Attempting to offer documentary evidence in support of witness accounts impugning the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) or the Organization for Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) in killing of Jews during the Second World War, John Paul Himka submits the following:
“I quote from the book of reports of UPA’s Kolodzinsky division, for example, about how they stumbled upon twelve Hungarian Jews hiding in the forest in Volhynia and ‘dispatched them to the bosom of Abraham’.”
I can only assume that this is the strongest evidence Mr. Himka has. I apologize for previously misinterpreting this as a possible reference to the Mykhailo Kolodzinsky, chief of the ‘Sichovyky’ in Carpathian Ukraine fighting Hungarians in 1939. I was misled, in particular, by the lack of a time frame and Mr. Himka’s irreverence for names such as UPA, OUN, division, Banderites [followers of nationalist leader Stepan Bandera], Ukrainian Militia, Ukrainians. I do not think that the UPA had any divisions.
There was, according to Soviet archives, a Kolodzinsky ‘zahin’ [brigade] which was a part of the UPA which operated roughly in 1943. Alleged reports of this ‘zahin’ are found in the State Archives of Rivne Oblast and are referred to in the ‘Litopys UPA #14.’
However, a number of problems arise when accepting these reports ‘prima facie’ as documentary evidence. Any document in Soviet archives requires authentication, i.e. handwriting, age of paper, etc., given Soviet history in forging documentary evidence and unrestricted access to German, Ukrainian and other forms (spoils of war). This is not ‘terra incognita’ for historians in the case of the USSR. In most cases historians do not avail themselves of experts because of expense. The alternative is independent corroboration. I was unable to find any authentication or corroboration as to this particular event.
As to the allegedly damning document itself, the ‘Litopys’ reprint provides a less inflammatory version: “Among other major actions of the Zahin in December [1943] – an attack on Soviet partisans in the v[illage] of Zolote, setting fire to a command of ‘communists’ in Veliuni December 8, destroying 10 ‘Hungarian Jews’ near the v[illage] of Selec (they had removed themselves from some functional battalion).”
Even assuming authenticity, the only interpretation could be that the 10 or 12 Hungarian Jews were Soviet partisans. (Himka says twelve, the Litopys says ten) The UPA killed Soviet partisans and Soviet partisans killed members of the UPA. Certainly killing Hungarian Jewish Soviet partisans is not indictable as a war crime.
Regarding the Lviv ‘pogrom’ in July 1942 I would defer to one of the most eminent, if not the preeminent expert on the Holocaust, Raul Hilberg. Professor Hilberg published a three volume seminal study of the Holocaust under the title “The Destruction of the European Jews” and that publication remains one of, if not the single greatest achievement of Holocaust historiography. In fact the US Department of Justice Office of Special Investigations has relied predominantly on the expertise of Prof. Hilberg in a large number of its denaturalization and deportation proceedings. The primary sources for Prof. Hilberg’s conclusions are German documents. These documents are considered reliable by all experts since the German were most detailed in their reporting and no allegations or motivation for forgery had been advanced since the documents incriminate the Germans themselves.
Peculiarly, Mr. Himka never cites Professor Raul Hilberg and for good reason. Hilberg does not support Himka’s accusations. Prof. Hilberg is deceased, but his work remains. The underlying documentation and evidence for this work has never been contradicted. Mr. Himka has chosen to ignore Prof. Hilberg’s inconvenient findings.
“The Destruction of the European Jews” does not mention the UPA, Stepan Bandera, Roman Shukhevych or Nachtigal for that matter. Certainly, had there been evidence of their complicity in the Holocaust, Prof. Hilberg would have dealt with this subject extensively. Hilberg’s findings do accuse many nationalities on the Nazi’s road to European dominance, with great specificity as to formations. Hilberg does mention Ukrainians, Ukrainian nationalists and the acronym OUN, the last only one time in a reference to an exchange of prisoners between the Einsatzgruppe and Romanians in Northern Bukovina. Here he refers to pro-German nationalist (OUN men) but does not ascribe to them any killings or crimes and concludes “Einsatzgruppe D and Romanian police were jointly shooting thousands of Jews.”
The pogroms in Lviv and outlying territories in 1942 is described by Raul Hilberg thus:
“The southern pogrom area was largely confined to Galicia, an area that was formerly Polish territory and that had a large Ukrainian population. The Galician capital of Lvov was the scene of a mass seizure by local inhabitants. In reprisal for the deportation of Ukrainians by the Soviets, 1,000 members of the Jewish intelligentsia were driven together and handed over to the Security Police. On July 5, 1942, about seventy Jews in Tarnopol were rounded up by Ukrainians when three mutilated German corpses were found in the local prisons. The Jews were killed with dynamite. Another twenty Jews were killed by Ukrainians and German troops. In Krzeminiec (Kremenets), 100 to 150 Ukrainians had been killed by the Soviets. When some of the exhumed bodies were found without skin, rumors circulated that the Ukrainians had been thrown into kettles full of boiling water. The Ukrainian population retaliated by seizing 130 Jews and beating them to death with clubs. Although the Galician pogroms spread still further, to such places as Sambor and Czortkow, the Ukrainian violence as a whole did not come up to expectations. Only Tarnopol and Czortkiw were scored as major successes.”
Prof. Hilberg makes certain pointed observations about these pogroms. He concludes that spontaneous pogroms, free from Einsatzgruppen influence, did not take place, “All outbreaks were either organized or inspired by the Einsatzgruppen.” Additionally, he concludes that the pogroms were not “self-perpetuating, that new ones were not started after things had settled down.” In fact he writes that “Ukrainians had no stamina for the long range systematic German destruction process. Short violence followed by confession and absolution was one thing, organized killing was quite another.”
German orchestration and supervision was apparent. Prof. Hilberg cites from a report of Einsatzkommando 6 of Einsatzgruppe C:
“Almost nowhere can the population be persuaded to take active steps against the Jews. This may be explained by the fear of many people that the Red Army may return. Again and again this anxiety has been pointed out to us. In order to meet the fear psychosis, and in order to destroy the myth which, in the eyes of many Ukrainians, places the Jew in the position of the wielder of political power, Einsatzkommando 6 on several occasions marched Jews before their execution through the city. Also, care was taken to have Ukrainian militiamen watch the shooting of Jews.”
Prof. Hilberg concludes that the “deflation” of the Jews as being powerful did not have the effect that the Germans wanted. The Einsatzgruppe C complained “that the inhabitants did not betray the movements of hidden Jews…When the deportations engulfed the Jews of Galicia in the fall of 1942, the German Order Police noted that many Jews had fled from the ghettos of Drohobycz, Boryslaw, Sambor and Stryj on the eve of impending roundups. Jews of Stryj were hiding in Polish and Ukrainian apartments.”
Three sources – Nuremberg, Hilberg and even a special Soviet Commission – not one suggests that the OUN or UPA were complicit in the killing of Jews in furtherance of the German policy referred to as the Holocaust. Certainly, Prof. Hilberg, the Soviet Commission and even the Nuremberg Tribunal with its Soviet representatives were motivated to find as many accomplices as possible.
Give it a rest, Mr. Himka. Your mission has failed. Quite simply, you lack credible evidence.
