14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (Galician No. 1)
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14th Waffen Grenadier Division in the SS (Galician No. 1) |
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|---|---|
 Troop registration |
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| active | July 1943 to May 1945 |
| Country |
.svg){kind=small} German Empire
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| Armed forces |
 Armed SS
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| Branch of service | Grenadiers |
| Type | division |
| structure | See outline |
| Strength | 22,000 men |
| Butcher | Partisan war in Yugoslavia |
| commander | |
| list of | Commanders |
| insignia | |
| Sleeve badge |
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The 14th Waffen Grenadier Division in the SS (Galician SS Division No. 1) was a division in the Waffen SS , which was set up in 1943 with Ukrainian volunteers and so-called Volksdeutsche . The nickname "Galician No. 1" refers to the region of Galicia .
In December 1943 the strength of the division was 12,634 men, in June 1944 already 15,299 men and in December 1944 22,000 men. It was used in the Balkans (June 1943 to March 1944), on the Eastern Front (March 1944 to July 1944) and in Poland and Czechoslovakia (July 1944 to May 1945).
history
The members of the division came from the Lemberg area . From July 1943 seven regiments of the "SS Volunteer Division Galicia" were set up, each with 2000 men. The teams were mainly provided by the Melnyk wing of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists . The Bandera faction refused to establish the division. The training was completed by the summer of 1944.
Before the training of the unit was completed, the "Kampfgruppe Beyersdorff", which was about 2,000 men strong, was detached at the beginning of 1944. It was supposed to help in the fight against Polish partisan units and in the process committed a whole series of crimes against civilians, such as torture and murder 1500 people were killed before they rejoined the rest of the unit. There is great disagreement about the role of the "Galicia" SS division, especially between nationally-minded Ukrainians and Poles. The division is charged with a number of crimes on the Polish side, but these have not been fully proven. The participation of the Kampfgruppe Beyersdorff in the massacres of Pidkamin , Huta-Pieniacka and Palikrowy is considered certain .
In June 1944 the division of the 1st Panzer Army was subordinated to the Wehrmacht and ended up in the pocket near Brody . 3,000 men of the division managed to get through to the German lines, about 1,000 to the UPA . The division was reorganized from disbanded Galician police regiments at the Neuhammer military training area and relocated to Slovakia as an occupation force on September 28, 1944 . The addition to the name has now been changed to "Ukrainian No. 1".
In April 1945 the division was reorganized as the 1st Division of the Ukrainian National Army and subordinated to the Ukrainian National Committee under the direction of Pawlo Schandruk . It was then in Austria and has now been sworn in to Ukraine. On May 8, 1945 the division surrendered to British troops at Tamsweg and Judenburg . Since most of the soldiers come from Galicia , they were considered Polish citizens and were not extradited to the Soviet Union , but interned in Rimini . Many emigrated to Canada , the United States, and Australia after their release .
Other division names
- SS Rifle Division "Galicia" (May 1943)
- 14th SS Volunteer Division "Galicia" (June 30 to October 22, 1943)
- 14th Galician SS Volunteer Division (October 22, 1943 to June 27, 1944)
- 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (Galician No. 1) (June 27 to November 12, 1944 -
- 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (Ukrainian No. 1) (November 12, 1944 to April 25, 1945)
- 1st Ukrainian Division of the Ukrainian National Army (April 25 to May 8, 1945)
Commanders
- July 30 to October 19, 1943 SS-Brigadführer and Major General of the Waffen-SS Walter Schimana
- October 20, 1943 to July 1944 SS-Brigadführer and Major General of the Waffen-SS Fritz Freitag
- July to September 5, 1944 SS-Oberführer Nikolaus Heilmann
- September 5, 1944 to April 24, 1945 SS brigade leader and major general of the Waffen SS Fritz Freitag
structure
- Waffen Grenadier Regiment of the SS 29 (Galician No. 1)
- Waffen Grenadier Regiment of the SS 30 (Galician No. 2)
- Waffen Grenadier Regiment of SS 31 (Galician No. 3)
- Waffen-Artillerie-Regiment of the SS 14
- Weapons Fusilier Battalion 14
- SS Volunteer Flak Department 14
- Weapons news department of the SS 14
- SS-Radfahr-Battalion 14
- Weapons Pioneer Battalion of the SS 14
- Waffen-Panzerjager-Company 14
- SS medical department 14
- SS Veterinary Company 14
- SS division supply troops 14
- SS Economic Battalion 14
- SS supply company 14
- SS field post office 14
- SS war reporter train 14
- SS-Feldgendarmerie-Troop 14
- SS supply company 14
- SS Field Replacement Battalion 14
- SS Economic Battalion 14
Aftermath
Historical classification and assessment
After the Second World War, nationalist groups in the Ukrainian diaspora developed a narrative that heroized the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists , the Ukrainian Insurgent Army and their leaders and at the same time denied fascism and crime among them. This view also included the SS division "Galicia" and received some funding in the Ukraine under President Viktor Yushchenko . The Ukrainian Institute for National Remembrance , headed by Volodymyr Viatrovych since 2014 , takes a similar point of view and thus influences the perception of history in Ukrainian society. Despite the lack of clarity and ambivalence, the division is revered today by Ukrainians from the right-wing but also from the bourgeois spectrum, especially in Galicia. Organized by the nationalist group "Autonomous Resistance" since 2010, a parade in honor of the SS division has been held in the city of Lviv on April 28th, in which veterans and representatives of other nationalist organizations take part. In the cities of Ivano-Frankivsk and Ternopil a street was named after the Galicia division. On July 23, 2017, a memorial service and a solemn reburial of the remains of 23 soldiers of the division who fell while trying to escape from the Brody pocket took place in Chervon, Zolochiv district (Lviv) . a. Veterans and regional state officials attended. Extras and veterans wore SS uniforms.
