Wiking, Einsatzgruppe C at Zloczow (Zolochiv) Summer 1941

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Rob - wssob2
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Wiking, Einsatzgruppe C at Zloczow (Zolochiv) Summer 1941

#1

Post by Rob - wssob2 » 21 Dec 2008, 18:07

[Split from "The Wiking Division, The SS-Ahnenerbe and Einsatzgruppe D"]

I’ve also been doing some additional research which I wanted to share with the members of the AHF

Wiking, Einsatzgruppe C & the Bloodbath at Zloczow (Zolochiv) Summer 1941

Recently I discovered an online essay by Holocaust historian Bernd Boll about Wiking’s participation alongside elements of Einsatzgruppe C in the mass murder of Ukrainian Jews at Zolochiv.

Zolochiv (aka Zolochiv [Ukr], Złoczów [Pol], Zlotshev [Yid], Zolochev [Rus], Solotschiw [Ger], Zlochev, Zlochuv, Zlotchev, Zolociv) is a Ukrainian town @ 49°48' N 24°54' E
and about 252 mi W of Kyyiv. It’s about 8 miles away from the town of Zborov, mentioned earlier on this thread. (see http://data.jewishgen.org/wconnect/wc.d ... LES~~~~~SE~~ and http://www.jewishgen.org/Yizkor/pinkas_ ... 00217.html and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zolochiv)
The town included a 16th century castle (a.k.a “citadel” – see http://www.castles.com.ua/zlocow.html) which will figure prominently in the story.

Bernd Boll was part of the visiting scholars program at the USHMM
http://www.ushmm.org/research/center/fe ... ?year=2004

His essay Zloczow, July 1941: The Wehrmacht and the Beginning of the Holocaust in Galicia (Zloczow, Juli 1941: Die Wehrmacht und der Beginn des Holocaust in Galizien) is available at PDF format on the website Documentation Archives of the Austrian Resistance (DÖW) at http://www.doew.at/ - there is a direct link to it in the References section at http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedi ... ed)-Wiking

Here are some passages from the essay pertinent to the question of SS-Wiking’s involvement in the massacre of Jewish civilians.

I’ll cite the German text, and then my poor translation:


Drei Tage lang hatte die Wehrmacht den Pogromen und Morden untätig zugesehen. Der Ic der 295. Infanteriedivision hielt für den 3. Juli 1941 fest: „In Zloczow herrschen unerfreuliche Zustände. Auf der Zitadelle liegen 900 Leichen von durch die Russen ermordeten Ukrainern, die zur Zeit von Juden und Russen mit den Händen wieder ausgegraben werden. In der Stadt und auf der Zitadelle finden Massenerschiessungen und Ermordungen auf offener Strasse von Juden und Russen einschliesslich Frauen und Kindern durch die Ukrainer statt.“36

Auch Soldaten der Waffen-SS-Division „Wiking“waren an diesen Massenmorden beteiligt.37 Erst jetzt griff der Stadtkommandant ein. Er bestellte Oberst Otto Korfes, den Kommandeur des Infanterieregiments 518 der 295. Infanteriedivision, zu sich und beauftragte ihn mit der „Wiederherstellung der Ordnung“.38 Initiiert wurde diese Intervention zugunsten der jüdischen Bevölkerung von Oberstleutnant Helmuth Groscurth, dem Ersten Generalstabsoffizier der Division.39

Korfes hatte von einem Unteroffizier, den er zum Erkunden vorausgeschickt hatte, von den Plünderungen und Morden in der Stadt erfahren. Er schickte Oberstleutnant Patzwahl, einen Bataillonskommandeur seines Regiments, mit dem Auftrag nach Zloczow, Ruhe und Ordnung notfalls mit Waffengewalt wiederherzustellen.40 Aber obwohl Patzwahl nicht nur von seinem direkten Vorgesetzten, sondern auch vom Stadtkommandanten und vom Stab seiner Division autorisiert war, begnügte er sich damit, die Frauen und Kinder aus der Festung zu entlassen. Sie waren noch in Sichtweite, berichtet Wolkowicz, als die SS erneut das Feuer eröffnete. Wieder wurde er nicht getroffen. Unter mehreren Toten begraben, ohne Hoffnung, blieb er liegen bis zum Abend. Ein schweres Gewitter rettete ihn, weil die Mörder Schutz vor dem Regen suchten und ihre Opfer vorübergehend aus den Augen ließen. Schließlich gelang es Wolkowicz, sich unter den Leichen hervorzuarbeiten. Außer ihm hatten nur wenige andere Juden das Massaker überlebt. Nach Einbruch der Dunkelheit krochen sie durch einen Zaun und kehrten in die Stadt zurück. 41



“…For three long days the Wehrmacht had silently watched the pogrom and murders. The Ic of the 295th Infantry Division wrote on 3 July 1941: “In Zloczow unpleasant conditions prevail. In the castle lie 900 corpses of Ukrainians murdered by the Russians, which are being excavated at present by Jews and Russians with their bare hands. In the city and in the castle, on the open streets there are mass shootings and murders of Jews and Russians, including women and children, by the Ukrainians.” 36

In addition, until the city commander intervened , soldiers of the Waffen-SS division “Wiking” had taken part in these mass murders 37. He ordered Colonel Otto Korfes, the commander of the Infantry Regiment 518 of the 295. Infantry division, to “re-establish order.“38 This intervention in favor of the Jewish population was initiated by Lieutenant Colonel Helmuth Groscurth, the first general staff officer of the Division. 39

Korfes had heard from (?) an NCO sent to investigate the plundering and murder in the city. He sent Lieutenant Colonel Patzwahl, a battalion commander of the regiment, to Zloczow with the order to establish peace and order by force of arms if necessary (wiederherzustellen?).40 however although Patzwahl not only by its direct superior, but also by the commander of city and by the staff of its division was authorized, was content it with it, the women and children from the fortress to dismiss itself.(Rob note: I think this means the Patzwahl and his troops left the scene) They still were in range of vision, reported Wolkowicz, when the SS opened the fire again. Again it was not met. Hopeless and buried under several dead bodies, he remained lying up to the evening. A heavy thunderstorm saved him, because the murderers looked for protection from the rain and let their victims temporary out of their sight. Finally Wolkowicz succeeded in digging himself out from under the corpses. Except for him, few other Jews had survived the massacre. After darkness fell they crept by a fence and turned back into the city.41



