Letters from Vienna #216
Letter to Horst von Wächter XIII
The Anglo-American Empire and the Rise of Fascism X
Dear Horst,
thank you for forwarding my “allegations” to Mike Melnyk. Is Mike Melnyk by any chance related to one of the founders of the OUN: Andriy Melnyk?
These aren’t “my” allegations but rather allegations, which are difficult to ignore. To be honest: I’d prefer it if there were NO allegations to begin with but given the nature of war and the nature of the Second World War (especially on the Eastern Front) it’s safe to assume that crimes of some sort were committed.
Having said that, crimes in World War Two were pretty much universal (a theme I wish to expand on in my next letter) and it would be better to be mature and look the ugly reality in the face rather than deny the truth of the matter.
And of course: war itself is a criminal act.
Sources
According to one source:
“The Huta Pieniacka massacre is considered to be the most serious crime committed by Ukrainian nationalists in that region of Eastern Europe. On Feb. 28, 1944, Ukrainian volunteers forming a unit of the German 14th SS “Galicia” Division massacred between 850 and 900 people in the village. The main reason for the massacre was that Poles killed two soldiers of the Ukrainian unit.”
“Victims of Ukrainian volunteers to the Waffen SS division and Ukrainian nationalist units were not only the inhabitants of Huta Pieniacka, but also many others who had escaped from Volhynia and from villages that the UPA had razed to the ground in 1943. Jews who were threatened by German extermination also hid in Huta Pieniacka. In the village inhabited by over 1,000 people, only 160 people survived.”[1]
Another source states:
“Supporters of 14th SS say the Deschênes commission cleared the division and all its members of any involvement in war crimes. “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,” Deschênes concluded. “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.””
“At the time critics labelled the commission’s report as a whitewash. The decades since have further reinforced that view as additional information about the 14th SS Division Galicia’s war crimes have emerged.”
“Deschênes either ignored or appeared to be unaware the Waffen SS – which the Galician Division was part of – had been declared a criminal organization by the International Military Tribunal during the Nuremberg Trials. This omission is particularly incredible as Canada participated as one of the allied nations in the prosecution of war criminals at the Nuremberg Trials and Canadian Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King actually visited the court and attended some of the trials.”
“Even a cursory glance at SS Galicia reveals its links to the Nazi campaign of destruction against the Jews and murder of civilians. Its commander was Oberfuhrer Fritz Freitag, a fanatical Nazi, who was directly involved in the mass murder of Jews.”
“Among the commanding officers of SS Galicia was Ukrainian-born SS Hauptsturmfuhrer Heinrich Wiens, who served with the Einsatzgruppen D murder squad and personally took part in mass executions of Jews. Another division officer, SS Obersturmbannfuhrer Franz Magall, was also a seasoned killer of Jews.”
“SS Galicia worked alongside SS-Sonderbattalion Dirlewanger, a unit that contained rapists, murders and the criminally insane and the two organizations, at times, transferred officers between each unit, noted Per Anders Rudling, a historian of Eastern European history and Associate Professor at the Department of History at Lund University, Sweden.”
“In addition, SS Galicia had officers and NCOs who came from the Nachtigall battalion, a Ukrainian collaboration organization that had taken part in the mass killings of Jews in the summer of 1941, added Rudling, who has extensively studied the division.”
“In 2003 a Polish government commission into Nazi war crimes concluded the 14th SS Galicia was responsible for the massacre of women and children in the village of Huta Pieniacka. Based on eye witness accounts, the Polish Institute of National Remembrance, pointed out that members of the 14th division, entered the village and began executing civilians.”
“In 2005 the Institute of History at the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences arrived at the same conclusion. The main difference between its investigation and the earlier Polish government investigation was the number of civilians murdered, added Rudling.”
“The Ukrainian investigation estimated around 500 people were killed. The Polish commission put the number of those murdered at 700 to 1,500.”
“Deschênes and his commission stayed in Canada, never travelling to Europe to interview those who suffered atrocities at the hands of 14th SS Galicia and the Nazis. Even a cursory examination of British government archives would have revealed the report the Polish underground sent to the Polish government-in-exile in London about the massacre at Huta Pieniacka. “The 14th Division of the Ukrainian SS surrounded the village Huta Pieniacka from three sides,” the report to Poland’s government-in-exile explained. “The people were gathered in the church or shot in the houses. Those gathered in the church – men, women and children – were taken outside in groups, children killed in front of their parents. Some men and women were shot in the cemetery, others were gathered in barns where they were shot.”
The 14th SS Galicia is also implicated in other atrocities in four other Polish villages, according to historians.”
“During part of 1944 the unit was stationed in Slovakia where it was involved in fighting partisans and took part in crushing the Slovak National Uprising. The division then moved to Slovenia in early 1945 where it continued fighting anti-Nazi partisans. These actions undercut claims by some in the Ukrainian-Canadian community that the SS Galicia Division only defended its Ukraine homeland. The division’s operations hunting down partisans, killing civilians, and burning down villages clearly show their actions were part of the greater Nazi war machine.”
“More concerning is the fact that Deschênes concealed a report prepared for his commission that concluded, “At least some persons who served with the Nazi-sponsored Ukrainian police/militia units that participated in killing actions (of Jews) in 1941-1943 would have found their way into the ranks of the (Galician) Division.” The commission kept that report secret and it was only years later that a heavily censored copy was released through the Access to Information law.”
“Some have defended Justice Deschênes, stating he was under pressure from the Canadian government to clear the division and appease the Ukrainian Canadian community.”
“But over the decades as Holocaust historians publish more details about the atrocities of those who served in the SS Galicia Division, it has become clear to critics that the Deschênes commission was simply a whitewash of a military unit that subscribed to and served the ideology of Adolf Hitler and SS leader Heinrich Himmler.”
“Deschênes died in the year 2000. But his report lives on to be used by those who want to continue to whitewash the Nazi regime’s crimes and the eager collaborators who helped in those atrocities.”[2]
Yet another source claims:
“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 Soviet 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.”
“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, while members of the Division, were not under 14th division command but rather under German police command (specifically, under German Sicherheitsdient and SS command of the General Government).”
“The Polish Institute of National Remembrance stated “According to the witness’ testimonies, and in the light of the collected documentation, there is no doubt that the 4th battalion “Galizien” of the 14th division of SS committed the crime.” [3]
Does the “crucial document” of General Anders’ agreement with your father still exist or has it been destroyed, lost or does it remain secret?
What you write is extremely interesting indeed:
“Anders never accepted the agreement made between the Allies and Stalin (Katyn far surpassed all the atrocities you blame the division for). And it was (Anders’) Poles who guarded the Ukrainian division in Rimini, protecting it from extradition to Stalin.”
Best,
Michael
[1] https://www.thefirstnews.com/article/we-must-remember-the-huta-pieniacka-murder-victims---pm-4901
[2] http://espritdecorps.ca/history-feature/whitewashing-the-ss-the-attempt-to-re-write-the-history-of-hitlers-collaborators
[3] https://military-history.fandom.com/wiki/14th_Waffen_Grenadier_Division_of_the_SS_(1st_Galician)