Ukrainian-German collaboration during World War II

During World War II, Ukraine was a battleground. While it is clear that Ukrainians played an important role in the victory over Nazism, during the military occupation of Ukraine by Nazi Germany some Ukrainians, predominantly from the West of Ukraine which had only joined the Soviet Union in 1939, chose to cooperate with the Nazis, seeing an opportunity to rid themselves of the Soviets. Their reasons including the hopes for self-rule and dissatisfaction with Soviet control. However, the lack of Ukrainian autonomy under the Nazis, mistreatment by the occupiers, and the deportation of hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians as slave laborers, soon led to a rapid change in the attitude among the collaborators. By the time the Red Army returned to Ukraine, most of the population welcomed the soldiers as liberators. [Bauer, Yehuda: " [http://www.holocausttaskforce.org/speeches/details/2006-07-04/document.pdf The Holocaust in its European Context] " pg. 13-14. Accessed December 24 2006.] Furthermore, more than 4.5 million Ukrainians fought Germany in the Red Army and more than 250,000 as part of the Soviet partisans. [Potichnyj, Peter J.: " [http://www.infoukes.com/upa/related/military.html Ukrainians in World War II Military Formations: An Overview] ". Accessed December 24 2006.] Ukraine also produced noted commanders such as Marshal Rodion Malinovsky and partisan leader Sydir Kovpak.

Attitudes towards German invasion

The German invasion of the Soviet Union (Operation Barbarossa) began on June 22, 1941, and by September the occupied territory was divided between two German administrative units- General Governement the Reichskommissariat Ukraine. The Germans had their own plans for Ukraine: it was to become Lebensraum, intended for "Aryan" colonisation, with plans for eventual elimination of the local indigenous population - the Slavs were viewed as sub-humans by the Nazi idealology. Many Ukrainians chose to resist, fighting German occupation forces with Red Army or Soviet Partisans. However, particularly in the Western Ukraine assigned to General Government, loyalty to the Soviet State was low due to the fact that it was under Soviet control for a brief period of 2 years. Although the Ukrainian SSR did give the population the national and cultural autonomy that neither the Second Polish Republic nor the interwar Romania did, it came at a price. In 1933 millions of Ukrainians starved to death in an infamous famine, the Holodomor [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/6179818.stm] although many scholars view it as induced or exacerbated by the Soviet government much debate still surround the issue which also is controversial in latter-day Ukraine] and in 1937 several thousand intelligentsia were exiled, sentenced to Gulag labor camps or executed. The negative impact of Soviet policies helped garner support for the German cause, and in some regions, parts of the nationalist minority initially viewed the Germans as allies in the struggle to free Ukraine from Stalinist oppression and achieve independence.

Under occupation

Some Ukrainians cooperated with the German occupiers, participating in the local administration, in German-supervised auxiliary police, Schutzmannschaft, in the German military, and serving as concentration camp guards. Nationalists in the west of Ukraine were among the most enthusiastic early on, hoping that their efforts would enable them to establish independent state later on. For example, on the eve of Barbarossa as many as four thousand Ukrainians, operating under Wehrmacht orders, sought to cause disruption behind Soviet lines. After the capture of Lviv, in important Ukrainian city, OUN leaders proclaimed a new Ukrainian State on June 30, 1941 and were simultaneously encouraging loyalty to the new regime, in hope that they would be supported by the Germans. Already in 1939, during the German-Polish war, the OUN had been “a faithful German auxiliary”, according to [Collaborationism in World War II: The Integral Nationalist Variant in Eastern Europe, by John A. Armstrong in The Journal of Modern History > Vol. 40, No. 3 (Sep., 1968), p. 409]

However, despite initially acting warmly to the idea of an independent Ukraine, the Nazi administration had other ideas, in particular the Lebensraum programme and the total 'Aryanisation' of the population. They preferred to play Slavic nations out one against the other. OUN initially carried out attacks on Polish villages, trying to destroy or expel Polish enclaves from what the OUN fighters perceived as Ukrainian territory. [ Collaborationism in World War II: The Integral Nationalist Variant in Eastern Europe, by John A. Armstrong in The Journal of Modern History > Vol. 40, No. 3 (Sep., 1968), p. 409] When OUN help was no longer needed, its leaders were imprisoned, and many member were summariry executed, with over 600 shot in the Babi Yar massacres.

Consequences of challenging NAZI authority

Auxiliary police

109, 114, 115, 116, 117, 118, 201-st Ukrainian Schutzmannschaftant-battalions participated in anti-partisan operations in Ukraine and Belarus. In February — March 1943 50-th Ukrainian Schutzmannschaftant-battalion participated in the large anti-guerrilla action «Winterzauber» (Winter magic) in Belarus, cooperating with several Latvian and 2nd Lithuanian battalion. Schuma-battalions burned down villages suspected in supporting Soviet partisans. ("Gerlach, C. «Kalkulierte Morde» Hamburger Edition, Hamburg, 1999").