“…Patzwahls halbherziges Eingreifen hatte zur Folge, daß auf der Zitadelle am Morgen des 4. Juli, wieder unter Beteiligung der Waffen-SS, weiter gemordet wurde: „Aus Zloczow werden erneut grausamste Erschiessungen sowohl von den abziehenden Russen wie auch von den Ukrainern und der SS gemeldet. Es sollen von den Ukrainern und Juden [sic!] je mindestens 300 erschossen sein.“42 Sobald Korfes durch einen Ordonnanzoffizer Meldung darüber erhalten hatte, fuhr er mit seinem Adjutanten zur Zitadelle. Er fand dort zahlreiche deutsche Soldaten vor, am Rand einer Grube standen Hunderte von Juden. Etwa ein Dutzend ukrainischer Zivilisten, mit Spaten, Äxten, Spitzhacken und Handgranaten bewaffnet, wurde von SS-Leuten angeführt. In der Grube standen 60 bis 80 Menschen, Männer, Frauen und Kinder. Viele andere waren bereits durch Handgranaten getötet oder verletzt worden. Korfes befahl, das Morden einzustellen, und schickte die gaffenden Soldaten aus der Zitadelle. Durch Unteroffiziere ließ er die Eingänge zur Festung sperren. Seinen Adjutanten schickte er mit Patzwahl in die Stadt, um ärztliche Hilfe zu holen. „Dann forderte ich die Menschen in der Grube auf, herauszukommen; sie ständen jetzt unter dem Schutz der deutschen Armee und hätten nichts mehr zu befürchten.”43



…Patzwahl’s half-hearted intervention had the consequence that in the castle in the morning 4 of July, the murders began again with the participation of the Waffen-SS: “Again in Zloczow the cruelest shooting of the Russians by the Ukrainians (and SS announced? At least 300 Ukrainian Jews shot?” 42)As soon as Korfes heard the news from an ordinance officer, he drove to the castle with his aide. He found there numerous German soldiers, and at the edge of a pit stood hundreds of Jews. About a dozen of Ukrainian civilians, armed with spades, axes, pointed heels and hand grenades were led by a by SS-Lt. In the pit were 60 to 80 humans, men, women and children. Many had been already killed or injured by hand grenades. Korfes stopped the murders and sent the (offending?) soldiers from the castle. NCOs shut the doorways to the fortress.He sent his aide with Patzwahl into the city, in order to get medical assistance. “Then I requested the humans in the pit to come out; they are now under the protection of the German army and would have nothing more to fear.” 43


“Die Verantwortung für das Massaker von Zloczow

Wer trug nun letztlich die Verantwortung für den Massenmord an der jüdischen Bevölkerung von Zloczow? Die Akten und Zeugenaussagen ergeben ein widersprüchliches Bild. Aktivisten der OUN waren in großer Zahl beteiligt, viele zeichneten sich durch überdurchschnittliche Brutalität aus; und Morde an ihren politischen und ethnischen Feinden waren von ihrer Führung gewiss von vornherein eingeplant. Glaubt man jedoch einem Bericht der Einsatzgruppe C, dann hat die ukrainische Miliz „im Auftrage der Wehrmacht“ mehrere hundert Juden festgenommen, die anschließend - es ist von 300 bis 500 Personen die Rede - erschossen wurden; von wem, erfährt man nicht. Die eigenen Kommandos seien dagegen an den Erschießungen nicht beteiligt gewesen; das Sonderkommando 4b, das mit der Wehrmacht einrückte, habe Zloczow nur „flüchtig überholt“.52 Dagegen berichtet das Kriegstagebuch der 295. Infanteriedivision, daß „Ukrainer“ und „SS“ die Erschießungen durchführten, wobei Korfes letztere als Angehörige der Waffen-SS-Division „Wiking“ identifizierte.53 Das bedeutet jedoch nicht, daß der Befehl für die Morde auch von dieser Division kam.”



The Responsibility for the Massacure at Zloczow.

Who in the long run bore the responsibility for the mass murder at the Jewish population of Zloczow? The documents and testimonies result in a contradictory picture. Activists of the OUN were involved in large numbers, many of whom exhibited an above-average brutality; and murders under their political and ethnic enemies were of their guidance certainly from the beginning taken into account. If one believes however a report of the group of Einsatzgruppe C, then the Ukrainian militia arrested “on behalf of the armed forces “several hundred Jews, who were shot afterwards - it is from 300 to 500 persons the speech -; of whom, one does not experience. The own Kommandos were not involved in the shooting; the Einsatzkommando 4b, with that Wehrmacht engaged, Zloczow only “volatilely overhauled” ?. The war diary of the 295th reports 52 that “Ukrainians” and “SS” did the shooting, whereby Korfes identified the latter as a members of the Waffen-SS division “Wiking “. 53 That does not means however, that the instruction came for the murders also came of this division. In order to clarify the question about the responsibility, one must draw back further.



“… Zur Massenerschießung wurde die Bergung der Leichen auf der Zitadelle aber erst durch die Teilnahme von Soldaten der SS-Wiking. Diese Division, die dem XIV. Armeekorps der Panzergruppe 1 unterstand und seit dem 1. Juli 1941 in der zweiten Reihe durch den Bereich einer Reihe anderer Divisionen von Lemberg nach Zloczow marschierte, scheint die ersten Tage des Krieges im Osten als eine Art Jagdausflug betrachtet zu haben, mit richtigen Menschen als Wild. Am 2. und 3. Juli blockierte SS- Wiking offenbar mit Absicht die Vormarschstraße, während einzelne Angehörige „Juden jagen“ gingen und dabei auch „alles“ erschossen, „was nur den geringsten Anschein eines Verdachtes trägt, z.B. Zivilpersonen mit kahlgeschorenen Köpfen (russische Soldaten).”60



…The Mass shooting became and the salvage (?) of the corpses in the castle, however, only (came about) by the participation of soldiers of the SS-Wiking. This division was subordinate to the XIV. Army Corps of the Panzer Group 1 and since 1 July 1941 marched in the second row by the range of a set of other divisions from Lemberg to Zloczow, and seems since the first days of the war in the east, to have regarded it as a kind of hunting trip, with certain humans as game. On the 2 and 3rd of July SS Wiking stopped on the the route of advance, obviously with intention of a “Jew Hunt” and had people shot on the slightest suspicion, e.g. civilians with bald-sheared heads (Russian soldiers) “. 60


“Kurz vor seiner Ankunft in Zloczow berichtete auch Groscurth an das vorgesetzte IV. Armeekorps, „daß die SS wahllos russische Soldaten und auch Zivilisten, die ihnen verdächtig erscheinen, in Massen erschießen“. 61 Das Verhalten der SS führte zu Zusammenstößen mit der Wehrmacht, wobei in einem Fall ein Offizier „durch einen SS-Führer mit der Pistole bedroht wurde“ 62 Unklar bleibt, ob die immer wieder beklagte Marschdisziplin der SS oder die von ihnen begangenen Massaker Auslöser dieser Zusammenstöße
waren.”



