In the Maelstrom: The Waffen-SS "Galicia" Division and Its Legacy

447 Pages·2023·38.713 MB·English

by  Myroslav Shkandrij

IN THE MAELSTROM
I N T H E
M A E L S T R O M
The Waffen-SS “Galicia” Division and Its Legacy
M y r o s l av S h k a n d r i j
MCGILL-QUEEN’S UNIVERSITY PRESS
Montreal & Kingston • London • Chicago
© McGill-Queen’s University Press 2023
ISBN 978-0-2280-1652-6 (cloth)
ISBN 978-0-2280-1653-3 (paper)
ISBN 978-0-2280-1654-0 (ePDF)
Legal deposit first quarter 2023
Bibliothèque nationale du Québec
Printed in Canada on acid-free paper that is 100% ancient forest free
(100% post-consumer recycled), processed chlorine free
McGill-Queen’s University Press gratefully acknowledges the financial
contributions of the Canadian Foundation for Ukrainian Studies and
the Ukrainian Studies Fund toward the publication of this volume.
We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts.
Nous remercions le Conseil des arts du Canada de son soutien.
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Title: In the maelstrom : the Waffen-SS “Galicia” Division and its legacy /
Myroslav Shkandrij.
Names: Shkandrij, Myroslav, 1950– author.
Description: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: Canadiana (print) 20220447659 | Canadiana (ebook) 20220447896
ISBN 9780228016526 (cloth) | ISBN 9780228016533 (paper)
ISBN 9780228016540 (ePDF)
Subjects: LCSH: Waffen-SS. Grenadier-Division, 14.—History. | LCSH: Waffen-SS.
Grenadier-Division, 14.—Recruiting, enlistment, etc. | LCSH: World War,
1939–1945—Regimental histories—Germany. | LCSH: World War, 1939–1945—
Regimental histories—Ukraine. | LCSH: World War, 1939–1945—Personal
narratives, Ukrainian.
