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14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS Galizien (1st Ukrainian)
Encyclopedia
The 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Ukrainian) was a World War II German military formation initially made up of volunteers from the region of Galicia with a Ukrainian
ethnic background but later also incorporated Slovaks, Czechs and Dutch volunteers and officers. Formed in 1943, it was largely destroyed in the battle of Brody
, reformed, and saw action in Slovakia
, Yugoslavia
and Austria before being renamed the first division of the Ukrainian National Army
and surrendering to the Western Allies by 10 May 1945.
. The latter group itself splintered into two factions, the less extreme OUN-M led by Andriy Melnyk
with close ties to German intelligence (Abwehr
) and the more extreme OUN-B led by Stepan Bandera
. When Poland was divided between Germany and the Soviet Union under the terms of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact in 1939, the territory of eastern Galicia was annexed to Soviet Ukraine
. In 1941 it was conquered by Germany
.
Ukrainian leaders of various political persuasions recognised the need for a trained armed force. The German had earlier considered the formation of an armed force made up of Slavic people, but they decided this to be unacceptable as they regarded Slavs as subhumans
. At the beginning of 1943, growing losses inclined Nazi leaders to alter their initial opinions.
, Dr. Otto von Wächter
. He suggested creation of a Waffen-SS
division composed of Galician volunteers and designed for regular combat on the Eastern Front
. The creation of 14th Voluntary Division SS Galizien was announced in April 1943 at ceremonies throughout Galicia. At least 50 documents including contemporary newspaper clippings, radio broadcasts and speeches etc. record the date of 28 April. By June 1943 the first phase of recruitment had taken place. Initially Wächter's proposal (which he was certain would be supported by Ukrainian circles) was rejected. In Berlin Wächter was able to get support from Himmler who made the stipulation that the division would only made up of Galicians, who Himmler considered "more Aryan-like". The terms "Ukrainian", "Ukraine", could not be used when addressing the division, stressing the Imperial Austro-Hungarian heritage of the term "Galizien". David Marples suggests that the division was titled "Galicia" to ensure stricter German control to avoid direct use of inflammatory term "Ukrainian".
Wächter approached the Ukrainian Central Committee, a nonpolitical social welfare organization headed by Volodymyr Kubiyovych
which supported the idea of the formation of the division The Ukrainian Catholic Church
demanded the presence of its chaplains in the division, which was unually not permitted by Germans. Thus the Ukrainian division along with the Bosnian one became notable exceptions.
Germans made two political concessions: It was stipulated that the division shall not be used to fight Western Allies, and would be used exclusively to "fight Bolsheviks". The other concession was in that its oath of allegiance to Hitler was conditional on the fight against Bolshevism and in the fact that Christian
(mostly Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church
and Ukrainian Orthodox) chaplain
s were integrated into the units and allowed to function (in the Waffen-SS, only the Bosnian division and Sturmbrigade Wallonien had a clerical presence). The latter condition was instituted at the insistence of the division's organizers in order to minimize the risk of Nazi demoralization amongst the soldiers. Indeed, Nazi indoctrination was absent within the division.
The creation of foreign SS units had been carried out previously in the name of fighting against communism
; with French, Dutch
, Latvia
n, Estonia
n, Croatia
n, and Belarus
ian units, among others, had been created. The creation of a Ukrainian SS division was perceived by many in Ukraine as a step towards the attainment of Ukrainian independence and attracted many volunteers.
. Many of his colleagues had been members of the pre-war moderate, left-leaning democratic UNDO movement
that before the war had also been opposed to the authoritarian Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists
. The Division also obtained moral support from officers of the exiled Polish-allied Ukrainian National Republic such as General Mykhailo Omelianovych-Pavlenko
. The Division was also strongly supported by Andriy Melnyk
's moderate faction of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists
, who saw it as a counterweight to the extremist Banderist-dominated UPA.
The Bandera faction of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists
(OUN-B) strongly opposed the idea of creating the division, in part because it was an organization outside of its control, and claimed in its propaganda that the division was to be used by the Germans as cannon fodder. Nevertheless, it did not interfere in its formation and once the division was formed it sent some of its members, a number of whom would obtain prominent positions, into the division in order for them to gain military training and to prevent it from completely getting out of their hands. Despite this infiltration, Bandera's OUN failed to gain control over the division.
It also had the support of both the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church
and the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church
. Among its members was a son of Mstyslav Skrypnyk
, the Orthodox
Bishop of Kiev.
The unit began life as SS-Special Purpose Training Battalion (SS-Ausbildungs
-Battalion z.b.V, and the man appointed to oversee the training battalion was General Walter Schimana
(until October 1943). Schimana never commanded the division as it up to the point of his departure it was still a training battalion, staffed mostly by temporary training personnel. From 20 November 1943 SS-Brigadier General
Fritz Freitag
,. Captain
Wolf Dietrich Heike (transferred from the Wehrmacht
) was the chief of staff from January 1944 . All regimental commanders were Germans. Colonel
Rudolf Pannier
commanded the 31st Waffen-Grenadier Regiment der SS in winter 1944/45 when the division was used against the Slovak National Uprising
.
The volunteers had to meet the requirement of the minimum height of 165 cm, as well as of certain minimum cranial circumpherence, per phrenological Nazi policy.
Beyersdorff (a German combat formation) in actions against Soviet and Polish partisans
. The first group operated in the Zamość
area together with the 5th Regiment while the second group operated in the Brody
area with the 4th regiment. The SS Kampsgruppe performed its duty well enough that it earned the rare praise of German Field Marshal Walter Model
.
, where heavy combat
was under way, and attached to the 13th Army Corps. Together with six under-strength German infantry divisions, the Galicia Division was responsible for holding a frontage of approximately 80 kilometres. On 8 July, the 13th Corps was transferred to the 1st Panzer Army. The Galician Division was placed in reserve. Deployed at Brody were the division's 29th, 30th, 31st regiments, a fusilier and engineering battalion, and its artillery regiment. The 14th SS Field Replacement Battalion was deployed fifteen miles behind the other units.
On 13 July, Soviet forces under the command of Marshal Ivan Konev
launched their attack. By the next day, they routed a German division to the north of the 13th Corps and swept back an attempted German counter attack. On 15 July, the 1st and 8th Panzer Divisions along with the Galicia Division bore the brunt of a fierce assault by the Soviet Second Air Army
, who in only a five hour period flew 3,288 aircraft sorties and dropped 102 tons of bombs on them as they attempted a counter attack. On 18 July, the division's Field Replacement Battalion was destroyed with its remnants fleeing west, whilst the remainder of 13th Corps, consisting of over 30,000 German and Ukrainian soldiers, was surrounded by the Soviets within the Brody pocket.
Within the pocket, the Galician troops were tasked with defending the eastern perimeter near the castle and town of Pidhirtsy
and Olesko
. The Soviets sought to collapse the Brody pocket by focusing their attack of what they perceived to be its weakest point, the relatively inexperienced Galician Division, and on 19 July attacked. The 29th and 30th regiments of the division, supported by the division's artillery regiment, put up unexpectedly fierce resistance. Pidhirtsy changed hands several times before the Galicians were finally overwhelmed by the late afternoon, and at Olesko
a major Soviet attack using T-34
tanks was repulsed by the division's Fusilier and Engineer battalions.
On 20 July, the German divisions within the pocket attempted a breakout which failed despite early successes. The Division's 31st regiment was destroyed in fighting. A second German breakout attempt that began at 1:00 A.M. on 21 July ended in failure. Ten miles to the west of the pocket, however, a German Panzergrenadier
Regiment broke through Soviet lines and briefly established contact with the Brody pocket, resulting in the rescue of approximately 3,400 soldiers, including approximately 400 Galicians, before being repulsed. By the end of that day, in the face of overwhelming Soviet attacks, the 14th Division as a whole disintegrated. Its German commander, Fritz Freitag, resigned his command and decreed that everyone would be on their own during the breakout. He and his staff formed their own battle group and headed south, abandoning the division. Some Ukrainian assault groups remained intact, others joined German units, and others fled or melted away. The Ukrainian 14th SS Fusilier battalion, still intact, came to form the rearguard of what was left of the entire 13th Corps. Holding the town of Bilyi Kamin
, it enabled units or stragglers to escape to the south and was able to withstand several Soviet attempts to overwhelm it. By the evening of 21 July, it remained the only intact unit north of the Bug River
.
