21Verbally to author M. Scharko, 21 June 2015.
22Ferkuniak, Spomyny …, op cit.; p. 35.
23For example on one occasion the hungry Ukrainian soldiers took a quantity of eggs and cans of meat from a railroad car of the American escort. Although the theft was uncovered by Ukrainian officers, the rations returned and the culprits handed over to the Feldgendarmerie, Beyersdorff used this as an excuse to portray the Ukrainians as bandits, robbers and mutineers before the American authorities. Ibid.
24O. Horbatsch, Visti Kombatanta, Nr.’s. 4, 1961, and 1, 1962.
25Hawrylak, Memoir, op cit.; p. 37.
26Up until this point the British did not bother the Ukrainians beyond the legal request to lay down their weapons which at times they returned to them to facilitate defending themselves against Tito’s partisans see V.Veryha, Pid sontsem Italii …, p. 180.
27WO 170/4241, 26, 1630 B. NA, PRO, Kew. Most significantly, this is contrary to the conclusions pertaining to the Ukrainian Division reached in the report prepared by Anthony Cowgill, Lord Brimelow and Christopher Booker; entitled ‘The Repatriations From Austria in 1945’, The Report of an Inquiry, 2 vols., Sinclair-Stevenson Ltd, London, 1990. Although it incorporates the actual reports from which these verbatim quotes are taken, astonishingly and in flagrant disregard of their content goes on to state: ‘What we know about the Ukrainian Division is that it was not retained by 5 Corps in Austria, and that by the end of May it had turned up in Italy. It has been something of a mystery as to how this move came about’. On page 94 it goes onto say ‘there is no mention of them [the Ukrainians] in any movement order’. (author’s emphasis).
28Email to author Theo Andruszko, 12 October 2010.
29Motyka, Memoir, op cit.; p. 20.
30Chornij, Memoir, op cit.; p. 62.
31Motyka, Memoir, op cit.; p. 20. Also email to author T Andruszko, 12 October 2010.
32Chornij, Memoir, op cit.; p. 61.
33Denis Hills, Bellaria/Moscow Mission/Repatriation Problems …, p. 1. SA. Before entering the camp some elements were kept in an open field for a few days and thoroughly searched. J. Chornij, Memoir, op cit.; p. 62. SA
34The Divisional hospital personnel including a contingent of medical nurses were held separately in a large old building in the nearby city of Riccione, a former Italian resort town. Some of them later served as nurses in the Cesenatico hospital.
35One veteran recalled ‘[…] The cook had to ladle this liquid with a prescribed swing of the arm to ensure the uniform concentration or rather absence of solids floating in this ‘soup’ […]’. Hawrylak, Memoir, op cit.; p. 38.
36Personal account prepared for the author covering capitulation and internment by Roman Cholkan 26 April 1999, pp. 2-3.
37In his memoirs a member of the ‘13. Waffen-Gebrigs-Division-SS ‘Handschar’’ who was in the POW camp in Tamsweg, recalled how a Physician from the 14 SS Division (ie; Galician) issued such tablets. See Lepre, Himmler’s Bosnian Division …, p. 310.
38Keczun, Memoir, op cit.; p. 44.
39Veryha, Pid sontsem…, op cit.; p. 176.
40Hills, Bellaria, op cit.; p. 1.
41Ibid., p. 2.
42Some of these men later escaped from the camp to which they had been taken and informed the others that the conciliatory words spoken by the Soviets were merely an attempt to lure them into captivity.
43Hawrylak, Memoir, op cit.; pp. 41-42.
44In an article in Veterans News, Stepan Shpak recounts the experiences of Wasyl Mohylnytsky who was amongst those who volunteered for repatriation. Initially quartered in a camp near Bellaria for a month, his group of approximately 500 men were moved by train to another camp in Austria. From here they were repatriated to the Soviet Union on 15 November 1945 and were sent to work in uranium mines in Taboshary, Andrysman, Malilos and others. See Stepan Shpak: ‘Return ‘Home’ of Dyviziynyky ‘ (Veterans’ News, # 4, 1995, pp. 70-71).
45For details see Haldane Porter, Refugee screening Commission, Report on Ukrainians in SEP camp No. 374 Italy, 21 Feb. 1947, FO 371, 66605, p. 4, NA, PRO, Kew.
46Hills, Bellaria, op cit.; p. 3.
