Holocaust in Ukraine
Encyclopedia
The Holocaust in Ukraine refers to the Nazi crime
s during the Occupation of Ukraine by Nazi Germany. Between 1941 and 1945 the Holocaust in Ukraine killed approximately 3,000,000 Ukrainian (and other non-Jewish) victims as part of Nazi extermination policies, along with between 850,000 - 900,000 Jews
who lived in the territory of modern Ukraine
.
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One of Hitler's ambitions at the start of the war was to exterminate, expel, or enslave most or all Slavs from their native lands so as to make living space
for German settlers. This plan of genocide was to be carried into effect gradually over a period of 25–30 years.
Total civilian losses during the war and German occupation in Ukraine are estimated at four million, including up to a million Jews who were murdered by the Einsatzgruppen
and local Nazi collaborators. Einsatzgruppe C (SS-Gruppenführer Dr. Otto Rasch
) was assigned to north and central Ukraine, and Einsatzgruppe D (SS-Gruppenführer Dr. Otto Ohlendorf
) to Moldavia, south Ukraine, the Crimea
, and, during 1942, the north Caucasus
. According to Ohlendorf at his trial
, "the Einsatzgruppen had the mission to protect the rear of the troops by killing the Jews, Romani, Communist functionaries, active Communists, uncooperative slavs, and all persons who would endanger the security." In practice, their victims were nearly all Jewish civilians (not a single Einsatzgruppe member was killed in action during these operations). The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
tells the story of one survivor of the Einsatzgruppen in Piryatin, Ukraine, when they killed 1,600 Jews on April 6, 1942, the second day of Passover
:
The most notorious massacre of Jews in Ukraine was at a ravine called Babi Yar
outside Kiev
, where 33,771 Jews were killed in a single operation on September 29–30, 1941. (An amalgamation of 100,000 to 150,000 Ukrainian and other Soviet citizens were also killed in the following weeks). The mass killing of Jews in Kiev was decided on by the military governor Major-General Friedrich Eberhardt, the Police Commander for Army Group South (SS-Obergruppenführer Friedrich Jeckeln
) and the Einsatzgruppe C Commander Otto Rasch. It was carried out by a mixture of SS, SD and Security Police, assisted by the Ukrainian Auxiliary Police
. On the Monday, the Jews of Kiev gathered by the cemetery
, expecting to be loaded onto trains. The crowd was large enough that most of the men, women, and children could not have known what was happening until it was too late: by the time they heard the machine-gun fire, there was no chance to escape. All were driven down a corridor of soldiers, in groups of ten, and then shot. A truck driver described the scene:
According to the The Simon Wiesenthal Center (in January 2011) "Ukraine has, to the best of our knowledge, never conducted a single investigation of a local Nazi war criminal, let alone prosecuted a Holocaust perpetrator."
The religious Christian sect, the Shtundists
, helped hide Jews in Ukraine during the Holocaust.
Nazi crime
Nazi crime or Hitlerite crime is a legal concept used in some legal systems .In the Polish legal system a Nazi crime is an action carried out by, inspired by or tolerated by public functionaries of the Third Reich that also classifies as a crime against humanity or other persecutions of people...
s during the Occupation of Ukraine by Nazi Germany. Between 1941 and 1945 the Holocaust in Ukraine killed approximately 3,000,000 Ukrainian (and other non-Jewish) victims as part of Nazi extermination policies, along with between 850,000 - 900,000 Jews
Jews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
who lived in the territory of modern Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
.
Generalplan Ost
Lebensraum
was one of the major political ideas of Adolf Hitler, and an important component of Nazi ideology. It served as the motivation for the expansionist policies of Nazi Germany, aiming to provide extra space for the growth of the German population, for a Greater Germany...
for German settlers. This plan of genocide was to be carried into effect gradually over a period of 25–30 years.
