Nuremberg Day 168 (July 1, 1946): Bazilevsky testimony on Katyn

July 1, 1946, excerpts from the proceedings of the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg. Consellor Smirnov of the USSR called the first of three prosecution witnesses regarding the Katyn Forest massacre, which the indictment charged as a crime of the German defendants. Boris Bazilevskzy, former deputy mayor of Smolensk during Germany’s occupation, testified that Poles who were German prisoners of war worked on roads in the area, that in early Sept. 1941 there was “talk“ of exterminating these Poles, and that two weeks later they had been shot. On cross-examination by German defense counsel, he testified that he had not seen the burial grounds because the Germans had denied access. For further information, see