoples of the USSR'', ''Atrocities Committed by the German Fascist Invaders in the USSR'', and ''The German Fascist Destruction of Soviet Cities'', using footage from Soviet filmmakers as well as shots from German newsreels.{{sfn|Hirsch|2020|pp=180, 202, 233}} The second film included footage of the liberation of [[Majdanek concentration camp|Majdanek]] and the [[liberation of Auschwitz]] and was considered even more disturbing than the American concentration camp film.{{sfn|Hirsch|2020|pp=231–232}} Soviet witnesses included several survivors of German crimes, including two civilians who lived through the siege of Leningrad, a peasant whose village was destroyed in anti-partisan warfare, a Red Army doctor who endured several prisoner-of-war camps{{sfn|Hirsch|2020|pp=233, 236–237, 239}} and two Holocaust survivors—[[Samuel Rajzman]], a survivor of [[Treblinka extermination camp]], and poet [[Abraham Sutzkever]], who described the murder of tens of thousands of Jews from [[Vilna]].{{sfn|Priemel|2016|p=119}}{{sfn|Hirsch|2020|pp=237, 239}} The Soviet prosecution case was generally well received and presented compelling evidence about the suffering of the Soviet people and the Soviet contributions to victory.{{sfn|Hirsch|2020|pp=240, 242}}