”…Shortly before its arrival in Zloczow, Groscurth reported to the superior IVth Army Corps, “the SS are indiscriminately shooting Russian soldiers and also civilians in mass executions.” 61 The behavior the SS led to confrontations with the armed forces, whereby in one case an officer was threatened by a “SS leader with a pistol”62It remains unclear whether the deplored march discipline of the SS or these massacres were the cause of these confrontations.”


In Zloczow setzte SS-Wiking jedenfalls das Blutbad fort. Oberst Korfes erfuhr von einem Melder, daß „die SS zusammen mit zivilen Banditen plündern, die Menschen aus ihren Wohnungen herausholen und eine ganze Menge bereits erschlagen hatten.“63 Korfes sah zwei SS-Soldaten in der Zitadelle und vermutete, daß die Handgranaten, mit denen die OUN-Anhänger die Juden im Massengrab ermordeten, aus den Beständen ihrer Division stammten.64 Ob Angehörige des Sonderkommandos 4a ebenfalls an den Erschießungen beteiligt waren, ist unklar, kann aber wegen der ansonsten geübten Zurückhaltung als eher unwahrscheinlich gelten.65 Für Armee-Oberbefehlshaber Stülpnagel waren die Plünderungen, Mißhandlungen und Morde offenbar kein Problem, sie zogen sich über Tage hin, ohne daß die Wehrmacht - von der Armee bis hinunter zur Stadtkommandantur - Grund zum Einschreiten gesehen hätte. Erst mit dem Eintreffen der 295. Infanteriedivision erschien mit deren Erstem Generalstabsoffizier Groscurth ein Mann, für den die Grenzen des Erlaubten längst überschritten waren. Er veranlaßte, daß der Stadtkommandant Oberst Korfes mit der „Wiederherstellung der Ordnung“ beauftragte.



”…In Zloczow SS-Wiking continued the bloodbath. Colonel Korfes (saw for himself?) that “the SS as well as plundering civilian bandits have taken people out of their homes and had already killed a lot.”63 Korfes saw two SS-soldiers in the castle and assumed that the hand grenades, which the OUN auxiliaries used to murder the Jews in the mass grave, came from the division. 64 Whether members of Sonderkommando 4a were likewise involved in the killing is unclear, are unclearly, can however because of the otherwise (geübten?) restraint as rather improbably be valid. 65 for army commander in chief inverting nail was the plunderings, abusing and murders obviously no problem, them dragged on over days, without the armed forces - from the army to down to the Stadtkommandantur - would have seen reason for intervening. Only with the arrival of the 295. Infantry Division appeared with their first General staff officer Groscurth a man, for whom the borders of the permitted one were exceeded long. It arranged that the commander of city assigned Colonels Korfes “the re-establishment of order.”

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Re: The Wiking Division, The SS-Ahnenerbe and Einsatzgruppe D

#2

Post by AliasDavid » 22 Dec 2008, 00:25

Korfes hatte von einem Unteroffizier, den er zum Erkunden vorausgeschickt hatte, von den Plünderungen und Morden in der Stadt erfahren. Er schickte Oberstleutnant Patzwahl, einen Bataillonskommandeur seines Regiments, mit dem Auftrag nach Zloczow, Ruhe und Ordnung notfalls mit Waffengewalt wiederherzustellen.40 Aber obwohl Patzwahl nicht nur von seinem direkten Vorgesetzten, sondern auch vom Stadtkommandanten und vom Stab seiner Division autorisiert war, begnügte er sich damit, die Frauen und Kinder aus der Festung zu entlassen. Sie waren noch in Sichtweite, berichtet Wolkowicz, als die SS erneut das Feuer eröffnete.
Korfes had been informed about the looting and murdering in the city by an NCO he had sent to reconnoiter. He sent Lieutenant Colonel Patzwahl, a battalion commander of his regiment, into the city, giving him the order to restore peace and order by force of arms, if necessary. But although Patzwahl had been authorized not only by his direct superior, but also by the city commander and by the staff of his division, he contented himself with releasing the women and the children from the fortress. They were still within eyeshot, relates Wolkowicz, when the SS opened fire again. Again he was not hit.
UlrichH


michael mills
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Re: The Wiking Division, The SS-Ahnenerbe and Einsatzgruppe D

#3

Post by michael mills » 22 Dec 2008, 00:52

A correction to the translation of one part:
Aus Zloczow werden erneut grausamste Erschiessungen sowohl von den abziehenden Russen wie auch von den Ukrainern und der SS gemeldet. Es sollen von den Ukrainern und Juden [sic!] je mindestens 300 erschossen sein.“
This means:
There are renewed reports from Zloczow of extremely cruel shootings, both by the retreating Russians and by the Ukrainians and the SS. At least 300 each of the Ukrainians and the Jews are said to have been shot.
What the report is saying is that at least 300 Ukrainians were shot by the retreating Soviet forces, and at least 300 Jews were shot by Ukrainians and SS.

The article represents the author's interpetation of events in Zloczow, based on contemporary German records and, apparently, accounts by Jewish survivors of the massacre. Whether his interpetation is justified is open to question.

The massacre of Jews in Zloczow appears to have been triggered by the execution by the retreating Soviet forces of Ukrainian prisoners held by them. Such hasty executions by the retreating Soviets are well documented, and occurred in a number of places in East Galicia. In the months prior to the German invasion, there had been a massive repression of the Ukrainian population by the Soviet authorities, and a large number of Ukrainians, men, women and children were being held prisoner in a number of jails. When the German invasion began, the Soviet authorities tried to evacuate the prisoners, but where they were unable to do so in time, they simply massacred them, sometimes by shooting, in some cases with explosives.

The discovery of these massacres of Ukrainian prisoners, coupled with the experience of very repressive Soviet rule, was what created the intense emotional reaction that led to the massacre of a number of Jews, and also what the German reports describe as "Russians", presumably members of the Red Army of unspecified ethnicity.

The most reasonable interpretation is that the massacre was initiated by local Ukrainians as revenge for the killing by the retreating Soviets of members of their own community. Jews were targeted both because of the long-standing ethnic hostility between Jews and Ukrainians, and also because Jews were seen by Ukrainians as having been favoured by the Soviet regime and as having collaborated in the repression of the Ukrainian population. Thus, the massacre of some hundreds of Jews in Zloczow was of the same nature as similar lynchings of ethnic Germans carried out near the end of the war by Poles, Czechs and members of other nationalities that had suffered under German occupation.