In the early morning of 22 July, the 14th Fusilier battalion abandoned Bilye Kamin. The Brody pocket was now only 4–5 miles long and wide. The German and Galician soldiers were instructed to attack with everything they had by moving forward until they broke through or were destroyed. Fighting was fierce and desperate. The German and Ukrainian soldiers surging south were able to overwhelm the Soviet 91st independent tank brigade "Proskurov" and its infantry support, and to escape by the hundreds. The remaining pocket collapsed by the evening of 22 July.
Despite the severity of the fighting, the division maintained its discipline and most of its members were ultimately able to break out of the encirclement. Of the approximately 11,000 Galician soldiers deployed at Brody, about 3,000 were able to almost immediately re-enter the division. Approx 7,400 were posted as "Missing in combat".
Soviet statistics give the German losses at Brody as 2 Generals, 30,000 men killed and 17,000 captured (which was more than the number in the entire Corps).
It has been mistakenly suggested that the losses for the 14th SS Division in Brody ran at 73%, higher than the rest of the Corps. The other battle-hardened German units which had formed XIII.A.K. produced similar casualty reports. In the region of 5,000 men of Korpsabteilung 'C' which formed the spearhead of the breakout forces escaped the encirclement with sidearms and without vehicles, horses and other weapons supplies and equipment. A total of 73 officers and 4,059 ncos and men were listed as killed or missing.
By comparison, the 361st Infantry Division which deployed fewer troops at the beginning of the battle than the Galician Division and together with it formed the rearguard, suffered losses that equated directly with it. In the period between 16–22 July, it sustained almost as many casualties with total losses amounting to 6,310 officers and men (dead, missing or wounded). The necessary manpower required to rebuild this and the other German formations was not available and they were subsequently disbanded and the survivors incorporated into other divisions.
As for XIII.A.K., the final report of the Corp's liquidation commission (applicable to its regular army units only) recorded 21,766 killed or missing in action, which together with the 7,000 killed or missing men from the Galician Division brings to the total lost to approx. 29,000. This figure corresponds with General Lange's own estimate of a total of 25-30,000 killed in the encirclement. On the other hand the recently declassified secret Soviet General Staff report states that during the course of the battle their forces destroyed more than 30,000 soldiers and officers, 85 tanks and self propelled guns, over 500 guns of various calibres, 476 mortars, 705 machine guns, 12,000 rifles and submachine guns, 5,843 vehicles, 183 tractors and trailers and 2,430 motorcycles and bicycles. It also claims that over 17,000 soldiers and officers were taken prisoner, 28 tanks and self-propelled guns were captured, as were over 500 guns of various calibres, more than 600 mortars, 483 machine guns, 11,000 rifles and sub-machine guns, over 1,500 vehicles, 98 tractors and trailers, 376 motorcycles and bicycles, in excess of 3,000 horses and 28 warehouses full of military goods.
An estimated total number of survivors of all XIII.A.K. units has been given by the adjutant of the 349th Infantry Division as 15,000 officers and men, while a slightly lower figure of 12,000 was subsequently given by Oberst Wilck.
The 3000 survivors of the Galician Division were used as a nucleus for the rebuilt 14th SS division. Those that were captured were either executed or sent to slave-labour camps. Approximately 2,000 + are thought to have joined up with the UIA
.
. .
The first unit, the 29th regiment with auxiliary units, arrived 28 September 1944. Eventually all divisional units was transferred to Slovakia. From 15 October 1944 they formed two Kampfgruppe, Wittenmayer (which included 3 battalions) and Wildner. The division acted against rebels together with the 18th SS Volunteer Panzer Grenadier Division Horst Wessel, the SS-Sturmbrigade Dirlewanger SS, the Vlasov detachment
and other SS and SD formations until 5 February 1945 . Jan Stanislav, the director of the National Uprising Museum in Slovakia, denied that the division or that Ukrainians took part in any brutalities committed against the Slovak people at this time.
, where from the end of February until the end of March 1945, it together with other SS and SD formations fought Yugoslav Partisans in the Styria and Carinthia (province)
areas near the Austrian-Slovenian border. During this time, the division absorbed the 31 SD
Schutzmannschafts Battalion, also known as the Ukrainian Self Defense legion. When on 31 March Soviet forces commenced an attack from Hungary into Austria that ruptured the German front, the division was ordered to advance northward to Gleichenberg in a desperate attempt to halt the Soviet advance.
in Austria
where in early April it seized the castle and village of Gleichenberg
from Soviet forces (including elite Soviet airborne troops from the 3rd Guards Airborne Division) during a counterattack and on 15 April repulsed a Soviet counterattack. The division at this time maintained a 13-km front. During one critical situation, Freitag became so alarmed by the developments at the front, that in the presence of the commander of the 1st Cavalry Corps General de Kavallerie Harteneck, he reacted instinctively and announced his abdication as Divisional commander and responsibility for its performance in action - as he had done at Brody. General Harteneck refused Freitag's resignation and ordered him to remain at his post. Due to his performance during the battles surrounding Gleichenberg, Waffen-Obersturmführer
Ostap Czuczkewycz was awarded the Iron Cross
, 1st class. The Division suffered heavy casualties while in Austria, with an estimated 1,600 killed or wounded.
, commanded by general Pavlo Shandruk
, was created. The Galician Division nominally became the 1st Division of the Ukrainian National Army, although the German Army's High command continued to list it as the Ukrainian 14th SS Grenadier Division in its order of battle. The Division surrendered to British and US forces by 10 May 1945.
, Italy, in the area controlled by Polish II Corps
forces. The UNA commander Pavlo Shandruk
requested for a meeting with Polish general Władysław Anders in London, and asked him to protect the army against the deportation to Soviet Union. Despite the Soviet pressure, Anders managed to protect Ukrainian soldiers, as the former citizens of the Second Republic of Poland. This, together with the intervention of the Vatican
saved its members from deportation to the USSR. Bishop Buchko of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church
had appealed to Pope Pius XII
to intervene on behalf of the division, whom he described as "good Catholics and fervent anti-Communists". Due to Vatican intervention, the British authorities changed the status of Division members from POW to surrendered enemy personnel and the Polish II Corps declined their deportation to Soviet Union.
176 soldiers of the division joined Władysław Anders's Polish army
. In 1947, former soldiers of SS "Galizien" were allowed to emigrate to Canada and to the United Kingdom. The names of about 7,100 former soldiers of SS "Galizien"
admitted to the UK have been stored in the so called "Rimini List
".
It has been claimed that the division destroyed several Polish communities in western Ukraine during the winter and spring of 1944. Specifically, the 4th and 5th SS Police Regiments have been accused of murdering Polish civilians in the course of anti-guerilla activity. At the time of their actions, these units were not under Divisional command but under separate German police command. Yale historian Timothy Snyder
concluded that the division's role in the ethnic cleansing of Poles from western Ukraine was marginal.
The Polish historian Motyka
has stated that the Germans formed several SS police regiments (numbered from 4 to 8) which also had the territorial moniker "Galizien". These police regiments would later join the division in Spring 1944. Before being incorporated into the division two of them, the 4th and 5th regiments, had participated in anti-guerrilla action at Huta Pieniacka
on 23 February 1944 against Soviet and Polish Armia Krajowa
partisans in the village of Huta Pieniacka
which had also served as a shelter for Jews and as a fortified centre for Polish and Communist guerrillas. Huta Pieniacka was a Polish self-defence outpost organized by inhabitants of the village and sheltering civilian refugees from Volhynia
. On 23 February 1944 two members of a detachment of the division were shot by armed self defense forces Five days later a mixed force of Ukrainian police and German soldiers initially shelled the village with artillery before entering it and ordered all the civilians to gather together. In the ensuing massacre the village of Huta Pienacka was destroyed and between 500 and 1,000 of the inhabitants were killed. According to Polish accounts civilians were locked in barns that were set on fire while those attempting to flee were killed.
