The Ukrainian “Galicia” Division: From Familiar to Unexplored Avenues of Research
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18523/kmhj188982.2019-6.1-23Keywords:
Ukrainian military, German army, “Galicia” Division, Second World War, historyAbstract
This article examines the main narratives that have dominated scholarly and political writings on the “Galicia” Division, the Waffen-SS 14th Grenadier Division that at the end of the Second World War was renamed the 1st Ukrainian Division of the Ukrainian National Army. Dominant narratives have focused on accusations of criminality, the hope that the formation would serve as the core of a national army at the war’s end, survival as a motivation for signing up, the experience of the soldiers after their surrender to the British, and the decision to transfer former soldiers to the UK and then to give them civilian status. Only the first of these narratives has been explored in depth as a result of the 1986 Deschиnes Commission of Enquiry into War Crimes in Canada and the 1989 Hetherington-Chalmers Report in the UK. Far less attention has been devoted to other narratives, and some lines of enquiry suggested by the rich memoir and creative literature have hardly as yet been touched.References
Armstrong, John A. Ukrainian Nationalism. 2nd rev. ed. New York: Columbia University Press, 1963.
Bender, Roger James, and Hugh Page Taylor. Uniforms, Organization and History of the Waffen-SS. San Josй, CA: R. James Bender Publishing, 1975.
Bolianovskyi, Andrii. Dyviziia “Halychyna”. Istoriia [The Galicia Division: A History]. Lviv: IU, 2000.
Calvocoressi, Peter. Nuremberg: The Facts, the Law and the Consequences. London: Chatto and Windus, 1947.
Deschиnes, Honourable Jules. Commission of Inquiry on War Criminals. Report. Part 1: Public. Ottawa: Canadian Government Publishing Centre, 1986.
Dolynskyi, Roman. “Boiova hrupa Baiersdorfa [The Bayersdorf Military Group].” Visti Bratstva kol. Voiakiv 1. UD UNA (Munich) 3–8 (1957): 77–80, and 7–10 (1957): 6–10.
Dmytruk, Klym. Bezbatchenky: Pravda pro uchast ukrainskykh burzhuaznykh natsionalistiv i tserkovnykh iierarkhiv u pidhotovtsi napadu fashystskoi Nimechchyny na SRSR [Fatherless: The Truth about the Participation of Ukrainian Bourgeois Nationalists and Church Hierarchs in the Preparation of the Attack of Fascist Germany on the USSR]. Lviv: Kameniar, 1974.
Dmytruk, Klym. Svastyka na sutanakh [Swastika on Cassocks]. Kyiv: Vyd-vo polit. lit-ry, 1973.
Ferkuniak, Dmytro. Spomyny z zhyttia v Dyvizii “Halychyna” i v poloni 1943–1947 [Memoirs on Life in the Galicia Division and in Captivity, 1943–1947]. Ivano-Frankivsk: Lileia-NV, 2003.
Heike, Wolf-Dietrich. Sie wollten die Freiheit. Die Geschichte der Ukrainischen Division 1943–1945. Dorheim: Podzun, 1973.
Heike, Wolf-Dietrich. The Ukrainian Division “Galicia,” 1943–45: A Memoir. Toronto: Shevchenko Scientific Society, 1988.
Heike, Wolf-Dietrich. Ukrainska dyviziia “Halychyna”: Istoriia formuvannia i boiovykh dii u 1943–1945 rokakh [Ukrainian Galicia Division: History of its Creation and Military Operations, 1943–1945]. Toronto: Bratstvo kolyshnikh voiakiv 1-oi ukrainskoi dyvizii UNA, 1970.
Hrytsak, Pavlo. Vezhi i kulemety (Spohady z Dyvizii i bolshevytskoho polonu) [Towers and Machine Guns (Memoirs about the Division and Bolshevik Captivity)]. Munich: Bratstvo kol. voiakiv 1-oi Ukrainskoi Dyvizii UNA, 1959.
Khromeychuk, Olesya. “The Shaping of ‘Historical Truth’: Construction and Reconstruction of the Memory and Narrative of the Waffen SS ‘Galicia’ Division.” Canadian Slavonic Papers 54.3–4 (2012): 61–86.
Khromeychuk, Olesya. “Undetermined” Ukrainians. Post-War Narratives of the Waffen SS “Galicia” Division. Bern: Peter Land, 2013.
