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Half truths about Ukrainian collaboration with Nazis and Soviets
"There was greater collaboration between Jewish and Soviets," Stefan Kuzmyn says. Jews in Ukraine constituted some 5% of the secret police then known as NKVD, Ukrainians were under represented (Soviets admit). More important than numbers is that Jews occupied the middle and upper level ranks while the Ukrainians occupied the lower rank. The Jewish DP camps were especially heavily penetrated by the NKVD. The few Ukrainian guards Kuzmyn met were actually Russian or Byelorussian origin.
The UPA (Ukrainian Partisan Army) was not anti-semitic. This peasant farmer's army fought against both the Nazi and Soviet occupations of Ukraine. UPA was waging such a strong guerrilla war in the Curzon line that a complete breakdown of the Polish government's authority had taken place. UPA suffered great losses after the combined forces of the USSR, Poland and Czechoslovakia were brought down on them in fall of 1947 and as late as 1950s. Also, the UPA had 12 Jews in their unit, 8 of whom were doctors.
"There were 10 times more Jews than Ukrainians working with the Nazis." The Jews whom Petro Mirchuk say being exterminated at Majdanek were handed over to the SS by Jewish kapos and not by any so-called Ukrainian police.
The Ukrainian Divison Galicia were cleared of any war crimes in Canada. But some Jewish groups are still targeting certain Ukrainians like John Demjanjuk who was deported from Canada (?) and now on trial for his life in Israel. Tried as a guard at the Jewish camp, while the real power was higher up in the ranks.
Kuzmyn says, "Any war criminal is individual and not representative of an entire ethnic or religous group."
T006005 - The 1930's were very tough and very difficult years in Ukraine - collectivization, hunger, millions died. The Soviets set up Machine Tractor Stations (MTS) to supply machinery, experts and operators to the kolhosps.
T006014 - Meisel quotes famine deaths from 2 - 4 million, and there are even higher numbers by Canadian Ukrainian historians of 5 - 10 million.
T006008f - O'Connor cross-examines Meisel.
- MTS stations were established in 1929 and existed until the 1950's.
- Winter of 1931/32 was harsh; starvation, collectivization, slaughtered farm animals.
- Peasants burned their crops. [???]
- Soviet Union exported wheat while people were starving
T006220f - In 2nd half of 1944, the Germans started changing their approach to the [Slavic] peoples. Vlasov was allowed to create his ROA and the OUN leaders, Melnyk and Bandera, were freed from concentration camps. Skorokotsky(?) and Kubiovich suggested Shandruk as a compromise commander for the Ukrainian Division.
T006222 - The Ukrainian leaders were consistently striving for independence. Bandera's people declared an independent Ukrainian state on June 30, 1941 in Lviv, but the SS destroyed the OUN and arrested its leaders and members. [The Germans were adamantly opposed to Ukrainian independence until the war was irretrievably lost.]
T005974f - Although opposed by Goebbels, Rosenberg, Goering and others, Himmler
rejected the Vlasov idea and set up his own Waffen-SS units.
- There were 12 divisions in 1943 and 30 divisions by end of 1944.
- Himmler started with Norwegians and Danes, then French and Dutch, and by 1944 he was prepared to enlist Slavs. (Germans refered to them as Turkmen(?) = Ukrainians, Turkish, Caucasians, Belorusians, Latvians, Lithuanians, Estonians.)
T006083 - Ukrainians "wanted to set up an independent Ukrainian state divorced from the Soviet Union. Vlasov was against this ..."
T006162 - More than 200,000 of the Poles sent to Siberia were allowed to join "General Anders Polish Army which linked up in the Middle East with the British forces ..." There were also 2 Polish divisions(?) as part of the overall Red Armies. [The starving Poles, who had been sent to Siberia from Western Ukraine in 1939-40, refused to fight for Stalin and insisted on fighting with the Western Allies. Stalin allowed them (as well as Ukrainians and Jews, who latched on) to be evacuated via Iran to Palestine. There, the Jews became AWOL with no questions asked. The others joined Anders Polish Army, were allowed to recuperate, were trained and fought under British overall command.]
T006054 - There was a general pardon for collaborators in 1955 except "In regard to people who had persecuted Soviet citizens or killed Soviet citizens, were not pardoned."[... However, many other UPA members, called Ukrainian bourgeois nationalists or banderivtsi, were not released.]
"In all the countries of Europe the Nazis found collaborators willing to help in their crimes and Ukraine was no exception. These collaborators were criminal elements who constituted only a tiny fraction of a few thousand in a total population of 40 million. Ukrainians had proportionately the smallest number of collaborators of all 14 East European countries and most of them were caught and executed at the end of the War. All WW II war criminals should be brought to justice.
"Moscow saw an opportunity to sow discord in Ukraine and its propaganda accused the UPA, other Ukrainian nationalists and the "Ukrainian" Police of anti-Jewish crimes and other crimes. But the "Ukrainian" Police, (Ukrainische Hilfungspolizei/Ukrainian Auxiliary Police) were often not Ukrainians by origin at all, but represented many nationalities. For instance, Poles, Volksdeutsche (local Germans) and even Russians speaking the Russian language were often called 'Ukrainian' Police. "
Quoted from: Jewish Holocaust in Ukraine by Andrew Gregorovich