All inhabitants of the village Khatyn in Belarus were burnt alive by the Nazis with participation of the 118th Schutzmannschaft battalion on 22 March 1943.

Waffen-SS Division "Galizien"

By April 28, 1943 the German Command had created the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS Galizien (1st Ukrainian) manned by 14,000 Ukrainians. The history, composition, and function of the Waffen-SS Galizien are the topic of contentious debate among scholars still today. Some have held that these men volunteered eagerly for war against the Soviets, claiming that as evidence of active support of Nazi Germany [Williamson, G: "The SS: Hitler's Instrument of Terror"] while others claim that at least some of them were victims of compulsory conscription as Germany suffered defeats and lost manpower on the eastern front. [cite book | author=Melnyk, Michael | title=To Battle: The Formation and History of the 14. Gallician SS Volunteer Division | publisher=Helion and Company Ltd] Sol Litman of the Simon Wiesenthal Center claims that there are many proven and documented incidents of atrocities and massacres committed by the Waffen-SS Galizien against minorities, particularly Jews during the course of WWII, [cite book | author=Litman, Sol | title=Pure Soldiers or Bloodthirsty Murderers?: The Ukrainian 14th Waffen-SS Galicia Division | edition=Hardcover | publisher=Black Rose Books | year=2003| id=ISBN 1551642190] however other authors, including Michael Melnyk, [cite book | author=Melnyk, Michael | title=To Battle: The Formation and History of the 14. Gallician SS Volunteer Division | publisher=Helion and Company Ltd] and Michael O. Logusz [cite book | author=Logusz, Michael | title=Galicia Division: The Waffen-SS 14th grenadier Division 1943-1945 | publisher=Schiffer Publishing] maintain that members of the division fought almost entirely at the front against the Soviet Red Army and defend the unit against the accusations made by Litman and others since the war. Neither the division nor any of its members were ever charged with any war crime.

Holocaust

The atrocities against the Jewish population during the Holocaust took place within a few days of the German occupation. There are claims that the Ukrainian auxiliary police participated in the Babi Yar massacre. ["The implementation of the decision to kill all the Jews of Kiev was entrusted to Sonderkommando 4a. This unit consisted of SD (Sicherheitsdienst; Security Service) and Sicherheitspolizei (Security Police; Sipo) men; the third company of the Special Duties Waffen-SS battalion; and a platoon of the No. 9 police battalion. The unit was reinforced by police battalions Nos. 45 and 305 and by units of the Ukrainian auxiliary police." ( [http://www.zchor.org/BABIYAR.HTM Extracts from the Article by Shmuel Spector] , Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, Israel Gutman, editor in Chief, Yad Vashem, Sifriat Hapoalim, MacMillan Publishing Company,1990)] [ despite the fact that the auxiliary Ukrainian police units were only established in November of that year. "The Ukrainians led them past a number of different places where one after the other they had to remove their luggage, then their coats, shoes and overgarments and also underwear. They also had to leave their valuables in a designated place. There was a special pile for each article of clothing. It all happened very quickly and anyone who hesitated was kicked or pushed by the Ukrainians to keep them moving." ( [http://www.einsatzgruppenarchives.com/hofer.html Statement of Truck-Driver Hofer Describing the Murder of Jews at Babi Yar] )] and in other Ukrainian cities and towns, such as Lviv, [ [http://www1.yadvashem.org/about_holocaust/chronology/1939-1941/1941/chronology_1941_18.html July 25: Pogrom in Lvov] ] [ [http://www1.yadvashem.org/about_holocaust/chronology/1939-1941/1941/chronology_1941_13.html June 30: Germany occupies Lvov; 4,000 Jews killed by July 3] ]
Lutsk, [ [http://www1.yadvashem.org/about_holocaust/chronology/1939-1941/1941/chronology_1941_11.html June 30: Einsatzkommando 4a and local Ukrainians kill 300 Jews in Lutsk] ] and Zhitomir. [ [http://www1.yadvashem.org/about_holocaust/chronology/1939-1941/1941/chronology_1941_32.html September 19: Zhitomir Ghetto liquidated; 10,000 killed] ] On September 1, 1941, Nazi-controlled Ukrainian newspaper "Volhyn" wrote "The element that settled our cities (Jews)... must disappear completely from our cities. The Jewish problem is already in the process of being solved." [ [http://www.neveragain.org/1941.htm NAAF Holocaust Timeline Project 1941] ]

In May 2006, a Ukrainian newspaper "Ukraine Christian News" commented: "Carrying out the massacre was the Einsatzgruppe C, supported by members of a Waffen-SS battalion and units of the Ukrainian auxiliary police, under the general command of Friedrich Jeckeln. The participation of Ukrainian collaborators in these events, now documented and proven, is a matter of painful public debate in Ukraine." [ [http://www.invictory.org.ua/article2.html Holocaust Victims Honored in Babi Yar] (Ukraine Christian News, May 3, 2006) Accessed January 14, 2006] .