A number of German soldiers, identified as members of the Waffen-SS, appear to have joined the local Ukrainians in the massacre of Jews and "Russians". It is unlikely that those participants were acting on orders from their commanders, although it is probable that the commanders winked at the actions of their men; for the members of the Waffen-SS, and for many other members of the German armed forces, the discovery of the massacres perpetrated by the retreating Soviets simply confirmed National Socialist propaganda about "Jewish Bolshevism".

The author's conclusion that it was the intervention by members of the Waffen-SS that turned the exhumation of the bodies of the victims of the Soviet executions into a massacre is probably tendentious and unjustified by the evidence. It is more likely that the killings of jews were initiated by local Ukrainians, and members of the Waffen-SS then joined in.

The actions of Wehrmacht officers in putting a stop to the killings of Jews was a continuation of the tradition followed in the First World War, when the German armed forces had suppressed anti-Jewish violence in territories of the Russian Empire occupied by them. The prime motivation was to maintain order, and prevent independent disruptive action by local populations.

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Re: The Wiking Division, The SS-Ahnenerbe and Einsatzgruppe D

#4

Post by AliasDavid » 22 Dec 2008, 01:15

The author's conclusion that it was the intervention by members of the Waffen-SS that turned the exhumation of the bodies of the victims of the Soviet executions into a massacre is probably tendentious and unjustified by the evidence. It is more likely that the killings of jews were initiated by local Ukrainians, and members of the Waffen-SS then joined in.
The autor's conclusion is with respect to mass shootings rather than to a massacre. While the Ukranians slayed the Jews or threw handgrenades at them, with colonel Korfes presuming the handgrenades to have come from Viking stocks, the SS killed them by shooting.
UlrichH

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Re: The Wiking Division, The SS-Ahnenerbe and Einsatzgruppe D

#5

Post by Sid Guttridge » 22 Dec 2008, 16:45

Hi Michael,

You write;

"A number of German soldiers, identified as members of the Waffen-SS, appear to have joined the local Ukrainians in the massacre of Jews and "Russians". It is unlikely that those participants were acting on orders from their commanders, although it is probable that the commanders winked at the actions of their men..."

Why was it "unklikely"? Was Waffen-SS man-management really so slack?

You write:

".....for the members of the Waffen-SS, and for many other members of the German armed forces, the discovery of the massacres perpetrated by the retreating Soviets simply confirmed National Socialist propaganda about "Jewish Bolshevism".

Are you talikng of this "confirmation" as a reality or a propaganda-induced perception?

Cheers,

Sid.

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Re: The Wiking Division, The SS-Ahnenerbe and Einsatzgruppe D

#6

Post by michael mills » 23 Dec 2008, 00:49

In analysing the massacre of Jews perpetrated at Zloczow on 3 and 4 July 1941, one thing that is immediately obvious is that the killings were not in accordance with the pre-invasion orders given to the German Security Police, defining the categories of persons subject to summary execution in captured Soviet territory. As of the beginning of July 1941, the Security Police units following the advancing German forces were still operating according to those pre-invasion orders.

The orders for summary execution (Sonderbehandlung) included certain groups of Jews among the defined categories, essentially Jews in State and Party positions, and members of the Red Army. Women and children were not included in the categories subject to summary execution, and we know from the reports of Security Police formations in the field that the overwhelming majority of Jews executed in the first weeks of the invasion were men; where women were executed, they were presumably persons in State and Party positions, in accordance with orders.

However, the massacre at Zloczow included women and children, according to reports by German Army officers. That makes it unlikely that this was an official execution ordered by the German Security Police, a conclusion supported by the fact that the Security Police formation in the area, Sonderkommando IVb of Einsatzgruppe C, appears to have had no involvement in it.

Furthermore, the reports by German Army officers indicate that it was Ukrainians who were carrying out the killings of Jews in the Zloczow citadel. My conclusion is that the local Ukrainian population became enraged at the discovery in the citadel of some 900 bodies of their compatriots by the retreating Soviet forces, had rounded up a large number of local Jews, taken them to the citadel, forced them to exhume the bodies, and them began massacring them with whatever came to hand, spades, clubs, grenades.

German soldiers in the town observed what was going on, and some of them joined in, probably in the belief that the Ukrainians were justified in what they were doing to the Jews, under the influence of the discovery of the Ukrainians killed by the retreating Soviets. But the degree of involvement by German soldiers, including members of the Waffen-SS, appears to have been relatively small. For example, Korfes noticed only two members of the Waffen-SS in the citadel, where the killings of Jews were being perpetrated.

That makes it unlikely that the massacre was one ordered by the commanders of the Waffen-SS formation in Zloczow. Furthermore, as of the beginning of July 1941, only the Security Police had the authority to order summary executions of parts of the civilian population; Waffen-SS units only became involved when they were called upon by the Security Police to provide the personnel for executions. Since the local Security Police unit seems not to have been involved in the massacre, it is unlikely that Waffen-SS units in the area had been officially ordered to carry out these killings.

Therefore, any participation by members of the waffen-SS in the killings of Jews in the Zloczow citadel is most likely to have been a result of individual personal initiative rather than of orders by their commanders. As I said, it is entirely possible that the Waffen-SS commanders in the area knew that some of their men had joined the local Ukrainians in carrying out the massacres, but turned a blind eye to it, considering that the killings were justified by the presumed collaboration of local Jews in the killings perpetrated by retreating Soviet forces.

As for whether "Jewish Bolshevism" was a reality or a propaganda-induced perception, it was both. The Jewish population of the Polish provinces annexed by the Soviet Union in October 1939 was, as a group, relatively better treated than other population groups, certainly better than ethnic Poles, and better than Ukrainians once the Soviet authorities had begun repressing any manifestations of Ukrainian nationalism. Although some Jews were persecuted, for examples members of "bourgeois" political parties, the degree of persecution of Jews by the Soviet authorities was markedly less than that of other population groups. In addition, the level of collaboration with the Soviet authorities was relatively high in the Jewish population, and was visible to Ukrainians.

However, it was anti-Jewish propaganda that led to the generalisation of the collaboration of parts of the Jewish population to the whole Jewish population.

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Re: The Wiking Division, The SS-Ahnenerbe and Einsatzgruppe D

#7

Post by Sid Guttridge » 23 Dec 2008, 19:19

Hi Michael,

Thanks for a very complete answer.

What do we have statistically to indicate Jews got off lightly compared with other minority groups? Or is this anecdotal?

Cheers,

Sid.

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Re: The Wiking Division, The SS-Ahnenerbe and Einsatzgruppe D

#8

Post by michael mills » 24 Dec 2008, 08:39

What do we have statistically to indicate Jews got off lightly compared with other minority groups? Or is this anecdotal?
These things are not easy to quantify, and the evidence is partially anecdotal.