Sources differ on whether or not the perpetrators of the massacre were members of the division at the time of this crime.
Polish witness accounts state that the soldiers were accompanied by Ukrainian nationalists (paramilitary unit under Włodzimierz Czerniawski's command), which included members of the UPA, as well as inhabitants of local villages who took property from the pacified households.
The Institute of History of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences concluded that the 4th and 5th SS Police regiments did indeed kill the civilians within the village but added that the grisly reports by eyewitnesses in the Polish accounts were "hard to come up with" and that the likelihood was "difficult to believe." The Institute also noted that at the time of the massacre the police regiments were not under 14th division command but rather under German police command (specifically, under German Sicherheitsdienst
and SS command of the General Government
).
The village of Pidkamin
had a monastery where Poles sought shelter from the encroaching front. Around 2,000 people, the majority of whom were women and children, were seeking refuge there when the monastery was attacked on 11 March 1944, by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (unit under Maksym Skorupsky
command), allegedly cooperating with an SS-Galizien unit. The next day, 12 March the monastery was captured and civilians were murdered (at night part of the population managed to escape). Other civilians were also killed in the town of Pidkamin from 12 to 16 March.
Estimates of victims include 150 by Polish historian Grzegorz Motyka, and 250 according to the researchers of the Institute of History of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences.
For more information about the subject, see: Palikrowy massacre
Allegedly another sub-unit of SS-Galizien also participated in the execution of Polish civilians in Palykorovy
located in Lviv oblast
near Pidkamin
(former Tarnopol Voivodeship
). It is estimated that 365 ethnic Poles were murdered including woman and children.
" of October 1986, by the Honourable Justice Jules Deschênes
concluded that:
Ukrainians
Ukrainians are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine, which is the sixth-largest nation in Europe. The Constitution of Ukraine applies the term 'Ukrainians' to all its citizens...
ethnic background but later also incorporated Slovaks, Czechs and Dutch volunteers and officers. Formed in 1943, it was largely destroyed in the battle of Brody
Lvov-Sandomierz Offensive
The Lvov-Sandomierz Offensive or the L'vov-Sandomierz Strategic Offensive Operation was a major Red Army operation to force the German troops from Ukraine and Eastern Poland...
, reformed, and saw action in Slovakia
Slovakia
The Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...
, Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
and Austria before being renamed the first division of the Ukrainian National Army
Ukrainian National Army
Ukrainian National Army was a World War II Ukrainian military group, created on March 17, 1945 in Weimar, Germany, and subordinate to Ukrainian National Committee....
and surrendering to the Western Allies by 10 May 1945.
Background
After World War I and the dissolution of Austria–Hungary, the territory of Eastern Galicia (Halychyna), populated by a Ukrainian majority but with a large Polish minority, was incorporated into Poland following a Polish–Ukrainian War. During this conflict the Polish advantage in trained soldiers, particularly officers, played a significant role. Between the wars, the political allegiances of Ukrainians in eastern Galicia were divided between moderate national democrats and the more extreme Organization of Ukrainian NationalistsOrganization of Ukrainian Nationalists
The Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists is a Ukrainian political organization which as a movement originally was created in 1929 in Western Ukraine . The OUN accepted violence as an acceptable tool in the fight against foreign and domestic enemies particularly Poland and Russia...
. The latter group itself splintered into two factions, the less extreme OUN-M led by Andriy Melnyk
Andriy Melnyk
Andriy Melnyk , Ukrainian military and political leader.-Life:Born near Drohobych, Galicia into a peasant family. Between 1912 and 1914 he studied at the Higher School of Agriculture in Vienna...
with close ties to German intelligence (Abwehr
Abwehr
The Abwehr was a German military intelligence organisation from 1921 to 1944. The term Abwehr was used as a concession to Allied demands that Germany's post-World War I intelligence activities be for "defensive" purposes only...
) and the more extreme OUN-B led by Stepan Bandera
Stepan Bandera
Stepan Andriyovych Bandera was a Ukrainian politician and one of the leaders of Ukrainian national movement in Western Ukraine , who headed the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists...
. When Poland was divided between Germany and the Soviet Union under the terms of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact in 1939, the territory of eastern Galicia was annexed to Soviet Ukraine
Soviet annexation of Western Ukraine, 1939–1940
On the basis of a secret clause of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union , the Soviet Union invaded Poland on September 17, 1939, capturing the eastern regions of Poland , with Galicia and Volhynia, facing little Polish opposition and occupying the principal city of...
. In 1941 it was conquered by Germany
Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa was the code name for Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II that began on 22 June 1941. Over 4.5 million troops of the Axis powers invaded the USSR along a front., the largest invasion in the history of warfare...
.
Ukrainian leaders of various political persuasions recognised the need for a trained armed force. The German had earlier considered the formation of an armed force made up of Slavic people, but they decided this to be unacceptable as they regarded Slavs as subhumans
Untermensch
Untermensch is a term that became infamous when the Nazi racial ideology used it to describe "inferior people", especially "the masses from the East," that is Jews, Gypsies, Poles along with other Slavic people like the Russians, Serbs, Belarussians and Ukrainians...
. At the beginning of 1943, growing losses inclined Nazi leaders to alter their initial opinions.
Organizing the division
The idea to organize a division of volunteers from Galicia was proposed by the German Governor of District GaliciaDistrict Galicia
The District of Galicia was an administrative unit of the General Government in Nazi-occupied Ukraine from 1941 to 1944 centered in Lemberg ....
, Dr. Otto von Wächter
Otto Wächter
The Baron Otto Gustav von Wächter , was an Austrian lawyer and later German SS officer and National Socialist official...
. He suggested creation of a Waffen-SS
Waffen-SS
The Waffen-SS was a multi-ethnic and multi-national military force of the Third Reich. It constituted the armed wing of the Schutzstaffel or SS, an organ of the Nazi Party. The Waffen-SS saw action throughout World War II and grew from three regiments to over 38 divisions, and served alongside...
division composed of Galician volunteers and designed for regular combat on the Eastern Front
Eastern Front (World War II)
The Eastern Front of World War II was a theatre of World War II between the European Axis powers and co-belligerent Finland against the Soviet Union, Poland, and some other Allies which encompassed Northern, Southern and Eastern Europe from 22 June 1941 to 9 May 1945...
. The creation of 14th Voluntary Division SS Galizien was announced in April 1943 at ceremonies throughout Galicia. At least 50 documents including contemporary newspaper clippings, radio broadcasts and speeches etc. record the date of 28 April. By June 1943 the first phase of recruitment had taken place. Initially Wächter's proposal (which he was certain would be supported by Ukrainian circles) was rejected. In Berlin Wächter was able to get support from Himmler who made the stipulation that the division would only made up of Galicians, who Himmler considered "more Aryan-like". The terms "Ukrainian", "Ukraine", could not be used when addressing the division, stressing the Imperial Austro-Hungarian heritage of the term "Galizien". David Marples suggests that the division was titled "Galicia" to ensure stricter German control to avoid direct use of inflammatory term "Ukrainian".
Wächter approached the Ukrainian Central Committee, a nonpolitical social welfare organization headed by Volodymyr Kubiyovych
Volodymyr Kubiyovych
Volodymyr Mykhailovych Kubiyovych, also spelled Kubiiovych or Kubijovyč , Austria-Hungary - 2 November 1985, Paris, France) was a Ukrainian geographer with a specialty in demography, a cartographer, an encyclopedist, politician, and statesman...
which supported the idea of the formation of the division The Ukrainian Catholic Church
Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church
The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church , Ukrainska Hreko-Katolytska Tserkva), is the largest Eastern Rite Catholic sui juris particular church in full communion with the Holy See, and is directly subject to the Pope...
demanded the presence of its chaplains in the division, which was unually not permitted by Germans. Thus the Ukrainian division along with the Bosnian one became notable exceptions.