Knysh, Zynovii. Za chuzhu spravu (Rozpovid Mykhaila Koziia z sela Bohdanivka, povit Skalat, yoho pryhody v bolshevytskomu poloni i u polskii armii henerala Andersa) [For a Foreign Cause (The Story of Mykhailo Kozii from the Village Bohdanivka, Skalat District, His Adventures in Bolshevik Captivity and in the Polish Army of General Anders)]. Paris: Natsionalistychne vydavnytstvo v Yevropi, 1958.
Kolasky, John. The Shattered Illusion: The History of Ukrainian Pro-communist Organizations in Canada. Toronto: PMA Books, 1979.
Kolisnyk, Roman. “Protokoly viiskovoi upravy (Dyvizii ‘Halychyna’) 1943–1947. [Divisional Records 1943–1947. Minutes of Meetings].” Ukrainian Canadian Research and Documentation Centre, Toronto. 2015.7. A, 17–21.
Kolisnyk, Roman. Viiskova Uprava ta ukrainska Dyviziia Halychyna [The Military Administration and the Ukrainian Galicia Division]. 2d rev. ed. Kyiv: Naukove tovarystvo im. Shevchenka v Kanadi; Yaroslaviv val, 2009.
Lazurko, Roman. Na shliakhakh Yevropy [On the Path of Europe]. Chicago: Bratstvo kolyshnikh Voiakiv 1 UD UNA, 1971.
Littlejohn, David. The Patriotic Traitors: A History of Collaboration in German Occupied Europe, 1940–1945. London: Heinemann, 1972.
Lewyckyj, B. “Ukraińcy a likwidacja Powstania Warszawskiego.” Kultura (Paris) 6 (1952): 74–87.
Littman, Sol. Pure Soldiers or Sinister Legion. The Ukrainian 14th Waffen-SS Division. London: Black Rose Books, 2003.
Littman, Sol. “Transcript of Sol Littman’s Tryzub and Swastika Speech, 31 August 1997.” Accessed March 7, 2019. http://willzuzak.c/lp/littma99.html.
Logusz, Michael O. Galicia Division: The Waffen-SS 14th Grenadier Division 1943–1945. Atglen, PA: Schiffer Pub., 1997.
Lysiak, Oleh. Za striletskyi zvychai: Roman [In the Custom of Riflemen: A Novel]. Munich: Vydannia Bratstva kol. Voiakiv 1-oi Ukrainskoi Dyvizii UNA, 1953.
Matla, O. “Sprava Huty Pieniatskoi i dzherela [The Huta Pieniacka Case and the Sources].” Visti kombatanta 1.93 (1978): 55–61.
Medvedev, Dmitrii. Silnye dukhom [Strong of Spirit]. Kyiv: Radianskyi pysmennyk, 1963.
Melnyk, Michael James. To Battle. The Formation and History of the 14th Galician Waffen-SS Division. Solihull: Helion and Company, 2002.
Melnyk, Michael James. The History of the Galician Division of the Waffen-SS. 2 vols. Stroud, UK: Fonthill, 2016.
Nimenko, Wasyl. Searching in Secret Ukraine. Hitchin, UK: Goalpaths Books, 2016.
Ortynskyi, Liubomyr. “Persha ukrainska dyviziia na tli politychnykh podii Druhoi svitovoi viiny [The First Ukrainian Division in the Context of Political Events during the Second World War].” Visti kombatanta 5–6 (1986): 5–34.
Ortynskyi, Liubomyr. “Prawda o Ukraińskiej Dywizji.” Kultura (Paris) (1952): 109–16.
Pankivskyi, Kost. Roky nimetskoi okupatsii [The Years of the German Occupation]. New York; Toronto: Kliuchi, 1965.
Pobihushchyi, Yevhen [Pobihushchyj-Ren, Colonel Evhen]. Mozaika moikh spomyniv [The Mosaic of My Memoirs]. Ivano-Frankivsk: Lileia-NV, 2003.
Pohl, Dieter. Nationalsozialistische Judenverfolgung in Ostgalizien 1941–1944: Organisation und Durchfьhrung eines staatlischen Massen verbrechens. Munich: R. Oldenbourg Verlag, 1997.
Rodal, Alti. “How Perpetrators of Genocidal Crimes Evaded Justice: The Canadian Story.” In Remembering for the Future. The Holocaust in an Age of Genicide, Vol. 1, edited by John K. Roth and Elizabeth Maxwell, 702–25. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2001.
Rodal, Alti. “Nazi War Criminals in Canada: The Historical and Policy Setting from the 1940s to the Present.” Unpublished study by the Director of Historical Research, Commission of Inquiry on Nazi War Criminals in Canada (Deschкnes Commission), September 1986. Library and Archives Canada, RG33, 1986, Rodal Report; also in Provincial Archives of Ontario, Veryha Collection. F1405–56–139. B 822 590.