While some proportion of collaborators were volunteers, others were given little choice. Ukrainian and some other nationalities caught fighting for the Red Army were sometimes given the option between dying of starvation and exposure in the ill-equipped POW camps reserved for the Red Army [http://www.historynet.com/soviet-prisoners-of-war-forgotten-nazi-victims-of-world-war-ii.htm 3.5m (57%) WWII Red Army POWs died in captivity] or working for the Germans as a hiwi including duty in the concentration camps and ghettos primarily as guards. The men selected for such duty were trained in the Trawniki concentration camp and were used for that part of the Final Solution known as Operation Reinhard. However they were never fully trusted, and with good reason as some would escape their enforced duty, sometimes along with the prisoners they were meant to be guarding and occasionally killing their SS commanders in the process. [http://www.zwoje-scrolls.com/zwoje16/text11.htm Examination of Ukranian Collaboration in WWII] [http://www.jewishgen.org/Yizkor/belzec1/bel041.html Ukraininan and Jewish collaboration at Belzec]

Righteous Among the Nations in Ukraine

According to Yad Vashem, 2185 righteous Ukrainians had been identified by the year 2007. [ [http://www1.yadvashem.org/righteous/index_righteous.html Righteous Among the Nations Statistics] ] These are the people who risked their lives to save the Jews. [Ukrainian Righteous among the nations. Myron B. Kuropas. [http://ukrweekly.com/Archive/2003/240315.shtml Ukrainian weekly] .]

During his visit to Ukraine, Pope John Paul II beatified one of the righteous ,Father Omelyan Kovch, for his sacrifice while saving innocent people from death. In 1942, father Kovch issued Jews large numbers of baptism certificates in attempt to save their lives. In doing so, he broke the Nazi prohibitions and so he was arrested in December 1942 and deported to the Majdanek concentration camp where he was gassed and burned on March 26, 1943. [Pope to glorify Ukrainian Priest who saved Jews during the Holocaust. Dr. Alexander Roman. [http://www.unicorne.org/orthodoxy/articles/alex_roman/kovtch.htm Ukrainian Orthodoxy] ]

The most famous instances of the saving of hundreds of Jews during WWII features the Metropolitan Archbishop of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Andrey Sheptytsky. He harbored hundreds of Jews in his residence and in Greek Catholic monasteries. He also issued the pastoral letter, "Thou Shalt Not Kill," to protest Nazi atrocities.

ee also

*Ukrainian SSR
*Ukrainian Insurgent Army
*History of the Jews in Ukraine

References

Further reading

*cite book | author=Andrew Gregorovich | title=The Ukrainian Experience in World War II With a Brief Survey of Ukraine's Population Loss of 10 Million |edition=Electronic Reprint Edition | publisher=Forum | year=1995 [http://www.infoukes.com/history/ww2/ here]
*cite book | author=Gilbert Martin | title=The Holocaust: A History of the Jews of Europe During the Second World War | edition=Reprint Edition | publisher=Owl Books | year=1987| id=ISBN 978-0805003482
*cite book | author=Gilbert Martin | title=The Holocaust: The Jewish tragedy | edition=Unknown Binding | publisher=Collins | year=1986| id=ISBN 978-0002163057
* Collaborationism in World War II: The Integral Nationalist Variant in Eastern Europe, by John A. Armstrong in The Journal of Modern History > Vol. 40, No. 3 (Sep., 1968), pp. 396-410
*cite book | author=Mordecai Paldiel| title=The Path of the Righteous: Gentile Rescuers of Jews During the Holocaust| publisher=KTAV Publishing House in association with the ADL| year=1993| id=ISBN 0881253766 [http://books.google.com/books?id=YCz0J-8HIIMC&printsec=frontcover&dq=%22Ivan+semeniuk%22]
*cite book | author=Mordecai Paldiel and Elie Wiesel| title=The Righteous Among the Nations: Rescuers of Jews During the Holocaust | publisher=HarperCollins Publishers| year=2007| id=ISBN 0061151122 [http://books.google.com/books?id=KZjuAAAACAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=subject:%22Righteous+Gentiles+in+the+Holocaust%3B+Biography.%22]