Germans made two political concessions: It was stipulated that the division shall not be used to fight Western Allies, and would be used exclusively to "fight Bolsheviks". The other concession was in that its oath of allegiance to Hitler was conditional on the fight against Bolshevism and in the fact that Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
(mostly Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church
Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church
The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church , Ukrainska Hreko-Katolytska Tserkva), is the largest Eastern Rite Catholic sui juris particular church in full communion with the Holy See, and is directly subject to the Pope...
and Ukrainian Orthodox) chaplain
Chaplain
Traditionally, a chaplain is a minister in a specialized setting such as a priest, pastor, rabbi, or imam or lay representative of a religion attached to a secular institution such as a hospital, prison, military unit, police department, university, or private chapel...
s were integrated into the units and allowed to function (in the Waffen-SS, only the Bosnian division and Sturmbrigade Wallonien had a clerical presence). The latter condition was instituted at the insistence of the division's organizers in order to minimize the risk of Nazi demoralization amongst the soldiers. Indeed, Nazi indoctrination was absent within the division.
The creation of foreign SS units had been carried out previously in the name of fighting against communism
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
; with French, Dutch
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
, Latvia
Latvia
Latvia , officially the Republic of Latvia , is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia , to the south by Lithuania , to the east by the Russian Federation , to the southeast by Belarus and shares maritime borders to the west with Sweden...
n, Estonia
Estonia
Estonia , officially the Republic of Estonia , is a state in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia , and to the east by Lake Peipsi and the Russian Federation . Across the Baltic Sea lies...
n, Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
n, and Belarus
Belarus
Belarus , officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel ,...
ian units, among others, had been created. The creation of a Ukrainian SS division was perceived by many in Ukraine as a step towards the attainment of Ukrainian independence and attracted many volunteers.
The Division's Support
The Division enjoyed support from multiple political and religious groups within the western Ukrainian community. The Division's prime organizer and highest ranking Ukrainian officer, Dmytro Paliiv, had been the leader of a small legal political party in the Second Polish RepublicSecond Polish Republic
The Second Polish Republic, Second Commonwealth of Poland or interwar Poland refers to Poland between the two world wars; a period in Polish history in which Poland was restored as an independent state. Officially known as the Republic of Poland or the Commonwealth of Poland , the Polish state was...
. Many of his colleagues had been members of the pre-war moderate, left-leaning democratic UNDO movement
Ukrainian National Democratic Alliance
The Ukrainian National Democratic Alliance, was the largest Ukrainian political party in the Second Polish Republic, active in territory that is currently Western Ukraine. It dominated the mainstream political life of the Ukrainian minority in Poland, which with almost 14% of Poland's population...
that before the war had also been opposed to the authoritarian Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists
Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists
The Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists is a Ukrainian political organization which as a movement originally was created in 1929 in Western Ukraine . The OUN accepted violence as an acceptable tool in the fight against foreign and domestic enemies particularly Poland and Russia...
. The Division also obtained moral support from officers of the exiled Polish-allied Ukrainian National Republic such as General Mykhailo Omelianovych-Pavlenko
Mykhailo Omelianovych-Pavlenko
Mykhailo Omelianovych-Pavlenko , December 8, 1878 - May 29, 1952, was the Supreme Commander of the Ukrainian Galician Army and of the Army of the Ukrainian National Republic...
. The Division was also strongly supported by Andriy Melnyk
Andriy Melnyk
Andriy Melnyk , Ukrainian military and political leader.-Life:Born near Drohobych, Galicia into a peasant family. Between 1912 and 1914 he studied at the Higher School of Agriculture in Vienna...
's moderate faction of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists
Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists
The Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists is a Ukrainian political organization which as a movement originally was created in 1929 in Western Ukraine . The OUN accepted violence as an acceptable tool in the fight against foreign and domestic enemies particularly Poland and Russia...
, who saw it as a counterweight to the extremist Banderist-dominated UPA.
The Bandera faction of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists
Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists
The Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists is a Ukrainian political organization which as a movement originally was created in 1929 in Western Ukraine . The OUN accepted violence as an acceptable tool in the fight against foreign and domestic enemies particularly Poland and Russia...
(OUN-B) strongly opposed the idea of creating the division, in part because it was an organization outside of its control, and claimed in its propaganda that the division was to be used by the Germans as cannon fodder. Nevertheless, it did not interfere in its formation and once the division was formed it sent some of its members, a number of whom would obtain prominent positions, into the division in order for them to gain military training and to prevent it from completely getting out of their hands. Despite this infiltration, Bandera's OUN failed to gain control over the division.
It also had the support of both the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church
Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church
The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church , Ukrainska Hreko-Katolytska Tserkva), is the largest Eastern Rite Catholic sui juris particular church in full communion with the Holy See, and is directly subject to the Pope...
and the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church
Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church
The Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church is one of the three major Orthodox Churches in Ukraine. Close to ten percent of the Christian population claim to be members of the UAOC. The other Churches are the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Kiev Patriarchate and the Ukrainian Russophile Orthodox...
. Among its members was a son of Mstyslav Skrypnyk
Patriarch Mstyslav (Stepan Skrypnyk)
Patriarch Mstyslav, secular name Stepan Ivanovych Skrypnyk , was a Ukrainian Orthodox Church hierarch.Born in Poltava , Stepan Skrypnyk was the nephew of Symon Petlura, a prominent Ukrainian military and political figure...
, the Orthodox
Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church
The Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church is one of the three major Orthodox Churches in Ukraine. Close to ten percent of the Christian population claim to be members of the UAOC. The other Churches are the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Kiev Patriarchate and the Ukrainian Russophile Orthodox...
Bishop of Kiev.
Command
The Division SS "Galizien" was commanded by German and Austrian officers who were delegated to the division.The unit began life as SS-Special Purpose Training Battalion (SS-Ausbildungs
-Battalion z.b.V, and the man appointed to oversee the training battalion was General Walter Schimana
Walter Schimana
Walter Schimana was a German Nazi Party and SS member, who rose to General rank during World War II, and was HSSPF in occupied Greece from October 1943.- Early life :Schimana was born in Troppau, then part of Austria-Hungary, the son of a newspaper editor...
(until October 1943). Schimana never commanded the division as it up to the point of his departure it was still a training battalion, staffed mostly by temporary training personnel. From 20 November 1943 SS-Brigadier General
Brigadeführer
SS-Brigadeführer was an SS rank that was used in Nazi Germany between the years of 1932 and 1945. Brigadeführer was also an SA rank....
Fritz Freitag
Fritz Freitag
Fritz Freitag was a Brigadeführer in the Waffen SS during World War II. He was the commander of the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division Galicia and awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross. He committed suicide at the end of the war in May 1945.-Early years:Fritz Freitag was born on 28 April 1894,...
,. Captain
Hauptmann
Hauptmann is a German word usually translated as captain when it is used as an officer's rank in the German, Austrian and Swiss armies. While "haupt" in contemporary German means "main", it also has the dated meaning of "head", i.e...
Wolf Dietrich Heike (transferred from the Wehrmacht
Wehrmacht
The Wehrmacht – from , to defend and , the might/power) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe .-Origin and use of the term:...
) was the chief of staff from January 1944 . All regimental commanders were Germans. Colonel
Standartenführer
Standartenführer was a Nazi Party paramilitary rank that was used in the so-called Nazi combat-organisations: SA, SS, NSKK and the NSFK...