Monuments and graves
In several cities in Austria , where the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (Galician No. 1) took part in combat operations, monuments were erected for the division. Most of the time it is kept secret that this is an SS division. However, the division's insignia are shown on most of these monuments.
Austria
- Bad Gleichenberg
Monument in Bad Gleichenberg
Monument in Trautmannsdorf
In the cemetery in Bad Gleichenberg there is a memorial dedicated to the "fallen sons of Ukraine". It also shows two lions borrowed from the SS division's badge.
The division is also commemorated in the cemetery of the Trautmannsdorf district in Eastern Styria , where the term "Ukrainian National Army" is used, a term the division used in the 14 days before the surrender in 1945. The division's badge is also used here.
- Feldbach
Monument on Pfarrplatz
Memorial plaque in the old parish church
Memorial at the military cemetery
In the city of Feldbach , the "Galicia" division is commemorated for helping in the defensive battle against the Red Army .
On Pfarrplatz there is a monument to the "1st Division of the Ukrainian National Army", officially unveiled in 1981, a designation that the division wore in the 14 days before the surrender in 1945. The original SS unit badge was also shown on it. In the old parish church, a memorial plaque has been commemorating the members of the division since 1954.
In January 2018, the controversial badges were removed from the monuments.
- Gnas
The memorial in the local cemetery
Inscription of the monument
At the local cemetery of Gnas erected Austrian Black Cross , a monument on which the insignia of the SS division Galicia is depicted.
Canada
In the Ukrainian St. Vladimir Cemetery in Oakville , Ontario there is a memorial with the emblem of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army and the SS Division.
literature
- Rolf Michaelis : The Grenadier Divisions of the Waffen SS . Michaelis, Erlangen 1994. ISBN 3-930849-04-6 .
- Rolf Michaelis: Ukrainians in the Waffen SS. The 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (Ukrainian No. 1). Winkelried-Verlag , Dresden 2006, ISBN 978-3-938392-23-2 .
- Rolf-Dieter Müller : On the side of the Wehrmacht. Hitler's foreign helpers in the 'Crusade against Bolshevism' 1941-1945 , Munich 2007, ISBN 3-86153-448-7 .
- Sol Littmann: Pure Soldiers or Sinister Legion. The Ukrainian 14th Waffen-SS Division. Black Rose Books, Montreal 2003, ISBN 1-55164-218-2 .
- Georg Tessin : Associations and troops of the German Wehrmacht and Waffen SS in World War II 1939–1945. Volume 3: The Land Forces 6-14 . 2nd Edition. Biblio-Verlag, Bissendorf 1974, ISBN 3-7648-0942-6 .
See also
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Michael O. Logusz. (1997). Galicia Division: The Waffen-SS 14th Grenadier Division, 1943–1945 . Altglen, Pennsylvania: Schiffer Military History. Page 62.
- ↑ James Michael Melnyk, The History of the Galician Division of the Waffen SS. Volume 1: On the Eastern Front, April 1943 to July 1944, page 235, Fonthill Media, 2016, ISBN 978-1781555286 ( on google books )
- ↑ Terry Goldsworthy, Valhalla's Warriors: A History of the Waffen-SS on the Eastern Front 1941-1945, page 97, Dog Ear Publishing, 2007, ISBN 978-1598584455 ( on google books )
- ↑ Frank Golczewski, Die Kollaboration in der Ukraine, pages 178 and 179 (footnote), In: Cooperation and Crimes: Forms of "Collaboration" in Eastern Europe 1939-1945 (Contributions to the History of National Socialism), Wallstein Verlag, 2005, ISBN 978 -3892446903 ( on google books )
- ↑ S. Wargin, The Unknown Ethnic Cleansings: White Spots in Modern History, page 20, S. Wargin, 2017, ISBN 978-1925635249 ( on google books )
- ↑ Institute for Ukrainian History, Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, Chapter 5, pages 284ff, archived (accessed April 14, 2018)
- ↑ Per Anders Rudling, The Return of the Ukrainian Far Right: The Case of VO Svoboda, page 230, Routledge Critical Studies in Discourse, 2013 as pdf (accessed April 14, 2018)
- ^ Andreas Umland, The Ukrainian government's Memory Institute against the West , March 7, 2017, New Eastern Europe (accessed April 14, 2018)
- ↑ Homepage "Autonomous Resistance" (in Ukrainian) ( Memento of the original from July 20, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed April 14, 2018
- ↑ http://publikative.org/2014/04/28/ss-division-galizien-heldengedenken-in-der-ukraine/
- ↑ https://www.google.de/maps/place/Soldiers+Division+%22Galicia%22+St,+Ternopil,+Ternopil's'ka+oblast,+Ukraine/@49.55566,25.5989384,17z/data=!3m1! 4b1! 4m2! 3m1! 1s0x4730314c51342683: 0xc14cb32293088585
- ↑ In Ukraine, reburied with honors SS , July 25, 2017, WapoNews (accessed April 14, 2018)
- ↑ Report from the Ukrajina Moloda (in Ukrainian, with pictures and video) , July 25, 2017, (accessed on April 14, 2018)
- ↑ Controversial SS memorials have been "defused". In: Small newspaper . January 10, 2018, accessed December 25, 2018 .
