Ukrainian collaboration with Nazi Germany
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Druing World War II and Ukraine was a battleground, whilst the contribution of Ukraians to the Victory is well documented nonetheless during military occupation by Nazi Germany, some chose to collaborate. The collaboration varied from subtle duties to participation of the extermination of the Jewish population, however, according to Yad Vashem historian Mordecai Paldiel, 1750 Righteous Ukrainians had been identified by the year 2000[1]. These are the people, who risked their lives to save the Jews during global Holocaust[2].
The Germans were particularly welcome in Western parts of Ukraine where the Sovietisation policies were interrelated with repressions and executions and many hoped to achieve total independence. Nonetheless the lack of Ukrainian autonomy, bad treatment by the occupiers, and the deportation of hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians as slave laborers, soon led to to a rapid change in the opinion of people. By the time the Red Army liberated Ukraine, most of the population welcomed the soldiers as such.[3] Furthermore, more than 4,5 million Ukrainians fought Germany in the Red Army and more than 250,000 as part of the Soviet partisans.[4] Ukraine also produced world famous commanders such as Marshal Rodion Malinovsky and partisan leader Sydir Kovpak.
Background
Prior to the 20th century the Ukrainian nation did not exist, however by the start of it there was a strong national consience amongst many Ukrainians desiring for one. Ethnically Ukraine was ruled by two empires, the larger part by the Russian Empire and a small section by Austro-Hungary. It was the attempts of both empires to marginalise the importance of a Ukrainian national conscience that ironically spiralled the nationalism to magnify, first by the Russian attempt to continue to supress Ukrainian Identity as Little Russians and then by the Austro-Hungarian suppression of Russophilia.
In the turbulent times following World War I and the Russian October Revolution, Ukraine became a battelground between the factions fighting not only out of Political considerations but also of national. Several short lived republics promoting Ukrainian Independence, notably Ukrainian People's Republic and Western Ukrainian People's Republic would leave an inspiration in the generations later.
Eventually most of the ethnical Ukrainian territory was divided by the Bolshevik Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic and the Second Polish Republic. Initially the majority of Ukrainians who lived in the former were allowed a wide national autonomy including a right to Ukrainian publishing, language and schooling. However the price of this was that Soviet national and agricultural policies hit Ukraine particularly hard, for example in 1933 a massive famine hit the region Holodomor were millions starved to death. Also in 1937 thousands of intelligentsia were purged, exiled to Gulag or executed. In general only Ukrainian cultural establishments and print were tolerated provided they did not anti-parralel the Soviet and Communist ideology.
In the Second Polish Republic the Ukrainians were little better, although there were no mass repressions or famines, the Polish republic refused any cultural or linguistic atonomy, and indulged a policy of Polonization. However the more liberal system of laws allowed many Ukrainians to a more liberal ideal and the lack of a totalitarian system in the Republic resulted in the creation of the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists in 1929, who, inspired by the idea of Ukrainian Independence tought to use the clash between the Polish and the German polical interests as a leverage against Poles.
For example in 1933 the head of the OUN met with the head of the SA and recieved constant sponsorings of seven thousand Marks per month [5]. Simulatenously the OUN was involved in several terrorist activity in Poland, particularly in the ethnically Ukrainian south eastern lands. Many anticipated the future war and there were high hopes for a german victory.
In September 1939 Poland was partitioned by the secret protocol of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. The Soviet Union used the dissatisfaction of Ukrainians to take part in what it called as the Liberation of Western Ukraine and Belorussia. Initially the reaction of Western Ukrainians was positive, and is well documented on several authentic photographs. However after the troops came the NKVD and Sovietisation of the territory. In this time the OUN deliberately kept a low profile and at the same time its leaders had high hopes for the future German invasion, which would result in an independent Ukraine.
Invasion by Nazis
Main article: Eastern Front (World War II)
On June 22, 1941 the began Operation Barbarossa when the Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union. The lack of preparation and the surprise of the attack led to most of Ukraine quickly being overrun and by September the occupants set up the first administration including the Reichskommissariat Ukraine.
Neglecting the frontal battles, the local population really had only two alternatives: to obey or to resist. Generally many chose to resist, fighting German occupants with Red Army or Soviet Partisans. However particularly in the Western Ukraine, the patriotism to the Soviet State was low. In Western Europe, the loyalty to one's state was taken for granted and the Nazis were the one and only enemy. However although the largest representetive of Ukrainains, Ukrainian SSR did give the population the national and cultural autonomy that neither the Second Polish Republic nor the interwar Romania did, it was at a price. In 1933 millions of Ukrainians starved to death in a manmade famine Holodomor and in 1937 several thousand intelligentsia were purged, exiled to Gulag or executed. Although it is still a question whether these actions were directed against Ukrainians in particular, nonetheless, the negative impacts of Soviet Society were a token for Germans in wining popular support, and in Ukraine, some did see them as a possibility to get out of oppression and even achieve independence.
Therefore, initially in Ukraine some nationalists attempted to collaborate with the Germans in hope that this will enable them to establish independent state later on.
Methods of collaboration with Nazi Germany
On the individual level, collaboration with the Germans usually took the form of participation in the local administration of the German-supervised auxiliary police, Shutsmansharft [5]. Motives for taking such positions varied. The need to find employment or to satisfy personal ambitions was an important consideration. The most notorious form of collaboration was to act as a concentration camp guard.[5]
Facts of collaboration in Holocaust
Atrocities against the Jewish minority began within a few days of the German occupation. The Ukrainian auxiliary police participated in the Babi Yar massacre.[6] [7][8] and in other Ukrainian cities and towns, such as Lviv, [9][10] Lutsk,[11] and Zhitomir.[12] On September 1, 1941, 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."[13]
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."[14]
There is evidence that Ukrainian forces participated in crushing the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of 1943[15] and later the Warsaw Uprising of 1944.[16][17]
Other forms of Cooperation with occupying axis forces
A contentious and possibly controversial issue is the interaction between German soldiers and local women in countries they occupied during world war II, many of these women and resulting offspring from such relationships were treated quite poorly after the war in other nations such as France or Norway and the subject deserves mention here.