47Ibid.
48The departures are registered as follows: June 15–17–52, June 24–161, July 15–666, July 21-25–112, August 22-26–58, September–3, total 1,052. Veryha, Pid sontsem Italiyi …, pp. 176-179.
49Verbally to author M. Scharko, 28 July 2015.
50The number of inmates varied from time to time due to escapes, transfers to hospitals, etc.
51Refugee Screening commission, Report on Ukrainians in SEP Camp No. 374 Italy, 21 February 1947, p. 7. FO371/66605/130629, NA, PRO, Kew.
52Hawrylak, Memoir, op cit.; p. 38.
53For an excellent photo history of the Division during internment see ‘The Ukrainian Division ‘Halychyna’, a photographic history of the Galician Division from its Foundation in 1943 until its Release from Captivity in 1949, Bohdan Maciw, ZUKC, L’viv, 2012.
54Keczun, Memoir, op cit.; p. 45.
55Maciw, The Ukrainian Division …, op cit.; p. 224.
56Wolodymyr Motyka was amongst them. Together with Roman Prypchan and his cousin they escaped to West Germany. Email to author W. Motyka, 31 July 2015.
57For a list of camps and their respective numbers of inmates see Appendix 1.
58Many of these individuals which may initially have numbered up to 300 men were unmarried as the grouped travelled the length and breadth of the country carrying out this work. As they met girls and settled down their number reduced to around 100. The man appointed as chief liaison and interpreter was Jaroslav Maryniuk.
59‘A Human Lot’, Vitaly Bender, Visti Kombatanta, No. 4, 1988.
60The last to be ‘civilianised’ were a group of former officers who were released on 31 December 1948.
61As regards the fate of the Ukrainian Political Leaders, Kubijovych found political asylum in France, Melnyk in Luxembourg, Shandruk in the USA and Bandera in Germany before he was assassinated in Munich by a KGB agent.
62The Yalta Conference (4 February–11 February 1945) took place between the three heads of government; Franklin Roosevelt (USA), the United Kingdom (Winston Churchill) and the USSR (Joseph Stalin). Its remit included amongst other things the critical ‘Agreement relating to Prisoners of War and Civilians Liberated by Forces Operating under Soviet Command and Forces Operating under British Command.
63British soldiers (with a few exceptions) carried out their orders to club old men, and women to get them into the transports at rifle and bayonet point. This subject has been dealt with by Nicholas Bethell in his book The Last Secret, and more recently and exhaustively by Nikolai Tolstoy in Victims of Yalta.
64Execution, torture and imprisonment in the notorious Soviet penal system where a great many died, awaited them. The survivors remained incarcerated until a general amnesty was decreed on 17 September 1955, for ‘Soviet citizens who collaborated with the occupying forces during the so called ‘Great Patriotic War’.
65An estimate of as many as 15 per cent of the men interned at Rimini were of east Ukrainian origin and would therefore have been eligible for repatriation. As a rule of thumb, they were identifiable by their accents and their religious denomination (western Ukrainians were Greek Catholic whilst the Eastern Ukrainians were Greek Orthodox.
66Field Marshal Alexander the Supreme Allied Commander in the Mediterranean Theatre (SACMED) instructed General Morgan of the Allied Forces HQ (AFHQ) to submit a report on the Ukrainians. On the basis of this, Winston Churchill later discussed the Ukrainians with Stalin at the 8 Plenary Meeting at the Potsdam Conference ‘Terminal’ on 22 July 1945.
‘[…] During the sixth sitting (Stalin, Truman and Churchill) on 22 July 1945, the Soviet delegation read a communication on the Soviet POW camp in Italy. It said that this was Camp No. 5 in the vicinity of the town of Celsinatica, [sic] under the control of the British authorities, in which mainly Ukrainians were kept. The Soviet delegation stated that initially the British authorit
ies said that the camp contained 150 men, but when a Soviet representative visited the camp it proved to contain 10,000 Ukrainians of whom the British command had formed a whole division. Twelve regiments were organised, including a signals regiment and a battalion of engineers. The officer corps was made up chiefly of Petlyura [sic] men, who previously had commands in the German Army. The Soviet delegation stated in conclusion that when the Soviet officer made his appearance at the camp 625 men at once declared their desire to return to the Soviet Union.
