LOMAKIN: In 1941 and at the beginning of 1942 I was rector of the cemetery church, and I witnessed certain tragic scenes which I should like to relate in detail to the Tribunal.
A few days after the treacherous attack on the Soviet Union by Hitlerite Germany I witnessed the rapid increase of masses for the dead. The dead were mostly children, women, and old people—victims of the air raids on the city by German planes—peaceful citizens of our town. Before the war the number of dead varied from 30 to 50 persons a day, but during the war this number rose quickly to several hundred a day. It was physically impossible to bring the bodies inside the church. Long rows of boxes and coffins with remnants of the victims stood outside the church; the horribly mutilated bodies of Leningrad’s peaceful citizens—victims of barbarous air raids of the German planes.
Side by side with the increasing number of funeral masses for the deceased, there grew up the practice of saying the so-called requiems in absence. The faithful could not bring to the church the bodies of their relatives or friends, as they lay buried under the ruins and the debris of the houses destroyed by the Germans. The church was each day surrounded by masses of coffins—100, 200 coffins—over which one priest used to sing a funeral service.
Forgive me—it is difficult for me to speak of all this, for as the Tribunal already knows, I lived through the whole siege. I, myself, was dying of hunger. I saw the terrible, uninterrupted air raids of the German planes. I was hurt several times.
In the winter of 1941-42 the situation of besieged Leningrad was particularly terrible. The ceaseless air raids of the Luftwaffe, the shelling of the city, the lack of light, of water, of transportation, of sewerage in the city, and finally the terrible starvation—from all this, the peaceful citizens of the town suffered privations unique in the history of mankind. They were indeed heroes, who suffered for their country, these innocent, peaceful citizens.
Together with all that I have just told you, I could describe other terrible scenes which I witnessed during the period when I was the rector of this cemetery church. The cemetery was very often bombed by German planes. Please imagine the scene when people who have found eternal rest—their coffins, bodies, bones, skulls—all this is thrown out on the ground. Tombstones and crosses lay scattered in disorder, and people who had just suffered the loss of their kin, had to suffer once more seeing the huge craters made by bombs sometimes on the very spot where they had just buried their relatives or friends, had to suffer once more, knowing that they had no peace.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Tell us, Witness, during the period of hunger, in what proportion did the number of burial services at this cemetery church increase?
LOMAKIN: I have already said that as a result of the terrible conditions imposed by the siege, as a result of the nonstop air raids, as a result of the shelling of the city, the number of burial services reached an incredible figure—up to several thousand a day. I would especially like to relate to the Tribunal the facts which I observed on 7 February 1942. A month earlier, quite exhausted by hunger and the long walk from my house which I had to the church every day, I fell ill. Two of my assistant priests replaced me.
On 7 February, on the Parents’ Saturday before the beginning of Lent I came for the first time since my illness to my church. A horrifying picture was before my eyes. The church was surrounded by piles of bodies, some of which even blocked the entrance. These piles numbered from 30 to 100 bodies. They were not only at the church door, but also around the church. I witnessed people, exhausted from starvation, who, in their desire to bring the bodies of their relatives to the cemetery, would fall down themselves and die on the spot beside the body. Such scenes I witnessed quite frequently.
MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Witness, will you please answer the following question: What damage was done to the Leningrad churches?