Death squads (1941–1943)
Total civilian losses during the war and German occupation in Ukraine are estimated at four million, including up to a million Jews who were murdered by the Einsatzgruppen
Einsatzgruppen
Einsatzgruppen were SS paramilitary death squads that were responsible for mass killings, typically by shooting, of Jews in particular, but also significant numbers of other population groups and political categories...
and local Nazi collaborators. Einsatzgruppe C (SS-Gruppenführer Dr. Otto Rasch
Otto Rasch
SS-Brigadeführer Otto Rasch was a high-ranking Nazi official in the occupied Eastern territories, commanding Einsatzgruppe C until October 1941. As a commanding officer, he was a Holocaust perpetrator and mass murderer.-Biography:Rasch was born in Friedrichsruh, northern Germany...
) was assigned to north and central Ukraine, and Einsatzgruppe D (SS-Gruppenführer Dr. Otto Ohlendorf
Otto Ohlendorf
Otto Ohlendorf was a German SS-Gruppenführer and head of the Inland-SD , a section of the SD. Ohlendorf was the commanding officer of Einsatzgruppe D, which conducted mass murder in Moldova, south Ukraine, the Crimea, and, during 1942, the north Caucasus...
) to Moldavia, south Ukraine, the Crimea
Crimea
Crimea , or the Autonomous Republic of Crimea , is a sub-national unit, an autonomous republic, of Ukraine. It is located on the northern coast of the Black Sea, occupying a peninsula of the same name...
, and, during 1942, the north Caucasus
Caucasus
The Caucasus, also Caucas or Caucasia , is a geopolitical region at the border of Europe and Asia, and situated between the Black and the Caspian sea...
. According to Ohlendorf at his trial
Einsatzgruppen Trial
The Einsatzgruppen Trial was the ninth of the twelve trials for war crimes the U.S. authorities held in their occupation zone in Germany in Nuremberg after the end of World War II. These twelve trials were all held before U.S...
, "the Einsatzgruppen had the mission to protect the rear of the troops by killing the Jews, Romani, Communist functionaries, active Communists, uncooperative slavs, and all persons who would endanger the security." In practice, their victims were nearly all Jewish civilians (not a single Einsatzgruppe member was killed in action during these operations). The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is the United States' official memorial to the Holocaust. Adjacent to the National Mall in Washington, D.C., the USHMM provides for the documentation, study, and interpretation of Holocaust history...
tells the story of one survivor of the Einsatzgruppen in Piryatin, Ukraine, when they killed 1,600 Jews on April 6, 1942, the second day of Passover
Passover
Passover is a Jewish holiday and festival. It commemorates the story of the Exodus, in which the ancient Israelites were freed from slavery in Egypt...
:
The most notorious massacre of Jews in Ukraine was at a ravine called Babi Yar
Babi Yar
Babi Yar is a ravine in the Ukrainian capital Kiev and a site of a series of massacres carried out by the Nazis during their campaign against the Soviet Union. The most notorious and the best documented of these massacres took place on September 29–30, 1941, wherein 33,771 Jews were killed in a...
outside Kiev
Kiev
Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....
, where 33,771 Jews were killed in a single operation on September 29–30, 1941. (An amalgamation of 100,000 to 150,000 Ukrainian and other Soviet citizens were also killed in the following weeks). The mass killing of Jews in Kiev was decided on by the military governor Major-General Friedrich Eberhardt, the Police Commander for Army Group South (SS-Obergruppenführer Friedrich Jeckeln
Friedrich Jeckeln
Friedrich Jeckeln was an SS-Obergruppenführer who served as an SS and Police Leader in the occupied Soviet Union during World War II...
) and the Einsatzgruppe C Commander Otto Rasch. It was carried out by a mixture of SS, SD and Security Police, assisted by the Ukrainian Auxiliary Police
Ukrainian Auxiliary Police
The Ukrainische Hilfspolizei was a German mobile police force that operated in the General Government beginning on July 27, 1941. The total number enlisted numbered slightly more than 35,000. 6,000 of them - including 120 low-level officers - served in the District of Galicia...