Churchill: We welcome every manner of observation on your part. I shall demand a report by telegraph. There may be many Poles.
Stalin: No, there were only Ukrainians, Soviet citizens.
Churchill: When approximately did all this happen?
Stalin: We got the telegram today, and it happened over the last few months.
Churchill: I’ve not heard anything of this until now. [Truman then closed the sitting and set the next one for 1700 hrs the following day]. Robert Beitzell Tehran Yalta Potsdam …, pp. 222-223.
67Unlike the Cossacks who had only officially been transferred to the Waffen-SS establishment for the last few months of the war, the Soviets had more reason to lay claim on the ‘14 Galician Division’/‘1 Ukrainian Division’. From its very inception it had formed an integral part of the Waffen-SS establishment and remained directly affiliated to and dependent on that organisation until capitulation for its German cadre personnel, equipment and provisions.
68Denis Hills maintains that the Ukrainians also benefited from the calculated last minute sacrifice to appease Moscow, of 170 Russian scapegoats. The condemned men, all ex Red Army and Wehrmacht soldiers and indisputably Soviet citizens were the unlucky residue of some 500 Russians who had been transferred form other camps to the enclave at Rimini in August 1946 under operation ‘Eastwind’. In May 1947. these men were put on a sealed train and under armed British escort, returned to the Soviet zone in Austria as part of ‘Operation Keelhaul’. Hills, Bellaria, op cit.; p. 5.
69Buchko ran a Ukrainian Help Committee (Ukraïns’kyi dopomohovyi komitet). Along with Reverends Ivan Prashko, Mykhailo Vavryk and Ivan Bilanych, he visited the captive Ukrainians in Italy. The presence of the clergy who brought with them news from the outside world including updates on the implementation of the Yalta Agreement, was a great source of encouragement for the internees.
70Undated letter from Alfredo Reinhardt, (aka Otto Wächter), HWA.
71Shandruk, Arms …, op cit.; p. 291.
72To the Gen. Quartermaster of the Army. Berlin ‘RF. SS (Reichsführer-SS) has asked to assign Gov.SS Gruf. Dr Wächter to a special task in the Reich (im Reichsgebiet) lasting several weeks. After receiving your consent, today I sent today Gruf. W. on his way to RF. SS. Because of special situation in Italy I personally have taken over the duties of the Head of Military Administration for the duration of his absence. I am asking for your consent’. SS-Ogruf. Wolff, An Kdo. Heer Gen.Qu. Abt.Kriegsverw. Berlin. HW 16/49, GPDR 50, NA, PRO, Kew.
73As early as 8 March 1945, Wolff had begun negotiations regarding the capitulation of all the German armed forces in Italy.
74Despite this agreement, both German Army field commanders, Kesselring and later his replacement Vietinghoff continued to postpone the actual signing as long they could. For additional details see Höhne, The Order …, pp. 527-529.
75See text of Divisional Order Number 71.
76The breaking of the enigma code ensured Churchill was well positioned to be fully cognisant of the existence of the Division. The British had been monitoring radio transmission on the frequencies used by the German police in Slovenia. These had subsequently been decrypted amongst them the disarmament order dated 28 March 1945, which was amongst one of half a dozen orders of particular importance singled out and presented to the Prime Minister in a blue folder on 3 April 1945, marked ‘Top Secret, [for the] Prime Minister [only]’. HW1/3666, NA, PRO, Kew. In addition information from intercepted / decrypted police radio transmissions had been collected and sorted. From 2 messages dated 3 and 10 April 1945, respectively it would have been possible to deduce the area in, and the authority under which the Division was operating and an inventory of a significant part of its personnel strength and light weaponry. See HW/16/43, GRD 4053, and 10 April 1945, Geheim! an 14.Waffengren.div.d.SS (UKR Nr. 1), from SSFHA, gez Blume. HW 16/71 GPD 4065, NA, PRO, Kew.
77For further details of the operation see Walker, Operation Unthinkable …, .
78Schmitt; Pioniereinheiten …, op cit.; pp. 12-13. see V.Veryha, Pid sontsem Italii …, p. 180.
79In a ‘summary of surrendered personnel’ sent by 5 Corps to Eight Army and AFHQ on 17 May 1945 under the general heading ‘Russians’ about 4,000 men from the 14 Ukrainian Div. are mentioned as still being in the corp’s area along with the main groups of the Cossacks, the Caucasians and the Schützkorps. WO 170/4241, NA, PRO, Kew.