Rudolf Pannier
Rudolf Pannier
Rudolf Pannier was a Standartenführer and Oberst of Polizei in the Waffen SS during World War II who was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross, which was awarded to recognize extreme battlefield bravery or successful military leadership by Nazi Germany during World War II.-Early life:Rudolf...
commanded the 31st Waffen-Grenadier Regiment der SS in winter 1944/45 when the division was used against the Slovak National Uprising
Slovak National Uprising
The Slovak National Uprising or 1944 Uprising was an armed insurrection organized by the Slovak resistance movement during World War II. It was launched on August 29 1944 from Banská Bystrica in an attempt to overthrow the collaborationist Slovak State of Jozef Tiso...
.
The soldiers
It has been estimated that approximately 80,000 people enlisted for service in the division. There was a "mandatory" requirement for certain large categories of the population to register for service for example all males between 18–25 years old). Consequently it is erroneous to suggest that all those who enlisted were "volunteers". When the candidates were limited to those born between 1920 and 1925 (in other words, aged 18–23), former soldiers born between 1900 and 1925, and all former officers and non-commissioned officers who had served in any kind of army, this resulted in 53,000 volunteers. Of these, 42,000 were called up during the first "recruitment phase" which took place in May and June 1943. Of these, 27,000 were deemed fit for military service and 13,000 were recruited.The volunteers had to meet the requirement of the minimum height of 165 cm, as well as of certain minimum cranial circumpherence, per phrenological Nazi policy.
In action
A battle group from the division was sent to the front at the beginning of 1944. Although it lacked combat experience, it was well-equipped and most of its members had undergone more rigorous training than the average German drafted into the Wehrmacht in 1943–44.Anti-partisans actions with Kampfgruppe Beyersdorff
In early February 1944 the division received an order to form 2 battle groups which were used together with the SS KampfgruppeKampfgruppe
In military history and military slang, the German term Kampfgruppe can refer to a combat formation of any kind, but most usually to that employed by the German Wehrmacht and its allies during World War II and, to a lesser extent, in World War I...
Beyersdorff (a German combat formation) in actions against Soviet and Polish partisans
Partisan (military)
A partisan is a member of an irregular military force formed to oppose control of an area by a foreign power or by an army of occupation by some kind of insurgent activity...
. The first group operated in the Zamość
Zamosc
Zamość ukr. Замостя is a town in southeastern Poland with 66,633 inhabitants , situated in the south-western part of Lublin Voivodeship , about from Lublin, from Warsaw and from the border with Ukraine...
area together with the 5th Regiment while the second group operated in the Brody
Brody
Brody is a city in the Lviv Oblast of western Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Brody Raion , and is located in the valley of the upper Styr River, approximately 90 kilometres northeast of the oblast capital, Lviv...
area with the 4th regiment. The SS Kampsgruppe performed its duty well enough that it earned the rare praise of German Field Marshal Walter Model
Walter Model
Otto Moritz Walter Model was a German general and later field marshal during World War II. He is noted for his defensive battles in the latter half of the war, mostly on the Eastern Front but also in the west, and for his close association with Adolf Hitler and Nazism...
.
Brody
In July the division was sent to the area of BrodyBrody
Brody is a city in the Lviv Oblast of western Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Brody Raion , and is located in the valley of the upper Styr River, approximately 90 kilometres northeast of the oblast capital, Lviv...
, where heavy combat
Lvov-Sandomierz Offensive
The Lvov-Sandomierz Offensive or the L'vov-Sandomierz Strategic Offensive Operation was a major Red Army operation to force the German troops from Ukraine and Eastern Poland...
was under way, and attached to the 13th Army Corps. Together with six under-strength German infantry divisions, the Galicia Division was responsible for holding a frontage of approximately 80 kilometres. On 8 July, the 13th Corps was transferred to the 1st Panzer Army. The Galician Division was placed in reserve. Deployed at Brody were the division's 29th, 30th, 31st regiments, a fusilier and engineering battalion, and its artillery regiment. The 14th SS Field Replacement Battalion was deployed fifteen miles behind the other units.
On 13 July, Soviet forces under the command of Marshal Ivan Konev
Ivan Konev
Ivan Stepanovich Konev , was a Soviet military commander, who led Red Army forces on the Eastern Front during World War II, retook much of Eastern Europe from occupation by the Axis Powers, and helped in the capture of Germany's capital, Berlin....
launched their attack. By the next day, they routed a German division to the north of the 13th Corps and swept back an attempted German counter attack. On 15 July, the 1st and 8th Panzer Divisions along with the Galicia Division bore the brunt of a fierce assault by the Soviet Second Air Army
2nd Air Army
The 2nd Air Army was a formation of the Aviation of the Red Army as part of the Soviet Armed Forces during the Second World War...
, who in only a five hour period flew 3,288 aircraft sorties and dropped 102 tons of bombs on them as they attempted a counter attack. On 18 July, the division's Field Replacement Battalion was destroyed with its remnants fleeing west, whilst the remainder of 13th Corps, consisting of over 30,000 German and Ukrainian soldiers, was surrounded by the Soviets within the Brody pocket.
Within the pocket, the Galician troops were tasked with defending the eastern perimeter near the castle and town of Pidhirtsy
Pidhirtsi Castle
Pidhirtsi Castle is a residential castle-fortress located in the village of Pidhirtsi in Lviv Oblast western Ukraine, located eighty kilometers east of Lviv. It was constructed by Guillaume Le Vasseur de Beauplan between 1635–1640 by order of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth's Grand Crown...
and Olesko
Olesko
Oles'ko is small town in Lviv Oblast of western Ukraine.It was the seat of the rebbes of Alesk, and also the birthplace of Jan III Sobieski, the King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania....
. The Soviets sought to collapse the Brody pocket by focusing their attack of what they perceived to be its weakest point, the relatively inexperienced Galician Division, and on 19 July attacked. The 29th and 30th regiments of the division, supported by the division's artillery regiment, put up unexpectedly fierce resistance. Pidhirtsy changed hands several times before the Galicians were finally overwhelmed by the late afternoon, and at Olesko
Olesko
Oles'ko is small town in Lviv Oblast of western Ukraine.It was the seat of the rebbes of Alesk, and also the birthplace of Jan III Sobieski, the King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania....
a major Soviet attack using T-34
T-34
The T-34 was a Soviet medium tank produced from 1940 to 1958. Although its armour and armament were surpassed by later tanks of the era, it has been often credited as the most effective, efficient and influential design of World War II...
tanks was repulsed by the division's Fusilier and Engineer battalions.
On 20 July, the German divisions within the pocket attempted a breakout which failed despite early successes. The Division's 31st regiment was destroyed in fighting. A second German breakout attempt that began at 1:00 A.M. on 21 July ended in failure. Ten miles to the west of the pocket, however, a German Panzergrenadier
Panzergrenadier
is a German term for motorised or mechanized infantry, as introduced during World War II. It is used in the armies of Austria, Chile, Germany and Switzerland.-Forerunners:...
Regiment broke through Soviet lines and briefly established contact with the Brody pocket, resulting in the rescue of approximately 3,400 soldiers, including approximately 400 Galicians, before being repulsed. By the end of that day, in the face of overwhelming Soviet attacks, the 14th Division as a whole disintegrated. Its German commander, Fritz Freitag, resigned his command and decreed that everyone would be on their own during the breakout. He and his staff formed their own battle group and headed south, abandoning the division. Some Ukrainian assault groups remained intact, others joined German units, and others fled or melted away. The Ukrainian 14th SS Fusilier battalion, still intact, came to form the rearguard of what was left of the entire 13th Corps. Holding the town of Bilyi Kamin
Bilyi Kamin
Bilyi Kamin is a small town in the Zolochiv district, in Lviv Oblast, Ukraine. It is located near the larger town of Brody, Ukraine....
, it enabled units or stragglers to escape to the south and was able to withstand several Soviet attempts to overwhelm it. By the evening of 21 July, it remained the only intact unit north of the Bug River
Bug River
The Bug River is a left tributary of the Narew river flows from central Ukraine to the west, passing along the Ukraine-Polish and Polish-Belarusian border and into Poland, where it empties into the Narew river near Serock. The part between the lake and the Vistula River is sometimes referred to as...