. On the Monday, the Jews of Kiev gathered by the cemetery
Cemetery
A cemetery is a place in which dead bodies and cremated remains are buried. The term "cemetery" implies that the land is specifically designated as a burying ground. Cemeteries in the Western world are where the final ceremonies of death are observed...
, expecting to be loaded onto trains. The crowd was large enough that most of the men, women, and children could not have known what was happening until it was too late: by the time they heard the machine-gun fire, there was no chance to escape. All were driven down a corridor of soldiers, in groups of ten, and then shot. A truck driver described the scene:
Massacres
- Jekaterynosław
- Massacre of Lwów professors
- Pliskow
- Stanisławów
- Teodozja
- TrembowlaTerebovliaTerebovlia is a small city in the Ternopil Oblast of western Ukraine, and the administrative center of the Terebovlya Raion . In modern medieval English history texts it is usually written Terebovl....
- Żytomierz
Ukrainian collaborators (heads of local administration and public figures)
- Oleksander OhloblynOleksander OhloblynOleksander Ohloblyn, Ukr. Олександер Петрович Оглоблин was one of the most important Ukrainian emigre historians of the Cold War era.-Life and career:...
(Kiev mayor, 1941) - Volodymyr BahaziyVolodymyr BahaziyVolodymyr Panteleimonovych Bahasiy , was a Ukrainian nationalist affiliated with the Andriy Melnyk's faction of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and head of Kiev City Administration under German occupation in October 1941 - January 1942.He was a professional...
(Kiev mayor, 1941–1942, executed by Germans in 1942) - Leontii Forostivsky (Kiev mayor, 1942–1943)
- Mykola Velychkivsky (head of the Ukrainian National Committee in Kiev, dismissed in 1942, later emigrated)
- Oleksii Kramarenko (Kharkiv mayor, 1941–1942, executed by Germans in 1943)
- Oleksander Semenenko (Kharkiv mayor, 1942–1943)
- Paul Kozakevich (Kharkiv mayor, 1943)
- Aleksandr Sevastianov (Vinnytsia mayor, 1941 – ?)
According to the The Simon Wiesenthal Center (in January 2011) "Ukraine has, to the best of our knowledge, never conducted a single investigation of a local Nazi war criminal, let alone prosecuted a Holocaust perpetrator."
Executor units
- EinsatzgruppenEinsatzgruppenEinsatzgruppen were SS paramilitary death squads that were responsible for mass killings, typically by shooting, of Jews in particular, but also significant numbers of other population groups and political categories...
C & D (EinsatzkommandoEinsatzkommandoDuring World War II, the Nazi German Einsatzkommandos were a sub-group of five Einsatzgruppen mobile killing squads—up to 3,000 men each—usually composed of 500-1,000 functionaries of the SS and Gestapo, whose mission was to kill Jews, Romani, communists and the NKVD collaborators in the captured...
) - Abwehr/Brandemburg special saboteur unit Nachtigall BattalionNachtigall BattalionThe 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...
- Freiwilligen-Stamm-Regiment 3 & 4 (Russians & Ukrainians)
- Ukrainische Hilfspolizei
Survivors
- Mina RosnerMina RosnerMina Rosner was a native of Buchach, Ukraine, who survived The Holocaust by hiding with a Polish family. After the war, she moved to Winnipeg, Canada, with her husband, Michael Rosner. She recorded her war-time experiences in her book I am a Witness...
- Stefan Petelycky - see "Into Auschwitz, for Ukraine" (Kashtan Press, 2008), available at www.uccla.ca
Righteous among the Nations
Ukraine rates the 4th in the number of people recognized as "Righteous among the Nations" for saving Jews during the Holocaust, with the total of 2272 individuals recognized to date.The religious Christian sect, the Shtundists
Shtundists
The Shtundists are any of several Evangelical Protestant groups in the former Soviet Union and its successor states. More specifically, the term refers to sectarian Christian groups that emerged among Ukrainian and Russian peasants in southern regions of the Russian Empire in the second half of...
, helped hide Jews in Ukraine during the Holocaust.