80Cowgill, The Repatriations …, p. 94.
81The figure quoted of 8,272 was as of 16 February 1945, See Refugee Screening Commission Report on Ukrainians in SEP Camp no. 374, Italy 21 Feb 1947, (as) FO371/66605, NA, PRO, Kew, p. 1.
82Those selected were a cross section chosen at random comprising of 47 men from 1 Regiment, 49 from 2 Regiment, 46 from 3 Regiment, 47 from the Artillery Regiment, 30 from the Reserve Regiment and ‘a few others were chosen from the Signals Unit, the supply section and the Engineer Battalion’, Ibid., pp. 1-2.
83Ibid., p. 1.
84Of all the veterans that the author has contacted an estimated 70 per cent retained some kind of personal identification papers such as their paybooks or German issued civilian identify cards. The author has collected examples of dozens, several of which can be found in the Schevchenko Archive, London.
85Dorril, MI6, Fifty Years …,p. 242.
86Email to author A. Kaminsky, 7 September 2015.
87The figure of 150 was stated by Julian Mahur who was told it by a KGB officer during his investigation. Email to author A. Kaminsky, 9 September 2015.
88Email to author A. Kaminsky, 29 October 2015.
89Dorril, Stephen, MI6 …, op cit.; p. 242.
90A concerted effort was made by Soviet troops augmented by Communist troops from Poland and then Czechoslovakia, to destroy the UPA. Following the death of its commander Roman Shukhevych in 1950, starved of weapons and political support and facing overwhelming odds it was finally broken as a fighting force by 1953.
91Orest Horodysky wrote: ‘Visiting Ukraine I learned that 2 men working in the MI6 programme were living in Ukraine but did not want to talk, both were from the Bandera organisation. One of them was Wasyl Malzensky from Sokol region who survived the landing and worked in the Donbas. But somehow was denounced and served years in Siberia. He was released and died in his village’. Letter to author Orest Horodysky, 27 March 2003.
92Dorril, MI6 …, op cit.; p. 247.
93For additional information see Kuzio, Taras, U.S. support for Ukraine’s liberation during the Cold War: A study of Prolog Research and Publishing Corporation, Communist and Post-Communist Studies (2012), oi:10.1016/j.postcomstud.2012.02.007. Article in Communist and Post-Communist Studies, March 2012.
94Amongst the worst culprits in this respect are Sol Littman, Pure Soldiers or Sinister Legion …, David Cesarani, Justice Delayed …, and Christopher Hale, Hitler’s Foreign Executioners …, In extremis, one can only wonder at how the likes of Per Anders Rudling could claim that the Division ‘faithfully served Adolf Hitler until the very last days of the war’ when the Nazi racial polices he formulated and espoused relegated them to the status of ‘sub-humans’ fit only for slavery and serfdom. See Per Anders Rudling, ‘‘They Defended Ukraine’: The 14. Waffen-Grenadier-Division der SS (Galizische Nr. 1) Revisited’, The Journal of Slavic Military Studies Volume 25, Issue 3 (2012), p. 360.
95The vast majority of the allegations against the 14 Galician Division were subjected to due legal process by the Canadian legal authorities by virtue of a lengthy and exhaustive
‘Commission of Inquiry on War Criminals’ led by the Right Honourable Jules Deschênes, the findings of which were published on 30 December 1986. The conclusion of the report states;
‘The commission accordingly finds that ;
56- The Galicia Division (14.Waffengrenadierdivision der SS [gal.Nr.1]) should not be indicted as a group.
58. Charges of war crimes against members of the Galicia Division have never been substantiated, either in 1950 when they were first preferred, or in 1984 when they were renewed before this commission.’
The conclusion of the Deschênes report, issued in 1986 was later ratified by another judicial investigation by the minister of justice in Canada Anne McLellan in 1998.
Books and Articles
1This book is based on the ‘unpublished memoir’ to which the author refers extensively in his text. Keczun wrote the original manuscript for the author which was later published, however in the intervening period the text was subject to numerous amendments and additions as Keczun added to it prompted by a series of questions that I asked him. The additional information can be found in the manuscript a copy of which is available in the Schevchenko Archive in London.
Stalin's Nemesis Page 46
