201st Schutzmannschaft Battalion
Encyclopedia
The 201st Schutzmannschaft Battalion was a Security Police
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...

 unit composed from the personnel of the 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...

s Roland Battalion
Roland Battalion
The Roland Battalion , officially known as Special Group Roland, was the subunit under command of the Abwehr special operation unit Lehrregiment "Brandenburg" z.b.V. 800...

 and Nachtigall Battalion
Nachtigall Battalion
The Nachtigall Battalion , officially known as Special Group Nachtigall, was the subunit under command of the Abwehr special operation unit Lehrregiment "Brandenburg" z.b.V. 800...

.

It numbered 650 persons, most of whom belonged to 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...

’s wing 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...

. It served for a year in 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 ,...

 before being disbanded. Roman Shukhevych, the supreme commander of the UPA from 1943 to 1950 was an officer of the battalion.

Many of its members, especially the commanding officers, would later be recruited into the Ukrainian Insurgent Army.

Formation and training

This formation was started October 21, 1941 with 4 companies
Company (military unit)
A company is a military unit, typically consisting of 80–225 soldiers and usually commanded by a Captain, Major or Commandant. Most companies are formed of three to five platoons although the exact number may vary by country, unit type, and structure...

. Their commanders were: 1st - Roman Shukevych (and deputy commander of the battalion), 2nd - M. Brigider, 3rd - Vasyl Sidor, 4th - Pavlyk. The formal commander of the Battalion became former Polish Army Major Evhen Pobyhushchy, however, the SD liaisons officer Wilhelm Mocha became the actual Commander of the Battalion. According to the writings of Major Evhen Pobyhushschiy, by the time of the battalion's formation most of the Ukrainian soldiers considered both Germany and the Soviet Union to be enemies of Ukraine, but considered the Soviets to be the greater enemies to be fought first. During the training period there were tensions between the German command and the Ukrainians. They departed for Belarus on March 19 and 22, 1942.

In Belarus

On March 16, 1942 the battalion traveled east and on March 19 its first subunits arrived in Belarus where it served in the triangle between Mahiliou-Vitsebsk-Lepel. The battalion wasn't concentrated in one place, but was spread out in order to guard various strategic areas. For example, one group guarded large ammunition and weapon warehouses while other groups were stationed in various Belarusian villages. They guarded bridges, protected the German administration, and hunted in the woods for Soviet partisan
Soviet partisans
The Soviet partisans were members of a resistance movement which fought a guerrilla war against the Axis occupation of the Soviet Union during World War II....

 bases. The conflicts between Germans and Ukrainians, evident during the training, continued during these operations; relations between the German and Ukrainian officers were poor.

German-Polish historian professor Frank Golczewski from the University of Hamburg
University of Hamburg
The University of Hamburg is a university in Hamburg, Germany. It was founded on 28 March 1919 by Wilhelm Stern and others. It grew out of the previous Allgemeines Vorlesungswesen and the Kolonialinstitut as well as the Akademisches Gymnasium. There are around 38,000 students as of the start of...

  describes the activities of Schutzmannschaft Battalion 201 at Belarus as "fighting partisans and killing Jews". John Paul Himka, a specialist in Ukrainian history during World War II, and Ivan Katchanovski of the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies Harvard University both note that while no one has studied the specific activities of the 201st battalion from this perspective, it is known that Schuma battalions such as the 201 in Belarus were used to fight partisans and murder Jews, that (according to Katchanovsky) there was a strong likelihood that the 201 Battalion was involved in genocide of Jews and Belarusians, and that this topic is worthy of more investigation, although it hasn't been studied in depth.

David R. Marples notes that Wiktor Poliszczuk
Wiktor Poliszczuk
Wiktor Poliszczuk was a Polish-Ukrainian-Canadian politologist specialising in the history of political thought , who wrote about the Polish-Ukrainian relations during World War II and issues relating to the emergence of Ukrainian nationalism in the 20th century resulting in...

 claimed that the 201 Schutzmannschaft Battalion in Belarus completed brutal pacification of Belarusian villages, and the men had experience with elimination of the Jewish population; however he also describes Poliszczuk's book as a polemic, written from the Soviet perspective, and one-sided.

According to OUN's own records, more than 2000 Soviet partisans were killed by battalion personnel during its 9 month stay in Belarus. The stay in Belarus provided the Ukrainian soldiers not only with to opportunity to gain experience in partisan warfare but also provided insight into the German tactics of fighting against partisans. This information would prove valuable when the members of the 201 battalion would later desert and conduct guerrilla warfare themselves, against the Germans.

Disbanding

On December 1, 1942 after the expiration of their contracts, the members of the Legion refused to promulgate it. As the result, the 201st Battalion was disbanded and taken to Lviv.

The German command suggested to all those who had been in the Battalion to gather in Lublin
Lublin
Lublin is the ninth largest city in Poland. It is the capital of Lublin Voivodeship with a population of 350,392 . Lublin is also the largest Polish city east of the Vistula river...

 to form a new unit, however, none of the Ukrainians signed up, and very few reported to Lublin. Some were arrested and placed in the jail on Lonsky street, Roman Shukhevych
Roman Shukhevych
Roman Taras Yosypovych Shukhevych was a Ukrainian politician and military leader, the general of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army.-Childhood:Roman Taras Yosypovych Shukhevych was born in the city of Krakovets, Jaworow powiat, in Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria which is located today between Lviv and...

escaped, and went into hiding.
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