Rodal, Alti. “The Ukrainian ‘Halychyna’ (Galician) Waffen-SS Division.” Chapter XII, part 3. Manuscript obtained from author.
Rohde, Matt. When Eternities Met: A True Story of Terror, Mutiny, Loss, and Love in a Disremembered Second World War. Union Bridge, Maryland: Pencil and Barn 2017.
Sprawozdanie sytuacyjne z ziem wschodnich. Ministertwo Spraw Wewnętrrzych. Wydzial Spoleczny. Nos. 12/44 and 15/44 (April — May, 1944).
Stetskevych, Lev. Yak z Berezhan do Kadry: Spomyny z Dyvizii [From Berezhany to Kadra: Memoirs on the Division]. Ternopil: Dzhura, 1998.
Sydorenko, Natalia. “Taborovi budni viiskovopolonenykh na brytanskykh ostrovakh (1947–1950) [Daily Camp Life of Ukrainian Prisoners of War in the British Isle, 1947–1950].” In Persha ukrainska Dyviziia ukrainskoi natsionalnoi armii: istoriia stvorennia ta natsionalno-politychne znachennia. Materialy Naukovo-praktychnoi konferentsii. Dopovidi ta povidomlennia, 127–46. Lviv: Novyi chas, 2002.
Terlytsia, Marko [Petro Kravchuk]. Here is the Evidence. Toronto: Kobzar Publishing Company Lrd., 1984.
Terlytsia, Marko. Pravnuky pohani: ukrainski natsionalisty v Kanadi [Bad Grandchildren: Ukrainian Nationalists in Canada]. Kyiv: Radianskyi pysmennyk, 1960.
Torzecki, Ryszard. Review of Dorohamy Druhoi Svitovoi Viiny: Lehendy pro uchast ukraintsiv v Varshavskomu povstanni 1944 r. ta pro Ukrainsku dyviziiu ‘Halychyna,’ by Vasyl Veryha. Dzieje Najnowsze 123.4 (1981): 206–11.
Veryha, Vasyl. Dorohamy Druhoi svitovoi viiny: Legendy pro uchast ukraintsiv u Varshavskomu povstanni 1944 r. ta pro Ukrainsku Dyviziiu “Halychyna” [On the Paths on the Second World War: Myths about the Participation of Ukrainians in the Suppression of the Warsaw Uprising and the Ukrainian Galicia Division]. 2nd rev. ed. Toronto: Shevchenko Scientific Society in Canada, 1981. (3rd rev. ed. Np [Toronto]: Kanadske naukove tovarystvo im. Shevchenka, Nakaldom Bratstva kol. Voiakiv I-oi UD UNA, 1998.)
Veryha, Vasyl. The Correspondence of the Ukrainian Central Committee in Cracow and Lviv with the German Authorities, 1939–1944. Vol. 1. Edmonton: Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, 2000.
Veryha, Vasyl. Za ridnyi krai, za narid svii, abo Khto taki dyviziinyky? [For Native Land, for One’s Own Nation, or Who are the Division Members?]. Kyiv: Vydavnytstvo imeni Oleny Telihy, 2006.
Zahachevskyi, Evstakhii. Beliariia, Rimini, Anhliia [Beliariia, Rimini, England]. Chicago; Munich: Bratstvo kolyshnikh Voiakiv 1 UD UNA, 1968.
Zahachevskyi, Evstakhi. Spohady frontovyka: Odyseia siroho “koliaboranta” [Memoirs of a Front-line Soldier: The Odyssey of an Ordinary “Collaborationist”]. Munich: Bratstvo kol. voiakiv 1-oi Ukrainskoi Dyvizii UNA, 1952.
Zaporozhets, Oleksii [O. Devlad, O., Did Pasichnyk]. “Zaklyk ‘dodomu’: spohad z anhliiskoho polonu [The Call of Home: Memoirs from English Captivity].” Visti Bratstva kol. Voiakiv 1 UD UNA 12 (1952): 3–5.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Kyiv-Mohyla Humanities Journal provides free access to original research without restriction barriers (i.e. subscription fees, licensing fees etc.). The journal allows re-use of content for non-commercial/educational purposes indexing the source.
Unless otherwise indicated, content is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license, which means you are free to:
copy
distribute
transmit
adapt
and make commercial use of the work
...provided that any use is made with attribution to author(s) and Kyiv-Mohyla Humanities Journal.
The author passes copyright of the article to the journal and Kyiv-Mohyla Humanities Journal; author can archive post-print articles (PDF versions) on s/he web-site (http://www.sherpa.ac.uk).
