The SS Volunteer Galicia Division

In spring 1943, after the stunning German defeat at Stalingrad, Nazi authorities belatedly decided to recruit non-German “easterners” into their forces. Consequently, Otto Wächter, the Governor of Galicia, approached the Ukrainian Central Committee (UCC) with a proposal to form a Ukrainian division in the German army. The head of the UCC Volodymyr Kubiiovych and his associates agreed to that proposal as they hoped that the formation of Ukrainian division in the German army would improve the treatment of Ukrainians in Galicia. They also hoped that the division could be used in the future as the basis for the creation of Ukrainian military forces which would fight for independent Ukraine. The OUN-M supported the idea of creating the Galician Division, but the OUN-B was against it. Their leaders considered the division as a competitor attracting youth who could otherwise join the UPA.

The idea of the division was met with great enthusiasm among Galicians. When the UCC called for volunteers in June 1943, over 82,000 men responded to fight against Ukraine’s “most terrible enemy - Bolshevism.” Of these, 13,000 eventually became members of the SS Volunteer Galicia Division. The entire divisional command was German.

It should be noted, however, that the name SS in this case did not mean that Ukrainians accepted the Nazi ideology or became an elite fascist military unit. They were an ordinary military division which was just subordinated to the SS command and were officially called the Volunteer Galicia Division of Waffen SS (which meant SS subordination). In 1944 the Division was almost destroyed in its first fight against the Soviets at Brodyin Western Ukraine. Out of 13,000 only 3,000 escaped. Then, after replenishment, it was used against partisans in Slovakia (1944) and Yugoslavia (1945).The division surrendered to the allies (US and British troops) in May 1945 in Austria.

The men of the Galician Division were not the only Ukrainians in Hitler’s armies. Of the approximately 1 million former Soviet citizens who wore German uniforms in 1944 about 250,000 were Ukrainians (most of the others were Russians). About 6 million Ukrainians fought on the Soviet side and large numbers also fought in Polish, Romanian, Hungarian, Czech, Slovakian, American, and Canadian forces. Such was the fate of a stateless people. It is interesting to note that practically all Ukrainians and many Russians know about the SS Galicia Division while only a few people know about two Russian SS divisions in the German army.

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