.
In the early morning of 22 July, the 14th Fusilier battalion abandoned Bilye Kamin. The Brody pocket was now only 4–5 miles long and wide. The German and Galician soldiers were instructed to attack with everything they had by moving forward until they broke through or were destroyed. Fighting was fierce and desperate. The German and Ukrainian soldiers surging south were able to overwhelm the Soviet 91st independent tank brigade "Proskurov" and its infantry support, and to escape by the hundreds. The remaining pocket collapsed by the evening of 22 July.
Despite the severity of the fighting, the division maintained its discipline and most of its members were ultimately able to break out of the encirclement. Of the approximately 11,000 Galician soldiers deployed at Brody, about 3,000 were able to almost immediately re-enter the division. Approx 7,400 were posted as "Missing in combat".
Soviet statistics give the German losses at Brody as 2 Generals, 30,000 men killed and 17,000 captured (which was more than the number in the entire Corps).
It has been mistakenly suggested that the losses for the 14th SS Division in Brody ran at 73%, higher than the rest of the Corps. The other battle-hardened German units which had formed XIII.A.K. produced similar casualty reports. In the region of 5,000 men of Korpsabteilung 'C' which formed the spearhead of the breakout forces escaped the encirclement with sidearms and without vehicles, horses and other weapons supplies and equipment. A total of 73 officers and 4,059 ncos and men were listed as killed or missing.
By comparison, the 361st Infantry Division which deployed fewer troops at the beginning of the battle than the Galician Division and together with it formed the rearguard, suffered losses that equated directly with it. In the period between 16–22 July, it sustained almost as many casualties with total losses amounting to 6,310 officers and men (dead, missing or wounded). The necessary manpower required to rebuild this and the other German formations was not available and they were subsequently disbanded and the survivors incorporated into other divisions.
As for XIII.A.K., the final report of the Corp's liquidation commission (applicable to its regular army units only) recorded 21,766 killed or missing in action, which together with the 7,000 killed or missing men from the Galician Division brings to the total lost to approx. 29,000. This figure corresponds with General Lange's own estimate of a total of 25-30,000 killed in the encirclement. On the other hand the recently declassified secret Soviet General Staff report states that during the course of the battle their forces destroyed more than 30,000 soldiers and officers, 85 tanks and self propelled guns, over 500 guns of various calibres, 476 mortars, 705 machine guns, 12,000 rifles and submachine guns, 5,843 vehicles, 183 tractors and trailers and 2,430 motorcycles and bicycles. It also claims that over 17,000 soldiers and officers were taken prisoner, 28 tanks and self-propelled guns were captured, as were over 500 guns of various calibres, more than 600 mortars, 483 machine guns, 11,000 rifles and sub-machine guns, over 1,500 vehicles, 98 tractors and trailers, 376 motorcycles and bicycles, in excess of 3,000 horses and 28 warehouses full of military goods.
An estimated total number of survivors of all XIII.A.K. units has been given by the adjutant of the 349th Infantry Division as 15,000 officers and men, while a slightly lower figure of 12,000 was subsequently given by Oberst Wilck.
The 3000 survivors of the Galician Division were used as a nucleus for the rebuilt 14th SS division. Those that were captured were either executed or sent to slave-labour camps. Approximately 2,000 + are thought to have joined up with the UIA
UIA
UIA can refer to:* Inter-American University * Ukrainian Insurgent Army* Ukraine International Airlines* Universiti Islam Antarabangsa* Union of International Associations...
.
The division in Slovakia
The Germans rebuilt the division over several months using reserve units. From the end of September 1944, the division was used against the Slovak National UprisingSlovak National Uprising
The Slovak National Uprising or 1944 Uprising was an armed insurrection organized by the Slovak resistance movement during World War II. It was launched on August 29 1944 from Banská Bystrica in an attempt to overthrow the collaborationist Slovak State of Jozef Tiso...
. .
The first unit, the 29th regiment with auxiliary units, arrived 28 September 1944. Eventually all divisional units was transferred to Slovakia. From 15 October 1944 they formed two Kampfgruppe, Wittenmayer (which included 3 battalions) and Wildner. The division acted against rebels together with the 18th SS Volunteer Panzer Grenadier Division Horst Wessel, the SS-Sturmbrigade Dirlewanger SS, the Vlasov detachment
Andrey Vlasov
Andrey Andreyevich Vlasov or Wlassow was a Russian Red Army general who collaborated with Nazi Germany during World War II.-Early career:...
and other SS and SD formations until 5 February 1945 . Jan Stanislav, the director of the National Uprising Museum in Slovakia, denied that the division or that Ukrainians took part in any brutalities committed against the Slovak people at this time.
Anti-partisans actions on the Slovenia-Austrian border
In the end of January 1945, it was moved to SloveniaSlovenia
Slovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central and Southeastern Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy to the west, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north, and also has a small portion of...
, where from the end of February until the end of March 1945, it together with other SS and SD formations fought Yugoslav Partisans in the Styria and Carinthia (province)
Carinthia (province)
Slovenian Carinthia or Slovene Carinthia, most commonly simply Carinthia is a traditional region in the north of Slovenia. It has no official status as an administrative unit within Slovenia, although the association with an informal province is still quite common.The region is referred to as...
areas near the Austrian-Slovenian border. During this time, the division absorbed the 31 SD
Sicherheitspolizei
The Sicherheitspolizei , often abbreviated as SiPo, was a term used in Nazi Germany to describe the state political and criminal investigation security agencies. It was made up by the combined forces of the Gestapo and the Kripo between 1936 and 1939...
Schutzmannschafts Battalion, also known as the Ukrainian Self Defense legion. When on 31 March Soviet forces commenced an attack from Hungary into Austria that ruptured the German front, the division was ordered to advance northward to Gleichenberg in a desperate attempt to halt the Soviet advance.
Graz
From 1 April until the end of the war, with a strength of 14,000 combat troops and 8,000 soldiers in a Training and Replacement Regiment, the division fought against the Red Army in the region of GrazGraz
The more recent population figures do not give the whole picture as only people with principal residence status are counted and people with secondary residence status are not. Most of the people with secondary residence status in Graz are students...
in Austria
where in early April it seized the castle and village of Gleichenberg
Bad Gleichenberg
Bad Gleichenberg is a municipality in the district of Feldbach in Styria, Austria....
from Soviet forces (including elite Soviet airborne troops from the 3rd Guards Airborne Division) during a counterattack and on 15 April repulsed a Soviet counterattack. The division at this time maintained a 13-km front. During one critical situation, Freitag became so alarmed by the developments at the front, that in the presence of the commander of the 1st Cavalry Corps General de Kavallerie Harteneck, he reacted instinctively and announced his abdication as Divisional commander and responsibility for its performance in action - as he had done at Brody. General Harteneck refused Freitag's resignation and ordered him to remain at his post. Due to his performance during the battles surrounding Gleichenberg, Waffen-Obersturmführer
Obersturmführer
Obersturmführer was a paramilitary rank of the Nazi party that was used by the SS and also as a rank of the SA. Translated as “Senior Assault Leader”, the rank of Obersturmführer was first created in 1932 as the result of an expansion of the Sturmabteilung and the need for an additional rank in...
Ostap Czuczkewycz was awarded the Iron Cross
Iron Cross
The Iron Cross is a cross symbol typically in black with a white or silver outline that originated after 1219 when the Kingdom of Jerusalem granted the Teutonic Order the right to combine the Teutonic Black Cross placed above a silver Cross of Jerusalem....
, 1st class. The Division suffered heavy casualties while in Austria, with an estimated 1,600 killed or wounded.
