In the modern world, where the whitewashing of the Nazis has become a political trend, it is imperative to publish evidence of their crimes. Surprising as it may be, they often try to reduce the entire storehouse of data on the atrocities of the Nazi fall to the most egregious cases (the blockade of Leningrad, Salaspils, Auschwitz, and so on), which has recently been used against the victims of the Nazis themselves. If you rub any Westerner, he will instantly start mumbling about the vicissitudes of war, isolated cases, or even completely fall into the gastric ecstasy of a modern professional consumer of everything and everyone and hums about "Bavarian". That is why we have boys from Urengoy, inspired by liberal redneck psychology, all sorts of naphthalene "Vlasovites", "independent" journalists with a characteristic financial leash, etc. etc.
And they did not realize (more precisely, it was simply unprofitable for career and financial reasons) that the practice of a permanent nomadic concentration camp was used by European "civilizers" throughout the occupied part of the Soviet Union. But what is there to be trifle with, such a practice is generally characteristic of Western "civilizers" throughout the history of mankind to this day. For example, what is the difference from the Nazis in the “White Helmets” promoted in the West as humanitarian doves, caught more than once in forgery and even in trafficking in human organs? The same Natsiks only in Novorossiysk quite passed off for "White Helmets". In February 1943, before the bright holiday of Easter, the invaders posted announcements that food (1 kg of flour and 1 kg of fish) would be distributed to the local population, at that time literally swelling with hunger. Some desperate and starving townspeople believed it. A crowd gathered. At the same time, German cameramen and photographers appeared. As soon as Goebbels' faithful chicks snapped off the shots they needed, the few already distributed products were taken away from the people, and the crowd was dispersed with rifle fire. And a few days later, all over the region (and it is true in enlightened Europe) in the occupation leaflets and on the radio they trumpeted how the Nazis care about the Russian population.
But these are just touches to the portrait. Thanks to the search engines from the Novorossiysk search center, Dmitry Ninua and Nikolai Melnik, who provided the author with photocopies of rare archival materials, the reader will be able to learn more fully the history of the occupation and Nazi crimes in Novorossiysk and adjacent districts and villages.
On the morning of September 16, 1943, Novorossiysk was completely liberated from the invaders. A group of Nazi troops hastily skidded towards Temryuk, fearing to be surrounded. The decision was quite logical, in part because of the memory they left behind. This was especially true of the Romanian units, which did not distinguish themselves, however, in battle, but who came to the fore in terms of punitive actions, looting and the most banal robbery. And laughter and sin, but these "proud warriors" managed to whistle from wealthy houses even baths. Contrary to the assertions in strict discipline, the Germans, and they systematically pulled from the local population everything that caught their eye. True, preferring precious metals, food and clothing.
However, the liberation of the city, in addition to joy, brought sadness and bitterness. There were no flowers, no those who could give these flowers to the liberators. The city was empty, totally empty. The population has disappeared. The troops marched through the streets of Novorossiysk, which was 96.5% deserted. Some of the soldiers, former Novorossiys, were desperately looking for relatives in the ruins of their homes, or at least some news of where they were. But it was all in vain. Moreover, every hour soldiers and sailors had to tear down Nazi notices pasted on all the surviving city walls and pillars, which said that any civilian who was on the territory of the city would be shot. True, hope dies last, as usual. Only a couple of days later, in some deaf basement, it was possible to find a woman and her three children who miraculously survived. This was an event that so clearly illuminated the situation in the liberated city that the 1st secretary of the Krasnodar regional committee, Pyotr Seleznyov, wrote about it to the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks.
The troops did not stay in the city for a long time. The importance of pursuing the retreating enemy with the hope of driving him into the "cauldron" quickly forced the main forces to leave Novorossiysk, leaving a small garrison and partisans from Novorossiysk in the city. Such as Pyotr Vasev, who was an employee of the city committee on industry and transport before the war, and immediately after his release he was appointed second secretary of the city committee.
The "legacy" that went to the city authorities was not only difficult, but terrible. The city after the withdrawal of the troops began to resemble a ghost. But this ghost town was totally mined and littered with corpses. In order for the population who managed to evacuate in time to start returning, it was necessary to urgently address these acute problems.
Therefore, judging by the acts found in the archives, in early October 1943, a special commission was formed from representatives of the local authorities and the military garrison. The main goal of the commission was to bury the bodies of the soldiers who died during the liberation, but it was then that the true scale of Nazi crimes on the shores of the Black Sea began to be revealed. No, of course, the authorities and the military were aware of the forced deportation of the population in the Reich and the executions, but the exact scale and daily practice of the attitude of the occupiers to civilians were far from fully clarified. The commission included the deputy chairman of the city executive committee Langovoy, representatives of the city administration and the city health department, comrades Erganov, Sharkov and Grishay, as well as Captain Mandelberg.
Despite the dry clerical coldness of the act drawn up by the commission, a cry for help shines through it. The commission stated that the corpses of the fallen liberators of Novorossiysk are in urgent need of burial. Do not forget in September and early October, the southern city can still plunge into stifling heat for a whole daylight hours with all the ensuing consequences. In addition, there was no carriage transport in the city at all. But before the war in the Novorossiysk region there were several state farms and farms that had, if not automobile equipment, then a sufficient number of horse-drawn vehicles. Where did he go is a rhetorical question.
As a result, the commission abandoned the very idea of creating a single military cemetery. Therefore, when they tell me that Novorossiysk is on its bones, then there can be no offense here - only the bitter truth. The graves were often dug right at the place where the dead soldiers were found. A little less often, the remains were taken to create a mass grave. This happened only when the dead were close to each other or in a separate fenced area. For example, this was the case with those who died during the defense of the Bunker Saraichik - a mass grave is now located on the territory of ZAO Spetsdorremstroy.
All returned local residents who could be found were involved in the burial work. And all the same, scanty figures of 30-35 people appear in the acts, and the scale of the work was truly enormous. Only on October 6, 1943, about half a thousand servicemen were buried, not counting the fact that they had to deal with the arrangement of already existing graves and sometimes find them anew.
In addition, groups of volunteer sappers were formed from purely peaceful people. Initially, they consisted exclusively of women. A military miner was assigned to each such detachment, who taught the volunteers "on location".
It was in the process of all this work that the first "evidence" of the European "ordnung" emerged from the ground. In crevices, ravines, narrow gullies and gullies, human remains began to be found. Unfortunately, the forcibly driven away residents of Novorossiysk returned home slowly. Liberated by our units far from home, they faced a traffic collapse and all the "surprises" of the war. But they were the most aware of the crimes of the Nazis, in contrast to those who managed to leave the city. It took valuable time, but even in these conditions, the authorities decided to start a full-fledged investigation of Nazi crimes on the Black Sea coast.