As the English edition of the Greek newspaper 'Kathimerini' reported in an article about the children of the German armed forces during occupied Europe during WW2, quoting German psychologist and historian Kerstin Muth: "The case of Ukraine is striking. Almost any child that was born in that country between 1942 and 1944 was the offspring of a German soldier. Ukraine was under occupation and the men were at the front without any right to take leave to see their families. When the Wehrmacht left, any mothers who were able to changed the birth date, because if the authorities learned the paternity of their children they could be sent to Siberia." [18]
Righteous people of the world
According to Yad Vashem historian Mordecai Paldiel, 1750 righteous Ukrainians had been identified by the year 2000. These are the people, who risked their lives to save the Jews [19].
During his visit to Ukraine Pope John Paul II raised one of the righteous - Father Emilian Kovtch to the honours of the Altar for his sacrifice in saving innocent people from death. In 1942 father Kovtch began to baptize Jews in large numbers in atttempt to save their lives. In doing so, he broke the Nazi prohibitions and so he was arrested in December 1942. In August of 1943, for helping Jews Fr. Kovtch was deported to the Majdanek concentration camp where he was killed and burned in the camp's ovens for his courageous attempt to save lives[20].
The most famous account of saving hundreds of Jews during WWII is by 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.
14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS Galizien (1st Ukrainian)
By April 28, 1943 German Command created the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS Galizien (1st Ukrainian) manned by 14,000 volunteers.[21] There are many proven and documented incidents of atrocities and massacres committed by the SS Galizien against minorities, particularly Jews during the course of WW2[22]
See also
References
- ^ Ukrainian Righteous among the nations. Myron B. Kuropas. Ukrainian weekly.
- ^ "The Holocuast in its European Context" pg. 14. Accessed December 24 2006."
- ^ Bauer, Yehuda: "The Holocuast in its European Context" pg. 13-14. Accessed December 24 2006.
- ^ Potichnyj, Peter J.: "Ukrainians in World War II Military Formations: An Overview". Accessed December 24 2006.
- ^ a b c ua.mrezha.ru Vladislav Rybchikov; New Heroes of Ukraine:Ukrainian Police Retrieved on 18 January 2007
- ^ "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." (Extracts from the Article by Shmuel Spector, Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, Israel Gutman, editor in Chief, Yad Vashem, Sifriat Hapoalim, MacMillan Publishing Company,1990)
- ^ " Guarded by SS, SD and Ukrainian auxiliaries, the Jews were marched in groups of 100 via the Melnikova Street to the Jewish cemetery located near the ravine called "Babi Yar". The entire surroundings of the ravine had been fenced in with barbed wire, and were cordoned off by three rows of troops: The outer circle was manned by Ukrainian police, the second with Ukrainian police and Germans, and the inner circle with Germans only." (Babi Yar (death-camps.org))
- ^ "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." (Statement of Truck-Driver Hofer Describing the Murder of Jews at Babi Yar)
- ^ July 25: Pogrom in Lvov
- ^ June 30: Germany occupies Lvov; 4,000 Jews killed by July 3
- ^ June 30: Einsatzkommando 4a and local Ukrainians kill 300 Jews in Lutsk
- ^ September 19: Zhitomir Ghetto liquidated; 10,000 killed
- ^ NAAF Holocaust Timeline Project 1941
- ^ Holocaust Victims Honored in Babi Yar (Ukraine Christian News, May 3, 2006) Accessed January 14, 2006
- ^ Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (Encyclopædia Britannica)
- ^ Central Commission for Investigation of German Crimes in Poland. Excerpts from: German Crimes in Poland. Howard Fertig, New York, 1982.
- ^ Warsaw's failed uprising still divides (BBC) 2 August 2004
- ^ Tzimas, Stavros: "Seeking the ‘children of the Wehrmacht - Kathimerini Newspaper’" Accessed December 24, 2006."
- ^ Ukrainian Righteous among the nations. Myron B. Kuropas. Ukrainian weekly.
- ^ Pope to glorify Ukrainian Priest who saved Jews during the Holocaust. Dr. Alexander Roman. Ukrainian Orthodoxy
- ^ Williamson, G: The SS: Hitler's Instrument of Terror
- ^ Litman, Sol (2003). Pure Soldiers or Bloodthirsty Murderers?: The Ukrainian 14th Waffen-SS Galicia Division (Hardcover ed.). Black Rose Books. ISBN 1551642190.
External links
- Late Trawniki Trials (death-camps.org)
Further reading
- Andrew Gregorovich (1995). The Ukrainian Experience in World War II With a Brief Survey of Ukraine's Population Loss of 10 Million (Electronic Reprint Edition ed.). Forum.
{{cite book}}:|edition=has extra text (help) here - Gilbert Martin (1987). The Holocaust: A History of the Jews of Europe During the Second World War (Reprint Edition ed.). Owl Books. ISBN 978-0805003482.
{{cite book}}:|edition=has extra text (help) - Gilbert Martin (1986). The Holocaust: The Jewish tragedy (Unknown Binding ed.). Collins. ISBN 978-0002163057.