A police force made up of Ukrainians participated in the murder of Jews in the Holocaust

Non-Jewish Ukrainian writers tried to raise awareness of large-scale Ukrainian collaboration with the Nazis, but the Ukrainian public still does not recognize this, mainly due to the Soviet regime and many Ukrainian governments ignoring those who aided the Nazis and focusing on Soviet heroism against the Nazis * Only recently has there been an improvement, but it is still not felt on the ground

Ukraine is one of the countries with a high proportion of followers of the nations of the world, but also with many more collaborators with the Nazis.

The article "The Holocaust in Ukraine: Literary Representations" written by Helena Duffy from the University of Wroclaw in Poland discusses literary representations of the Holocaust in Ukraine, and focuses mainly on works written by Ukrainian writers. The author claims that these works have often been ignored in Holocaust studies, which have tended to focus on the works of Jewish writers.

In his poem "Babi Yar" Yevgeny Yavtushenko describes the massacre of the Jews in the Babi Yar ravine on the outskirts of Kiev, Ukraine. He describes the horrifying spectacle of Jews being executed and buried in a mass grave, and he denounces the silence and indifference of those who witnessed the horror.

Yavtushenko also refers to the involvement of the Ukrainians in the Holocaust, and emphasizes the cooperation and participation of some Ukrainians in the extermination of the Jews. He calls on Ukrainians to recognize and confront their part in the genocide.

The author analyzes several works of literature, including "The Death of an Eagle" by Oles Honchar, "Baby Yar" by Yevgeny Yevtushenko and "The Ukrainian Night" by Mariana Savka. These works investigate the involvement of Ukrainians in the Holocaust, as well as the trauma experienced by Jews and Ukrainians during and after the war.

The author also discusses the controversy surrounding the Babi Yar massacre, in which over 30,000 Jews were murdered by the Nazis in Kiev. While the Soviet government initially tried to downplay the massacre, it later became a symbol of Jewish suffering and resistance. However, some Ukrainian nationalists disputed the Jewish death toll and criticized the focus on Jewish victims.

The article ends with the claim that Ukrainian literature can offer important insights into the complexity of the Holocaust in Ukraine. These works can help us understand the involvement of non-Jewish groups in the Holocaust, as well as the trauma experienced by both Jews and non-Jews after the war.

Between 1.25 and 2 million Jews were murdered in Ukraine between 1941 and 1944. While these facts tend to overshadow the suffering of Ukrainians under Stalin and Hitler and Ukrainian rescue efforts during the Holocaust, there have been over two thousand documented examples of charity and courage by Ukrainian rescuers who have been named Righteous Among the Nations.

After the war, the Soviet government sought to suppress the memory of the Holocaust in Ukraine and present it as a Soviet victory over fascism. Only after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the rise of independent Ukraine did the country begin to think about its Holocaust history. Today, there are memorials and museums across Ukraine dedicated to the victims of the Holocaust, and efforts are being made to preserve and educate about this tragic chapter in Ukrainian history.

A whole police force of collaborators

The article highlights the fact that while the Ukrainians are currently experiencing a violent war, during the Holocaust it was the Jews who were the main target of the Nazi extermination policy. The Nazis were supported by a Ukrainian militia that murdered Jews on their orders or as a result of the incitement of German propaganda. This anti-Semitic violence was manifested in the pogroms that took place in Lviv in 1941, during which Ukrainians arrested the Jewish residents of the city for forced labor, humiliation and murder. The Ukrainian Auxiliary Police, established by the Ukrainian Nationalist Organization, provided the manpower for the Holocaust, deported Jews to extermination camps and participated in mass shootings. Many members of this police defected and joined the Ukrainian rebel army, which carried out ethnic cleansing of Poles and Jews in eastern Galicia and Vahlin.

Rejection of the truth

Rejecting the claim that the Ukrainians collaborated with the Nazis during the Holocaust is a complex issue with several factors. One of the reasons for this is a lack of education and awareness of the extent of Ukrainian collaboration with the Nazis. During the Soviet period, there was a narrative that emphasized Soviet heroism and downplayed cooperation, which continued to influence public perceptions even after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Another factor is the current political climate in Ukraine, which increases the focus on Ukrainian victims during the Stalinist era. Some Ukrainians see the emphasis on cooperation during the Holocaust as an attempt to downplay the crimes of the Soviet Union and shift the blame to the Ukrainians. In addition, the issue was politicized by Russian propaganda, which used it to inflame anti-Ukrainian sentiments and present Ukraine as a fascist state.

The opposition to the recognition of Ukrainian collaboration in the Holocaust comes from both the government and Ukrainian citizens. In recent years, the Ukrainian government has taken steps to promote a nationalist narrative of Ukrainian history, which downplays or even denies Ukrainian collaboration with the Nazis during World War II. , there are also many Ukrainians who completely reject the idea of ​​recognizing any Ukrainian involvement in the Holocaust and see it as an attack on Ukrainian identity and pride.

It is worth noting that not all Ukrainians reject the claim of cooperation, and efforts have been made by researchers and activists within Ukraine to recognize and address the issue. However, these efforts have met with significant resistance.

The current president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, is Jewish, but he is not necessarily a decisive factor in the way the government or citizens treat the issue of the Holocaust in Ukraine. It is worth noting that Zelensky spoke publicly about the importance of recognizing and preserving the memory of the Holocaust in Ukraine, and his government took steps towards this goal, such as establishing a national memorial site for the Holocaust and creating a new law defining the denial of Nazi crimes as a criminal offense. However, there are still challenges and resistance to fully addressing the issue, and it is a complex and ongoing process.

In his speech at the Fifth World Holocaust Forum in 2020, Zelensky said that "among those who helped the Nazis were some Ukrainians who betrayed their neighbors. We must be honest, this was a low point in our history." He went on to emphasize the importance of dealing with the past, and stated that "only by dealing with the truth about our past can we build a future based on mutual respect and understanding."

For the full article

From the newspaper Eastern European Holocaust Studies

Editor's note

In February of this year (2023), Kyiv Mayor Vitaliy Kalichenko informed Israel's ambassador Michael Brodsky about the cancellation of the proposal to name a street after Volodymyr Kobyovych, one of the founders of Nazi power in Ukraine. Kubiovich's name received the highest number of votes in a poll conducted through a digital application among Kyiv residents.

Before the Holocaust, Kubiowicz was an ardent supporter of the Ukrainian Nationalist Organization and in April 1941 he sought to establish an autonomous state within Ukraine where Poles and Jews would not be allowed to live. After the Red Army approached Poland in 1944, Kubiowicz fled to Germany, and then to France after the Nazi surrender. In France, he served as the editor-in-chief of the Encyclopedia of Ukrainian Studies, the largest academic project undertaken by Ukrainian exiles during the Cold War.