Classification: LCC D757.85 .S55 2023 | DDC 940.54/1343—dc23
C o n t e n t s
Figures vii
Glossary and Abbreviations xi
Preface xvii
Acknowledgments xix
Note on Usage xxi
Notes on Political and Military Figures xxiii
Maps follow page xxx
Introduction 3
MOTIVES
PART ONE |
1 Genesis and Reasons for Volunteering 15
2 Collaborators and Co-operators 31
3 Kubijovyč, Pankivskyi, and the Ukrainian Central Committee 45
4 Military Training: Propaganda, Chaplains, and Relations
with Germans 59
ACTIONS
PART TWO |
5 Beyersdorff Battle Group, February–March, 1944 85
6 District of Lublin as War Theatre: Battalions, Guards,
and Mutinies 93
7 Galician SS Volunteer Regiments 102
8 Slovakia, Slovenia, Austria, and the Ukrainian National Army,
1944–45 121
9 Youth Soldiers, Women, and Nurses 142
vi • Contents
CAMPS
PART THREE |
10 Bellaria and the Repatriation Campaign, 1945 161
11 Rimini, 1945–47 177
12 United Kingdom, 1947–49 197
STORIES
PART FOUR |
13 Stories of Captured Men: Interrogations 1944–54 and Interviews
1987–2012 211
14 Émigré Press and the Patriot Image, 1951–74 230
15 Poetry and Memoirs 244
16 Popular Fiction 264
REAPPRAISALS
PART FIVE |
17 Commissions of Inquiry and Postwar Trials 281
18 Reasons Recalled: Last Interviews, 1987–2012 298
19 Accomplices, Traitors, and Foes: Three Narrative Perspectives 314
20 Monuments and Memory 326
21 Conclusion 345
Notes 351
References 389
Index 415
Figures
1.1 Volunteers marching in the parade, Lviv, 28 April 1943. Courtesy
Ukrainian Canadian Research and Documentation Centre. 22
1.2 Women holding the Galicia Division emblem, Lviv, 28 April 1943.
Courtesy Ukrainian Canadian Research and Documentation
Centre. 22
1.3 Women in the parade. Lviv, 28 April 1943. Courtesy Ukrainian
Canadian Research and Documentation Centre. 23
1.4 Men and women in the parade. Lviv, 28 April 1943. Courtesy
Ukrainian Canadian Research and Documentation Centre. 25
1.5 Governor Wächter salutes volunteers, Lviv, 28 April 1943. Courtesy
Ukrainian Canadian Research and Documentation Centre. 26
1.6 Wächter and Bisantz, Lviv, 28 April, 1943. Author’s archive. 26
4.1 Galicia troops in camouflage before Brody, July 1943. Petro
Markevych with members of his company. Courtesy Ukrainian
Canadian Research and Documentation Centre. 66
8.1 Returning from church service in Slovakia, 1944. Courtesy
Ukrainian Canadian Research and Documentation Centre. 123
8.2 At the front by a bunker, Gleichenberg, Austria, April 1945. Left
to right: Roman Hankevych, Smuk, Yaroslav Rudyi, N.N., Stefan
Maier, Solodkyi, N.N., Volodymyr Motyka (with back turned).
Courtesy the estate of B. Maciw. 133
8.3 General Pavlo Shandruk. Courtesy the estate of B. Maciw. 133
9.1 Youth “recruits” with Wächter, Bisantz, and the Division’s reporter
Stepan Konrad, Przeworsk (Ukr: Perevorsk). Courtesy Ukrainian
Canadian Research and Documentation Centre. 144
9.2 Youth being taught to assemble a rifle in Malta, Austria, 1944.
Courtesy Ukrainian Canadian Research and Documentation
Centre. 148
viii • Figures
9.3 Study session for youth. Malta, Austria, 1944. Courtesy Ukrainian
Canadian Research and Documentation Centre. 148
9.4 Woman operating searchlight. From Zelenyi, Ukrainske iunatstvo,
1965. Courtesy Ukrainian Canadian Research and Documentation
Centre. 151
9.5 Woman in anti-aircraft force. From Zelenyi, Ukrainske iunatstvo,
1965. Courtesy Ukrainian Canadian Research and Documentation
Centre. 151
9.6 Armbands for groups in the “Youth SS.” Ukrainians were separated
into Galicia and Ukraine groups. Other groups: Estonia, Latvia,
Lithuania, Belarus, Russia, and Volga and Crimean Tatars. The
central diamond in each armband was used as a badge on caps.