1st Ukrainian Division UNA
On 17 March 1945, Ukrainian émigrés established the Ukrainian National Committee to represent the interests of Ukrainians to the Third Reich. Simultaneously, the Ukrainian National ArmyUkrainian National Army
Ukrainian National Army was a World War II Ukrainian military group, created on March 17, 1945 in Weimar, Germany, and subordinate to Ukrainian National Committee....
, commanded by general Pavlo Shandruk
Pavlo Shandruk
Pavlo Shandruk was a general in the army of the Ukrainian National Republic, a colonel of the Polish Army, and a prominent general of the Ukrainian National Army, a military force that fought against the Soviets under German command at the close of World War II.-Biography:Shandruk was born on...
, was created. The Galician Division nominally became the 1st Division of the Ukrainian National Army, although the German Army's High command continued to list it as the Ukrainian 14th SS Grenadier Division in its order of battle. The Division surrendered to British and US forces by 10 May 1945.
Rimini
The Ukrainian soldiers were interned in RiminiRimini
Rimini is a medium-sized city of 142,579 inhabitants in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy, and capital city of the Province of Rimini. It is located on the Adriatic Sea, on the coast between the rivers Marecchia and Ausa...
, Italy, in the area controlled by Polish II Corps
Polish II Corps
Polish II Corps , 1943–1947, was a major tactical and operational unit of the Polish Armed Forces in the West during World War II. It was commanded by Lieutenant General Władysław Anders and by the end of 1945 it had grown to well over 100,000 soldiers....
forces. The UNA commander Pavlo Shandruk
Pavlo Shandruk
Pavlo Shandruk was a general in the army of the Ukrainian National Republic, a colonel of the Polish Army, and a prominent general of the Ukrainian National Army, a military force that fought against the Soviets under German command at the close of World War II.-Biography:Shandruk was born on...
requested for a meeting with Polish general Władysław Anders in London, and asked him to protect the army against the deportation to Soviet Union. Despite the Soviet pressure, Anders managed to protect Ukrainian soldiers, as the former citizens of the Second Republic of Poland. This, together with the intervention of the Vatican
Holy See
The Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, in which its Bishop is commonly known as the Pope. It is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and...
saved its members from deportation to the USSR. Bishop Buchko of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church
Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church
The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church , Ukrainska Hreko-Katolytska Tserkva), is the largest Eastern Rite Catholic sui juris particular church in full communion with the Holy See, and is directly subject to the Pope...
had appealed to Pope Pius XII
Pope Pius XII
The Venerable Pope Pius XII , born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli , reigned as Pope, head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of Vatican City State, from 2 March 1939 until his death in 1958....
to intervene on behalf of the division, whom he described as "good Catholics and fervent anti-Communists". Due to Vatican intervention, the British authorities changed the status of Division members from POW to surrendered enemy personnel and the Polish II Corps declined their deportation to Soviet Union.
176 soldiers of the division joined Władysław Anders's Polish army
Polish Armed Forces in the West
Polish Armed Forces in the West refers to the Polish military formations formed to fight alongside the Western Allies against Nazi Germany and its allies...
. In 1947, former soldiers of SS "Galizien" were allowed to emigrate to Canada and to the United Kingdom. The names of about 7,100 former soldiers of SS "Galizien"
admitted to the UK have been stored in the so called "Rimini List
Rimini List
The Rimini List is the list of about 7,100 Ukrainians who were members of the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS operated in Eastern Europe during World War II and who were admitted to the United Kingdom. -Origin:...
".
Accusations of war atrocities
Although the Galizien Division has not been found guilty of any war crimes by any war tribunal or commission, numerous unproven accusations of impropriety have been levelled at the division and at particular members of the division from a variety of sources. It is difficult to determine the extent of war criminality among members of the division. If prior service in Nazi police units is a measure of criminality, only a small number were recruited from established police detachments. Among those who had transferred from police detachments, some had been members of a coastal defence unit that had been stationed in France, while others came from two police battalions that had been formed in the spring of 1943, too late to have participated in the murder of Ukraine's Jews. According to Howard Margolian there is no evidence that these units participated in anti-partisan operations or reprisals prior to their inclusion into the division. However, a number of recruits, prior to their service within the police battalions are alleged to have been in Ukrainian irregular formations that are alleged to have committed atrocities against Jews and Communists. However, both the Canadian government and the Canadian Jewish Congress in their investigations of the division failed to find hard evidence to support the notion that it was rife with criminal elements.It has been claimed that the division destroyed several Polish communities in western Ukraine during the winter and spring of 1944. Specifically, the 4th and 5th SS Police Regiments have been accused of murdering Polish civilians in the course of anti-guerilla activity. At the time of their actions, these units were not under Divisional command but under separate German police command. Yale historian Timothy Snyder
Timothy Snyder
Timothy D. Snyder is an American professor of history at Yale University, specializing in the history of Central and Eastern Europe, as well as the Holocaust...
concluded that the division's role in the ethnic cleansing of Poles from western Ukraine was marginal.
Huta Pieniacka
For more information about the subject, see: Huta Pieniacka massacreHuta Pieniacka massacre
The Huta Pieniacka massacre was a punitive military operation against the inhabitants of the ethnically Polish village Huta Pieniacka, located in western Ukraine, which took place on February 28, 1944. Estimates of the number of victims range from 500 to 1,200.Polish and Ukrainian historians...
The Polish historian Motyka
Grzegorz Motyka (historian)
Grzegorz Motyka is a Polish historian, specializing in the history of the Polish-Ukrainian relations. Since 1992 employed in the Institute of Political Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences and in the Institute of National Remembrance....
has stated that the Germans formed several SS police regiments (numbered from 4 to 8) which also had the territorial moniker "Galizien". These police regiments would later join the division in Spring 1944. Before being incorporated into the division two of them, the 4th and 5th regiments, had participated in anti-guerrilla action at Huta Pieniacka
Huta Pieniacka
Huta Pieniacka – was an ethnic Polish village of about 1,000 inhabitants, until 1939 located in Tarnopol Voivodeship, Poland...
on 23 February 1944 against Soviet and Polish Armia Krajowa
Armia Krajowa
The Armia Krajowa , or Home Army, was the dominant Polish resistance movement in World War II German-occupied Poland. It was formed in February 1942 from the Związek Walki Zbrojnej . Over the next two years, it absorbed most other Polish underground forces...
partisans in the village of Huta Pieniacka
Huta Pieniacka
Huta Pieniacka – was an ethnic Polish village of about 1,000 inhabitants, until 1939 located in Tarnopol Voivodeship, Poland...
which had also served as a shelter for Jews and as a fortified centre for Polish and Communist guerrillas. Huta Pieniacka was a Polish self-defence outpost organized by inhabitants of the village and sheltering civilian refugees from Volhynia
Volhynia
Volhynia, Volynia, or Volyn is a historic region in western Ukraine located between the rivers Prypiat and Southern Bug River, to the north of Galicia and Podolia; the region is named for the former city of Volyn or Velyn, said to have been located on the Southern Bug River, whose name may come...
. On 23 February 1944 two members of a detachment of the division were shot by armed self defense forces Five days later a mixed force of Ukrainian police and German soldiers initially shelled the village with artillery before entering it and ordered all the civilians to gather together. In the ensuing massacre the village of Huta Pienacka was destroyed and between 500 and 1,000 of the inhabitants were killed. According to Polish accounts civilians were locked in barns that were set on fire while those attempting to flee were killed.
Sources differ on whether or not the perpetrators of the massacre were members of the division at the time of this crime.
Polish witness accounts state that the soldiers were accompanied by Ukrainian nationalists (paramilitary unit under Włodzimierz Czerniawski's command), which included members of the UPA, as well as inhabitants of local villages who took property from the pacified households.