But one thing is certain, that of the three major ethnic groups in East Galicia, which was annexed by the Soviet Union in October 1939, namely Ukrainians, Poles, and Jews, the first two were the targets of specific waves of repression by the Soviet authorities, while the third was not, except for individual members of targetd groups, such as "bourgeois" political parties.

The first group targeted for repression consisted of members of the former Polish political structure in the area, eg army officers, policemen, officials, and their families, and those persons were almost all of Polish ethnicity. There was a very definite attempt to eliminate the ethnic Polish elite, which was viewed as the former ruling class and therefore particularly opposed to the new Soviet rule.

At first the ethnic Ukrainian population was favoured by the new Soviet rulers, together with the Jewish population, as the victims of former Polish "tyranny", who had been "liberated" by the Soviet Union. However, after a few months, the Soviet rulers turned against all manifestations of Ukrainian nationalism and separatism, perhaps because Ukrainians had the alternative of going over to the side of Germany, and began a savage repression of Ukrainian national identity, similar to that which had occurred in Soviet Ukraine in the early 1930s.

By contrast there was no wave of repression directed against Jews in East Galicia, perhaps because the Soviet authorities knew that the Jews had no alternative to Soviet rule; obviously they would not turn to Germany. For the same reason, the Soviet authorities could rely on Jewish acceptance of Soviet rule and loyalty to it to a greater extent than on similar acceptance by Poles or Ukrainians.

The decisive factor is not so much the objective reality of the relationship between the Soviet rulers and Jewish subjects, but rather the subjective perception of it by other ethnic groups, particularly by Ukrainians.

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Re: Wiking, Einsatzgruppe C at Zloczow (Zolochiv) Summer 1941

#9

Post by Rob - wssob2 » 24 Dec 2008, 09:51

Hi Michael,
What the report is saying is that at least 300 Ukrainians were shot by the retreating Soviet forces, and at least 300 Jews were shot by Ukrainians and SS.
Thanks for the clarification
The article represents the author's interpetation of events in Zloczow, based on contemporary German records and, apparently, accounts by Jewish survivors of the massacre. Whether his interpetation is justified is open to question.
Certainly, although I’d like to point out that Boll is well-respected historian and former visiting scholar at the USHMM, so his bona fides are good.
The massacre of Jews in Zloczow appears to have been triggered by the execution by the retreating Soviet forces of Ukrainian prisoners held by them. Such hasty executions by the retreating Soviets are well documented, and occurred in a number of places in East Galicia. In the months prior to the German invasion, there had been a massive repression of the Ukrainian population by the Soviet authorities, and a large number of Ukrainians, men, women and children were being held prisoner in a number of jails. When the German invasion began, the Soviet authorities tried to evacuate the prisoners, but where they were unable to do so in time, they simply massacred them, sometimes by shooting, in some cases with explosives.
Some of the more infamous incidents you allude to occurred at L’viv, Tarnapil and Zborov – or least supposedly occurred. The “NKVD massacred people first” argument was used by the Nazi’s in 1941 and as a line of argument surfaced again during the Hamburg Institute for Social Reseach’s controversial photo exhibit during the 1990’s.
The author's conclusion that it was the intervention by members of the Waffen-SS that turned the exhumation of the bodies of the victims of the Soviet executions into a massacre is probably tendentious and unjustified by the evidence. It is more likely that the killings of jews were initiated by local Ukrainians, and members of the Waffen-SS then joined in.
But what evidence do you have to support your argument?
The actions of Wehrmacht officers in putting a stop to the killings of Jews was a continuation of the tradition followed in the First World War, when the German armed forces had suppressed anti-Jewish violence in territories of the Russian Empire occupied by them. The prime motivation was to maintain order, and prevent independent disruptive action by local populations.
Yes and it seems that even in this instance it was the disorder that caused consternation among the Heer officers. It wasn’t so much that Jewish civilians were being killed, but that they were being killed in a disorderly manner in a chaotic situation that also included looting.

In analysing the massacre of Jews perpetrated at Zloczow on 3 and 4 July 1941, one thing that is immediately obvious is that the killings were not in accordance with the pre-invasion orders given to the German Security Police, defining the categories of persons subject to summary execution in captured Soviet territory. As of the beginning of July 1941, the Security Police units following the advancing German forces were still operating according to those pre-invasion orders.
I agree with you up to a point. Yes the Einsatzgruppen were expected to adhere to a standard operating procedure with regards to the search, selection, detainment, and eventual “processing” of certain groups/classes/individuals. But since the beginning of Barbarossa numerous incidents of apparently or seemingly spontaneous harassment/torture/execution occurred multiple times with Heer, SS and indigenous auxiliaries acting as the perpetrators. See The German Army and Genocide for specific examples; another book which documents the spontaneous and similar atrocities that the Wehrmacht committed in the 1939 Polish campaign is Rossino’s Hitler Strikes Poland: Blitzkreig, Ideology & Atrocity.

The orders for summary execution (Sonderbehandlung) included certain groups of Jews among the defined categories, essentially Jews in State and Party positions, and members of the Red Army. Women and children were not included in the categories subject to summary execution, and we know from the reports of Security Police formations in the field that the overwhelming majority of Jews executed in the first weeks of the invasion were men; where women were executed, they were presumably persons in State and Party positions, in accordance with orders.
Again, I agree with you to a point. The “Special Handling” orders, however, don’t account for the spontaneous massacres of individuals, including women and children, that occurred. In addition, Himmler himself widened the targeted populations even from the beginning of the campaign – witness his July 30th order to the SS Cavalry Brigade to “drive the (Jewish) women and children into the swamps” up at the Pripyet Marshes.


However, the massacre at Zloczow included women and children, according to reports by German Army officers. That makes it unlikely that this was an official execution ordered by the German Security Police, a conclusion supported by the fact that the Security Police formation in the area, Sonderkommando IVb of Einsatzgruppe C, appears to have had no involvement in it.
Yes the ad-hoc and bestial nature of the killing seems to imply that the incident was not as “controlled” as the atrocities committed by units such as Sonderkommando IVb. I’m not certain, however, that we can necessarily conclude that members of Sonderkommando IVb didn’t have a hand in instigating or facilitating the massacre.

