Germany has started inquiry into two criminal cases about genocide in Russia's city of Yeysk and in the country's Novgorod region during World War II, Senior Prosecutor Thomas Will, the deputy head of Ludwigsburg's central department for investigation of National Socialist crimes, has said in an interview with Sputnik
BERLIN (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 23rd December, 2019) Germany has started inquiry into two criminal cases about genocide in Russia's city of Yeysk and in the country's Novgorod region during World War II, Senior Prosecutor Thomas Will, the deputy head of Ludwigsburg's central department for investigation of National Socialist crimes, has said in an interview with Sputnik.
RIA Novosti has made a relevant request to Ludwigsburg's central department for investigation of National Socialist crimes, which analyzes information about Nazi crimes committed worldwide. The request focused on German and Latvian nationals' involvement in military crimes committed in Novgorod region from 1941-1943 and military crimes against orphanage pupils in Yeysk in 1942. As a result, two out of 19 persons supposedly involved in the crimes in Novgorod region have been identified.
"Not least due to RIA Novosti's requests, we have learned that investigation into activities of the SD deployment group's unit [auxiliary police of the Security Service of the Reichsfuhrer-SS, accused of mass murders of civilians on the territory of Europe and the Soviet Union] in Zhestyanaya Gorka and Yeysk continues in the Russian Federation. During my latest business trip in November, I looked through relevant documents in the Russian Federation's State Archive. Actions of this deployment group have already been a subject of large-scale research. The killing of children in Yeysk has been thoroughly investigated in particular. Now we should compare if there are some new facts about the criminals ... We are dealing with both crimes again," Will said.
Will added that Germany could launch a new investigation.
"We are currently comparing the new and the old data, including related to the possible criminals. If we manage to obtain some specific information about the possibly still living criminals, we will start preliminary investigation [into both cases]," Will said.
The Russian Investigative Committee opened in May a criminal case on genocide committed in Novgorod region's settlements of Zhestyanaya Gorka and Chernoe from 1941-1943, where death squads killed thousands of civilians. Russian investigators believe that some of the executioners may be still alive.
In October, the office of Russia's s Federal Security Service in the Krasnodar Territory published for the first time documents revealing details about the 1942 murder of 214 orphanage pupils in Yeysk. A criminal case was opened into the matter.