The Institute of History of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences concluded that the 4th and 5th SS Police regiments did indeed kill the civilians within the village but added that the grisly reports by eyewitnesses in the Polish accounts were "hard to come up with" and that the likelihood was "difficult to believe." The Institute also noted that at the time of the massacre the police regiments were not under 14th division command but rather under German police command (specifically, under German Sicherheitsdienst
Sicherheitsdienst
Sicherheitsdienst , full title Sicherheitsdienst des Reichsführers-SS, or SD, was the intelligence agency of the SS and the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany. The organization was the first Nazi Party intelligence organization to be established and was often considered a "sister organization" with the...
and SS command of the General Government
General Government
The General Government was an area of Second Republic of Poland under Nazi German rule during World War II; designated as a separate region of the Third Reich between 1939–1945...
).
Pidkamin and Palikrowy
For more information about the subject, see: Pidkamin massacrePidkamin massacre
The Pidkamin massacre 12 March 1944 was the massacre of Polish civilians committed by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army under the command of Maksym Skorupsky , in cooperation with a unit of the SS Freiwilligen Division "Galizien"...
The village of Pidkamin
Pidkamin
Pidkamin is a town in the Brody district, Lviv oblast in Ukraine. It has a population of about 2,500 and is located around SE of Brody, SW of Kremenets and NE of Zolochiv....
had a monastery where Poles sought shelter from the encroaching front. Around 2,000 people, the majority of whom were women and children, were seeking refuge there when the monastery was attacked on 11 March 1944, by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (unit under Maksym Skorupsky
Maksym Skorupsky
Maksym Skorupsky was a Ukrainian military leader of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army.-Biography:Born in the village of Antonivets, Kremenets region, now Ternopil oblast, Ukraine...
command), allegedly cooperating with an SS-Galizien unit. The next day, 12 March the monastery was captured and civilians were murdered (at night part of the population managed to escape). Other civilians were also killed in the town of Pidkamin from 12 to 16 March.
Estimates of victims include 150 by Polish historian Grzegorz Motyka, and 250 according to the researchers of the Institute of History of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences.
For more information about the subject, see: Palikrowy massacre
Palikrowy massacre
Palikrowy massacre was a war crime committed by 4th police SS-regiment made up of Ukrainian soldiers of the SS-Galizien who were removed from the SS-Galizien at the time of the massacre and placed under German police command ., Ukrainian SVK forces and Ukrainian Insurgent Army on Poles in the...
Allegedly another sub-unit of SS-Galizien also participated in the execution of Polish civilians in Palykorovy
Palykorovy
Palykorovy is a village in Brodivskyi Raion, Lviv Oblast, in western Ukraine. It was founded in 1501. The name literally "burn the cows"....
located in Lviv oblast
Lviv Oblast
Lviv Oblast is an oblast in western Ukraine. The administrative center of the oblast is the city of Lviv.-History:The oblast was created as part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic on December 4, 1939...
near Pidkamin
Pidkamin
Pidkamin is a town in the Brody district, Lviv oblast in Ukraine. It has a population of about 2,500 and is located around SE of Brody, SW of Kremenets and NE of Zolochiv....
(former Tarnopol Voivodeship
Tarnopol Voivodeship
Tarnopol Voivodeship was an administrative region of interwar Poland with an area of 16,500 km², 17 counties, and capital in Tarnopol...
). It is estimated that 365 ethnic Poles were murdered including woman and children.
The Deschênes Commission
The Canadian "Commission of Inquiry on War CrimesDeschênes Commission
The Commission of Inquiry on War Criminals in Canada, often referred to as the Deschênes Commission, was established by the government of Canada in February 1985 to investigate claims that Canada had become a haven for Nazi war criminals...
" of October 1986, by the Honourable Justice Jules Deschênes
Jules Deschênes
Jules Deschênes, was a Canadian Quebec Superior Court judge.Born in Montreal, to Wilfrid Deschênes and Berthe Bérard, he completed grade school under the supervision of les Clercs de Saint-Viateur and classical studies under les Messieurs de Saint-Sulpice...
concluded that:
The Galicia Division (14. Waffen grenadier division der SS [gal. #1]) should not be indicted as a group. The members of Galicia Division were individually screened for security purposes before admission to Canada. Charges of war crimes of Galicia Division have never been substantiated, either in 1950 when they were first preferred, or in 1984 when they were renewed, or before this Commission. Further, in the absence of evidence of participation or knowledge of specific war crimes, mere membership in the Galicia Division is insufficient to justify prosecution.
Division's names
The division during its short history changed its name a number of times, being known as:- SS Schuetzen Division "Galizien" or Galizien Division - from 30 July 1943 to August 1943 (during recruitment)
- SS Freiwilligen Division "Galizien" - from August 1943 to 27 July 1944 (during training)
- 14. Waffen-Grenadier-Division der SS (Galizische Nr.1) - from August 1944 to the Winter of 1944
- 14. Waffen-Grenadier-Division der SS (ukrainische Nr.1)- from the Winter of 1944 to Spring 1945
- 1st Ukrainian Division of the Ukrainian National ArmyUkrainian National ArmyUkrainian National Army was a World War II Ukrainian military group, created on March 17, 1945 in Weimar, Germany, and subordinate to Ukrainian National Committee....
- from Spring 1945.
Formation
- Waffen Grenadier Regiment der SS 29
- Waffen-Grenadier Regiment der SS 30
- Waffen-Grenadier Regiment der SS 31
- Waffen-Artillery Regiment der SS 14
- SS-Waffen-Füsilier-Battalion 14
- SS-Waffen-PanzerjägerPanzerjägerPanzerjäger was a branch of service of the Wehrmacht during the Second World War which were the anti-tank arm-of-service who operated anti-tank artillery, and made exclusive use of the tank destroyers which were also named Panzerjäger...
Company 14 - SS-VolunteerFlak Battalion 14
- Waffen Signals Battalion der SS 14
- SS-Radfahr-Battalion 14
- Waffen-Pionier-Battalion der SS 14
- SS-Versorgungs-Company 14
- SS-Division-Signals Troop 14
- SS Medical Battalion 14
- SS-Veterinary Company 14
- SS-Field post department 14
- SS-War Reporter platoon 14|
- SS FeldgendarmerieFeldgendarmerieThe Feldgendarmerie were the uniformed military police units of the armies of the German Empire from the mid 19th Century until the conclusion of World War II.- Early history :...
troop 14
See also
:Category:Members of the Galizien division (only one member)- List of German divisions in World War II (with links to articles on individual units)
- Waffen-SS foreign volunteers and conscriptsWaffen-SS foreign volunteers and conscriptsThe Waffen-SS was the combat arm of the Schutzstaffel or SS, an organ of the German Nazi Party. The Waffen-SS saw action throughout World War II and grew from three regiments to a force of over 39 divisions, which served alongside the regular army, but was never formally part of the Wehrmacht...
- The Deschênes Commission of Inquiry on War Criminals in CanadaDeschênes CommissionThe Commission of Inquiry on War Criminals in Canada, often referred to as the Deschênes Commission, was established by the government of Canada in February 1985 to investigate claims that Canada had become a haven for Nazi war criminals...
Sources
Jurij Kyryczuk, "Problem ukraińskiej kolaboracji w czasie II wojny światowej" in "Polska-Ukraina" vol 6., Karta, Warszawa 2002, ISBN 83-915111-5-4, pp. 244–266- Caballero Jurado, Carlos. Breaking the Chains: 14 Waffen-Grenadier-Division der SS and Other Ukrainian Volunteer Formations, Eastern Front, 1941-45. Halifax, West Yorkshire: Shelf Books, 1998 ISBN 1-899765-02-6
External links
Web page of Division veterans- Axis History Factbook; Waffen-SS part - By Marcus Wendel and contributors; the site also contains an apolitical forum about the Axis nations
- Feldgrau.com http://www.feldgrau.com/14ss.html and http://www.feldgrau.com/ss.html - By Jason Pipes, Stanford UniversityStanford UniversityThe Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
/University of California, BerkeleyUniversity of California, BerkeleyThe University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
; research on the German armed forces 1918–1945 - Waffen-SS from TM-E 30-451 Handbook on German Military Forces (U.S. World War II manual, March 1945)