Interestingly enough, I’ve been recently researching some of the work by Professor Yaroslav Hrytsak and Sol Littman about the Nachtigall Battalion’s activities in the summer of 1941 and based on what I’ve read there is an interesting possibility that the Nachtigall battalion of OUN (Ukrainian nationalist) paramilitaries may have been involved in the Zloczow incident. I’m not saying that’s a definite, but it’s a topic that a Holocaust scholar may want to probe deeper. (It’s also a topic that will cause a lot of umbrage among some Ukrainian “nationalists!”)
Furthermore, the reports by German Army officers indicate that it was Ukrainians who were carrying out the killings of Jews in the Zloczow citadel. My conclusion is that the local Ukrainian population became enraged at the discovery in the citadel of some 900 bodies of their compatriots by the retreating Soviet forces, had rounded up a large number of local Jews, taken them to the citadel, forced them to exhume the bodies, and them began massacring them with whatever came to hand, spades, clubs, grenades.
While not discounting the brutal nature of the Soviet occupation of western Ukraine 1939-41, and not discounting the undoubtedly severe emotional trauma that the local inhabitants must have felt upon discovery of the NKVD victims, it still seems to me that it takes some sort of “spark” to incite and/or permit the locals to engage in a pogrom. That spark may be joining in, or looking away, or providing means (such as the aforementioned hand-grenades) to incite the violence. It’s interesting that in western Ukraine during the opening stages of Barbarossa, multiple “spontaneous” mass killings took place in villages, cities and towns immediately following their occupation by Wehrmacht troops – the massacre at L’viv being perhaps the most infamous example, and another incident in which bodies of NKVD victims were discovered in the local prisons.

Boll also mentions in his PDF essay (in a section I didn’t include in the post) about how these Soviet atrocities – or even rumors of Soviet atrocities – became the justification for Wehrmacht and some Ukrainians to commit mass violence.

I think what’s also interesting is that many of the victims were locals and presumably unaffiliated with the Soviet state apparatus or the NKVD. Call me biased or naïve, but I don’t think that every Ukrainian Jew in 1941 was a dyed-in-the-wool fanatic Communist. However, both Nazi and OUN propaganda at the time certainly portrayed them as such.
German soldiers in the town observed what was going on, and some of them joined in, probably in the belief that the Ukrainians were justified in what they were doing to the Jews, under the influence of the discovery of the Ukrainians killed by the retreating Soviets.
It’s pretty strange though, that individual soldiers of a formation (supposedly) renowned for its discipline and adherence to the orders of their commanders would suddenly act in such a disruptive manner as looting and murder, without the tacit permission or at least the benevolent ignorance of their W-SS officers. Remember that during the RuSHA Case Heinz Karl Fanslau was accused of encouraging, if not downright ordering, the participation of his men in the bakery company in the torture and execution of 50-60 Jewish civilians in the “gauntlet-running” incident.

And based on the amount of alleged incidents that we were able to compile on this thread, it seems that at the opening stages of Barbarossa, individuals, elements and units of SS-Wiking engaged in multiple “wildcatting” incidents of summarily murdering both surrendered Soviet POWs and Ukrainian civilians. If these incidents weren’t explicitly ordered by the division’s unit commanders, there doubtless was some sort of ideological accommodation and/or approval to such actions. As divisional officer Peter Neumann wrote "Liquidations, executions, purges. All these words, synonyms with destruction, seem completely banal and devoid of meaning once one has gotten used to them. ("Masters of Death: The SS Einsatzgruppen and the Invention of the Holocaust" p. 146)
But the degree of involvement by German soldiers, including members of the Waffen-SS, appears to have been relatively small. For example, Korfes noticed only two members of the Waffen-SS in the citadel, where the killings of Jews were being perpetrated.
At least 2, based on what Boll has described in his essay. It would be interesting to dig up a transcription of the units war diary to see what was actually documented.
That makes it unlikely that the massacre was one ordered by the commanders of the Waffen-SS formation in Zloczow.
If there was an order, I doubt it was written down. And I doubt we’ll find a “smoking gun” document signed by Felix Steiner, Wiking’s division commander. But Steiner probably knew what his troops were doing at Zloczow and other places in the western Ukraine and either a) encouraged such behavior or b) ignored it. If he didn’t know that his troops were spontaneously killing surrendered POWs and civilians, especially since as you mention the pre-invasion orders specified that certain units (the Einsatzgruppen) were the only ones authorized to engage in “special handling” actions using a SOP, then he was a pretty clueless commander.

I do have to point out that SS-Wiking certainly wasn’t the only unit that’s been accused of war crimes during the opening stage of Barbarossa. There’s a sordid list of alleged crimes attached to other Heer divisions as well. This is a case were the oft-invoked claim that SS men “were soldiers like the others” take on a radically different meaning.

As for whether "Jewish Bolshevism" was a reality or a propaganda-induced perception, it was both. The Jewish population of the Polish provinces annexed by the Soviet Union in October 1939 was, as a group, relatively better treated than other population groups, certainly better than ethnic Poles, and better than Ukrainians once the Soviet authorities had begun repressing any manifestations of Ukrainian nationalism. Although some Jews were persecuted, for examples members of "bourgeois" political parties, the degree of persecution of Jews by the Soviet authorities was markedly less than that of other population groups.
However "bourgeois Jews" suffered under the 1939-41 Soviet occupation just as much as "bourgeois Ukrainians" and "bourgeois Poles." The Soviets used “class” as opposed to “race” as a yardstick for oppression.
In addition, the level of collaboration with the Soviet authorities was relatively high in the Jewish population, and was visible to Ukrainians.
I dunno how one would quantify “relatively-high” but certainly some elements of the Ukrainian Jewish population welcomed or at least didn’t oppose the Soviet occupation, since they hoped its regime would be more benign to them than the 1919 Ukrainian republic or the Polish 1920 (circa)-1939 administration were.

I believe also that under Soviet rule Ukrainian Jews were permitted roles in the local administration and police forces – something denied to them under Ukrainian and Polish rule. So a Ukrainian Jew gets a job as a village constabulary and suddenly he’s a living symbol of the “Jewish-Bolshevik” menace.
However, it was anti-Jewish propaganda that led to the generalisation of the collaboration of parts of the Jewish population to the whole Jewish population.
Absolutely. And both Nazi and OUN ideology had anti-Semitism as major party platforms, so to speak.

michael mills
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Re: Wiking, Einsatzgruppe C at Zloczow (Zolochiv) Summer 1941