Courtesy Ukrainian Canadian Research and Documentation
Centre. 153
9.7 Reverend Severyn Saprun conducts mass near anti-aircraft gun,
Vienna, 6 January 1944. Courtesy the estate of B. Maciw. 155
11.1 Judging an athletic competition, Rimini. Courtesy Ukrainian
Canadian Research and Documentation Centre. 180
11.2 Blessing Easter baskets, 21 April 1946. Courtesy the estate of
B. Maciw. 180
11.3 Ukrainian commanders with nurses from the Riccione camp.
Courtesy Ukrainian Historical and Educational Center. 182
11.4 Final high school exams in the theatre built by the Division’s
veterans, 30 July 1946. Courtesy the estate of B. Maciw. 184
11.5 Stamp produced in Rimini, 1946, “Ukrainian Camp Post Italy.”
Designed by Stepan Dytso. 189
11.6 Stamp produced in Rimini, 1946. Designed by Dmytro
Dudynskyi. 189
11.7 Stamp produced in Rimini, 1946. Designed by Stepan Dytso. The
figure symbolizes labour. Monte Titano is in the background. 189
11.8 Stamp produced in Rimini, 1946. Designed by Dmytro
Dudynskyi. 189
11.9 Stamp produced in Rimini, 1946. Designed by Sviatoslav Yatsushko.
It commemorates Metropolitan Andrei Sheptytskyi. 189
11.10 Stamp produced in Rimini, 1946. Designed by Sviatoslav Yatsushko.
It commemorates the anniversary of the Lviv Uprising on
1 November 1918. 189
Figures • ix
11.11 Theatre performance, Rimini. Francuzenko in female role in
Borys Hrinchenko’s Na iasni zori, 1946. Courtesy Ukrainian
Historical and Educational Center. 190
11.12 Blessing the flag, 9,000 participants. Rimini, 25 May 1946.
Courtesy the estate of B. Maciw. 192
12.1 Writers and editors of camp publications shortly before leaving
Rimini for the UK. Author’s archive. 201
12.2 Lodge Moor Camp, Sheffield. Author’s archive. 201
12.3 “1976 Our Last POW.” Copied by a Division POW from a painting left
on the wall of Barrack D5, POW Camp 17, by German POWs, 1947.
Author’s archive. 202
14.1 Front page of Visti bratstva kol. Voiakiv 1 UD UNA, July 1951,
depicting Battle of Brody. Heading: “Glory to the fighters at Brody!”
Caption: “You will win a Ukrainian State or die in the struggle for
her. Yevhen Konovalets.” 232
16.1 General Mykhailo Krat. From Orest Slupchynskyi’s Zibralasia
Kumpaniia (1946). The caption reads: “He led us to the camp, like
Moses led sons of the kahal – Moses brought the stones … He got
the rank of general.” 265
16.2 Portrait of the writer Oleksii Devlad (Zaporozhets) by Volodymyr
Kaplun, Rimini camp, 1946. From Zaporozhets-Devlad, V odvichnii
borotbi, 1955. Courtesy Ukrainian Canadian Research and
Documentation Centre. 265
20.1 Cemetery in Cervia where 39 Division soldiers who died in Italy
were buried. They are now reburied in Passo della Futa. Courtesy
Ukrainian Historical and Educational Center. 327
20.2 Inscription on Cervia monument: “To fighters for Ukraine’s freedom.”
This monument is now embedded in the crypt in Passo della Futa.
Courtesy Ukrainian Historical and Educational Center. 327
20.3 Monument to all fallen Ukrainian soldiers in St Andrew’s Cemetery,
South Bound Brook, New Jersey. Author’s archive. 329
20.4 Base of monument to fallen soldiers in South Bound Brook, showing
the UNA’s emblem (lion) next to the UNR’s emblem (Petliura Cross).
Author’s archive. 329
20.5 Mykola Francuzenko (Frantsuzhenko) interviewing Jack Palance,
with Ulas Samchuk in foreground. At the unveiling of the Shevchenko
monument, Washington, 1964. Francuzenko worked for Voice of
x • Figures
America and Radio Free Europe. Courtesy Ukrainian Historical
and Educational Center. 330
20.6 Monument to the Division’s soldiers in St Volodymyr Cemetery,
Oakville, Ontario. Courtesy Andrij Maleckyj. 331
20.7 Monument to General Andrei Vlasov in Nanuet, New Jersey,
with the ROA emblem and flag. Author’s archive. 339
20.8 Close up of Vlasov monument showing three flags. Carved into
the side are the words “To those who fell in the struggle for a free
Russia.” Author’s archive. 339
20.9 Monument to the Russian Corps, Nanuet, New Jersey. Author’s
archive. 340
20.10 Reburial of a Division soldier’s remains. Chervone, 19 July 2015. From
Ihor Ivankiv et al., eds., Ukrainska dyviziia “Halychyna” Lvivshchyna:
Istoriia, spohady, svitlyny (Lviv : Dukhovna vis, 2016), 497. 343
20.11 Anniversary of Brody. Chervone, 24 July 2005. Left to right:
Mykhailo Mulyk, Volodymyr Malkosh, Yurii Ferentsevych,
Ivan Mamchur. From Ihor Ivankiv et al., eds., Ukrainska dyviziia
“Halychyna” Lvivshchyna: Istoriia, spohady, svitlyny (Lviv: Dukhovna
vis, 2016), 476. 343