#10

Post by michael mills » 24 Dec 2008, 11:30

So a Ukrainian Jew gets a job as a village constabulary and suddenly he’s a living symbol of the “Jewish-Bolshevik” menace.
But that is precisely how the Ukrainians living in that village would have seen it. Up to 1939, the local constabulary would have consisted of Poles, and would have been regarded by the Ukrainian villagers as part of the Polish oppression. After the Soviet annexation, which was presented in propaganda as a liberation of the Ukrainian population from Polish oppression, and a reunification with their ethnic brethren in Soviet Ukraine, the Polish policemen would have been repalced by both Ukrainians and Jews. Once repression of Ukrainians began, and Ukrainians in the constabulary were weeded out as potentially disloyal, the remaining Jewish constable would then appear as the visible representative of Soviet power in the village, a power that had become increasingly hostile to Ukrainian identity and more repressive. That image, combined with the traditonal hostility between Jews and Ukrainians, would have created the fuel that was set on fire as soon as Soviet rule was overthrown by the invading Germans.
And both Nazi and OUN ideology had anti-Semitism as major party platforms, so to speak
it would be more accurate to say that extreme xenophobia was a major policy platform of the OUN. If you actually examine OUN policies, you will see that the main theme is driving all "enemies" of the Ukrianian people out of all territory claimed as Ukrainian; those enemies include Russians, Poles, Hungarians, Romanians, Jews - and Germans. The "enemies" were non-Ukrainians living on territory claimed as Ukrainian, or non-Ukrainian rulers over a Ukrainian population. Germans were included as "enemies" because of the fairly large ethnic German population living on Ukrainian territory, descendants of 8th century settlers, and regarded by the OUN as having no right to be there.

So OUN hostility was directed not solely directed against Jews; their antipathy toward ethnic Poles living in Ukraine was probably as great as that toward Jews. During the German occupation, there was an alliance of convenience between the Germans and the OUN because of their shared aim of eliminating the Jewish population from Ukrainian territory, but that does not mean that anti-Semitism was the major impetus.

That is the problem with the judeocentric view of history, which isolates the Jew as victim and bundles together all other ethnic and/or social groups which at one time or another were in conflict with Jews and sees them as a single, undifferentiated 'anti-Semitic" group. It takes conflicts between Jews and their neighbours out of the context of a pattern of inter-ethnic conflicts, and ignores conflicts between various non-Jewish groups which may have been equally as intense as the conflict between one of those groups and Jews.
The “NKVD massacred people first” argument was used by the Nazi’s in 1941 and as a line of argument surfaced again during the Hamburg Institute for Social Reseach’s controversial photo exhibit during the 1990’s.
It was not only a line of argument, it happened to be true. The organs of repression of the Soviet state, starting with the Cheka, had been carrying out large-scale killings of "enemies" ever since 1918. In fact, it was the barbaric nature of the Bolshevik regime in Russia, made known in Germany by White refugees, that provided the impetus for the foirmation of extreme-Right groups such as the National Socialists. Furthermore, the extreme anti-Jewish ideology of National Socialism can be traced back to the influence of those White refugees from Russia, who propagated the idea of "Jewish Bolshevism" based on their experience of a highly visible participation by Jews in the Bolshevik Russian regime and its security forces.

Sid Guttridge
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Re: ThWiking, Einsatzgruppe C at Zloczow (Zolochiv) Summer 1941

#11

Post by Sid Guttridge » 24 Dec 2008, 13:59

Hi Michael,

You have presented the anecdotal part, but are there any hard statistics?

You have asserted that Jews got off lightly compared with other minority groups, but as yet no hard evidence of this. Is there any?

It seems perfectly plausible that others had their prejudices against Jews inflamed by such beliefs, but is there any hard evidence of substance to these stories?

If not, we are in danger of perpetuating a historical falsehood here.

Cheers,

Sid.

Artur Szulc
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Re: TWiking, Einsatzgruppe C at Zloczow (Zolochiv) Summer 1941

#12

Post by Artur Szulc » 25 Dec 2008, 00:02

Rob wrote,
However "bourgeois Jews" suffered under the 1939-41 Soviet occupation just as much as "bourgeois Ukrainians" and "bourgeois Poles." The Soviets used “class” as opposed to “race” as a yardstick for oppression.
True.

But then again, plenty of studies show that ethnic poles - no mather what class they belonged to - were targeted by the Soviets more then any other group. So "race" had significance.

But this is off topic, is´nt it?

That ethnic Poles were subjected to discrimination after the Soviet invasion is a fact. For examaple, in the region of the city of Bialystok, were Poles were in majority, the militia consisted of 1 071 whiterussians, 352 russians, 188 jews, 70 poles, 32 ukrainians, 1 tatar.

In the same cities prosecutor oblast the soviets placed 106 persons; 60 whiterussians, 27 russians, 13 jews, 3 ukrainians, 1 pole, 1 tatar.

Source: Marek Wierzbicki, Polacy i bialorusini w zaborze sowieckim. Stosunki polsko-bialoruskie na ziemiach polnocno-wschodnich II RP pod okupacja sowiecka (1939-1941) (Warszawa, 2007).

Cheers,

Chili

Chili

Rob - wssob2
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Re: Wiking, Einsatzgruppe C at Zloczow (Zolochiv) Summer 1941

#13

Post by Rob - wssob2 » 29 Dec 2008, 05:02

Hi everyone - I found some additional pertinient infomation at

http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/sh ... hp?t=15377
Icelanders´Role In The Waffen SS

The reporting from Danish newspaper Berlingske Tidende on Icelanders' role in Nazi attrocitites on the eastern battlefront in Russia during 1941 and later has woken much interest in Iceland.

It is now confirmed that at least three Icelanders were members of the Waffen SS Viking in 1941.

Their names are Sölva K. Friðrikssonar (better known as 'Sölvi the Diver' in the Westman Islands) and Björn Sv. Björnssonar. The third man is known to be Geir Þorsteinsson, who was once managing director of the car dealership Ræsis, hf. These Icelanders are named in the book, "Hitlers Hemmelige Agenter," written by Norwegian historian Tore Pryser and published by Universitetsforlaginu in 2001. The book is undertitled, "The German Spy Service in Norway, 1939-1945." It confirms that Geir worked for the Nazi German spy agency "Meldekopf Suzanne" in Þrándheimi until the end of the war, "previously being a soldier of the highest vigilance in the eastern battlefront," as it says on page 124 of the book.

Berlingske Tidende has also detailed a new book from German historian Hannes Heer, in which he solidly concludes that the Old Norse stormtrooper unit, Waffen SS Viking, had murdered approximately 600 Jews in the city of Ternopol in the Ukraine and all of 3,000 Jews in Zloczow in 1941. Heer is controversial in his homeland but Danish experts say his information is credible.

According to Heer, unit volunteers were exchanged from among the Nordic countries. Most of them were Danish; Norwegians, Swedes and Icelanders were also in the unit. There were many in the Waffen SS Viking, very young and strongly endorsing the Nazi ideology, having proven themselves through their rough and merciless techniques and various crimes.

Corroborating Information

Among those Berlingske interviews is Danish historian Therkel Stræde, one of the best Dansih specialists on the history of Nazis in Denmark. He has previosly discussed the crimes of Waffen SS Viking and corroborrated accounts with information in the writings of Heer, saying they are correct. With Heer comes, among other things, confirmation of the Waffen SS having done many horrors in Zloczow; to begin with, having used axes, broadswords, hand grenades and rifles to take the lives of Jews. It was not until the 295th infantry unit of footsoldiers came onto the scene was the bloodbath stopped, when its superior found enough about the progress of the Waffen-unit. Heer cites, among other things, telegrams from the Fourth Infantry to German Command on July 3, 1941 saying Waffen SS Viking left their campgrounds and refused to co-operate with other divisions. "In the meanwhile some from the unit are off hunting for Jews," as it says in the telegram.

Seven-Year Gap

It has become know in the Icelandic mass media that Björn Sv. Björnsson and Sölvi K. Friðriksson were members of the Waffen SS. Sölvi was actually one of both Totenkopf or Hauskúpusveitum SS and worked as, among other duties, a warden in the notorious Neuengamme concentration camp, where torture and murder was their daily bread.

What is interesting about Geir Þorsteinsson comes from his 1982 "Æviskrám samtíðarmanna" (contemporary biographical dictionary), in which there is an unmittigated seven-year gap in his career starting from 1941, when it is said he completed the first half of an examination in engineering from NTH in Þrándheimi, until 1948, when he took a test in building engineering with the University of Iceland.

Tore Pryser writes that at the end of the war, after Geir fought in the eastern front, he found a position as a scientific assistant in NTH in Þrándheimi. Geir belonged to the spy ring Meldekopf Suzanne and gave reports to Sonderfuher Jaspersen about what he knew about the goings-on of the Norwegian resistance movement.

Here back home in Iceland, Geir became the managing director of the car dealership Ræsis, hf. in 1954. He later held various postions of trust in Bílgrinasambandsins (The Icelandic Federation for Motor Trade and Repairs), and was their head from 1975-1978.
Last edited by Rob - wssob2 on 29 Dec 2008, 05:46, edited 1 time in total.

Rob - wssob2
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Re: Wiking, Einsatzgruppe C at Zloczow (Zolochiv) Summer 1941

#14

Post by Rob - wssob2 » 29 Dec 2008, 05:45

Hi all - I thought this review of Boll's essay, originally posted at
http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=8824

might be pertinient to the discussion at hand...
Bernd Boll takes up Bartov's challenge in a subsequent essay. Boll directly analyzes the most controversial photographs from the exhibit, those from Zloczow in East Galicia. This was a town where the NKVD was active before the Nazi takeover. It was also the location of genocidal war crimes committed on July 3-4, 1941, as Ukrainian militia, the SS, and troops of the Wehrmacht murdered local Jews in one of many pogroms that killed somewhere between twelve and twenty-four thousand Jews across western Ukraine in June and July (pp. 73, 77). The physical location of the Zloczow massacre, an old citadel, had also been the site, prior to July, of a series of NKVD murders, and this fact was used to discredit some of the photographs in the Hamburg exhibit, with critics claiming the photographs used were of NKVD and not Nazi atrocities. In analyzing the actual photographs, Boll acknowledges that some errors took place in the labeling and that some of the exhibit photographs really portrayed victims killed by the NKVD, and that victims of both the NKVD and the Nazis were shown in photographs that emerged from Zloczow in the summer of 1941 (p. 92). Rather than simply accept these errors, however, critics used the existence of inaccuracies in order to question the exhibit's general argument that Wehrmacht involvement in the Holocaust was extensive (p. 92).

Boll decisively rejects this line of argument. He demonstrates that the vast majority of Zloczow photographs shown were accurately represented as those of Jews killed by the Nazis in the two-day pogrom (p. 92). More significantly, he traces the origins of the idea that Jewish victims of the Nazis were actually non-Jewish victims of the NKVD back to Nazi propaganda produced in 1941. The SS manipulated the presentation of the photographs almost immediately after the murders of local Jews took place. It was the Nazi regime and local commanders who claimed that this visual evidence of the killing of Jews actually showed the murder of Ukrainians by Jewish citizens who favored Soviet rule. Such propaganda was designed to encourage the Wehrmacht to murder by connecting the Jewish population with Communist aggression (p. 81).

Boll concludes that criticism of the exhibit, with its particular focus on the potential NKVD link, emerged in Germany not because of any form of Holocaust denial or pro-Nazi sentiment, but rather as an example of current revisionism centered on the Army's role in the Holocaust. Part of this revisionism seeks to end criticism of the army as an institution, but the greater message, for Boll, is the increasing desire to portray regular Germans such as the soldiers of the Wehrmacht not as perpetrators but as victims themselves, thus excluding war crimes committed on orders from above as crimes, moving away from the Nazi past to construct a new national identity in light of reunification (p. 97-98). In addition to Bartov's concern as to how historians should use photographic and other evidence, Boll suggests that we should also be concerned that some evidence might be more susceptible to various "selective readings" than others. In doing so, he offers an introduction to the question of representation and memory that forms the third theme of the book. Frank Biess also contributes to this theme with a significant essay on the subject of the Kameradenschinder trials in postwar West Germany, trials of individuals held in Soviet POW camps who abused their fellow inmates when given positions of authority by the Red Army. By emphasizing the fact that many such trials were held, in contrast to the small number of West German trials of Nazi war criminals, and by underlining the uniqueness and peculiarity of such cases, Biess argues that they can be seen to represent the "displaced, selective and indirect" manner in which West Germany grappled with the transition from Nazism. For Biess, these trials serve as a valuable source for analyzing that transition. He argues that the nature of the evidence considered in these cases can provide historians with lessons about how the West German judiciary interpreted questions closely associated with the Nazi regime and its crimes, such as the question of individual responsibility for war crimes and the role of denunciation in war crimes accusations that emerged after warfare ended (pp. 140, 143, 146). Moreover, in describing the events of the Eastern war in West German courtrooms, these trials did bring details about the Wehrmacht's actions into the public record, although Biess concludes that prosecutors and judges "failed to capitalize" on this aspect of the evidence presented (p. 150).

In summary, Biess argues that the ability to bring this evidence into the public realm, and the inability to exploit it for its fuller truths, represented both the successes and the limitations of the new West German democracy in its transition from Nazism (p. 160).

skander
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Re: Wiking, Einsatzgruppe C at Zloczow (Zolochiv) Summer 194

#15

Post by skander » 12 Jun 2011, 20:10

Is this thread dead? I have read with great interest these different post and the discussion amongst you, also in the "The Wiking Division, The SS-Ahnenerbe and Einsatzgruppe D" thread.

I am working on a documentery involving soldiers from the SS Wiking and have interviewed 4 people who were a part of Wiking when they traveled through Lvov, Zloczow and Tarnopol...

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