Wolyn/Volhynia in World War II

[Somosierra]

http://www.kresy.co.uk/wolyn_ww2.html
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Wolyn/Volhynia in World War II

Soviet Invasion

In 1939 Wolyn was one of the 16 provinces in Poland. It had an area of 35,754 square Km. The population of Wolyn was slightly over two million.

The breakdown is as follows;

Ukrainians
68%

Poles
16.6%

Jews
9.9%

Czechs, Germans, and Russians
5.5%

On September 23 1939 when Soviet tanks entered the Wolynian town of Nowy Dwor, their escort consisted of a infantry unit commanded by a captain riding a stolen horse from it's Polish owner. He then gathered all the Ukrainians in the main square and began a speech.

On this day you have been freed by the Red Army from the yoke of Polish capitalism. This whole wealth accumulated by the bourgeoisie now belongs to you. You must exterminate the bourgeoisie! Your rulers will henceforth be peasants and factory workers. I will make arrangements for you to form police units composed of workers.

This in turn was a signal for all the Ukrainian elements to come out of hiding, the so called police units were composed of the worst dregs of society, they contained murderers, arsonists, crooks, etc;. On the same day this unit along with local Ukrainians attacked the estate of a Polish Nobleman Pomorski, he was arrested, locked in a cell and then deported to Siberia. During this time the Ukrainian mob completely looted his property.

In the spring of 1940 the Soviets formed the first collective farms in the region. Some Poles and Ukrainians who didn't wish to become part of the collective were severely penalised. If no bribes could be produced to the Soviets then two options remained, one was to join the collective and the other was jail.

At this time the first seeds of OUN and UPA nationalism were introduced by Ukrainian agitators in certain Ukrainian villages within Wolyn.

I'm also forced to bring to attention the behaviour of the district's Jews. The Wolynian Jews, who in general had been better off than the Polish gentiles, showed their "gratitude" to the Poles. They (the Jews) enthusiastically welcomed and supported the occupying Soviet powers. They collaborated with the Russian Communists, and generally they themselves sowed the seeds of anti-semitysm in Wolyn.

Wlodzimierz Wolynski on 19/09/1939

In the evening of 19 September 1939 Soviets tanks entered Wlodzimierz Wolynski and after surrounding the Non Commissioned Reserve (Artillery) Officer school, demanded it's surrender. General Smorawinski sent two officers to the Soviet commander Bogumlow with a message that the surrender will take place only if the soldiers can get sent across the river Bog. The proposition was accepted and on it's basis the surrender was accepted. The act of surrender was signed by both sides, under it's agreement the whole garrison with it's equipment is supposed to in the morning of the 20/09/1939 cross the river.

On the 20/09/1939 the whole garrison in a column formation marched out towards Uscigi under the command of Gen, Smorawinski. But in the forest it was stopped and all were informed that due to "international changes all officers are to surrender their arms and as of this moment are classed as prisoners of war". Any forms of defense was futile, because the column was ringed with tanks and the enlisted men were without any arms. The column was turned in the direction of Luck. This was the first of the Soviet lies.

The unarmed Polish soldiers were herded at a very quick tempo towards Luck, the Soviets were assisted in this task by the local police compromised evenly from local Ukrainians and Jews.

German Invasion

June 22 1941, a new and terrible chapter begins for the inhabitants of the Wolyn District. The German Invasion of the Soviet Union has begun and almost immediately the barbaric treatment of the Polish populace begins. The Germans also promised Ukrainians a "Free Ukraine", this hollow promise is eagerly accepted by Stepan Bandera. The German commissioner for the Ukraine tries very hard to persuade the Ukrainians to collaborate with them, a large number of Ukrainians start to wear yellow armbands and spread anti-Polish placards and place posters on walls which say "Ukraine for Ukrainians"

Ukrainian collaborators along with their German masters murder 51 professors and 100 of their students in Lwow on 4th July 1941.

The Germans create a 4000 strong Ukrainian Police unit under the command of Roman Szmulewicz. At the same time Stepan Bandera plans to form a Ukrainian SS Division. Ukrainian youths flock to join the UPA and there is also a very large influx of recruits to the Ukrainian SS being formed by S. Bandera. To be precise over 80.000 Ukrainians volunteered for the 14 SS Grenadier Division.

According to the German view the Ukrainians were labeled as an inferior people. They were also to be used as tools for mass extermination of the Polish population from Wolyn, and reduce the remnant to be the servants of the Germans. The OUN and UPA accepted that task with relish.

More can be read on the UPA and Soviet barbarities in a book "Wolyn Aflame"

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This extract is taken from a book "Habit i Nagan" (A robe and a gun) by Romuald Wiernik, who courteously permitted it's reproduction.

The story that you're about to read is of one frightful night in one Polish household in Wolyn. Similar deeds were perpetrated by the "Banderowcy" in numerous Polish villages in Wolyn and Podole. There are a number of eyewitnesses that managed to survive and publish their memoirs.

Night came to Ostrogi, dark, cold and without stars. The whole town was covered with a strange silence and it looked like there was no one alive. Whom ever thought that would be wrong. In hundreds of houses people were hiding, holding their breaths. They were waiting and listening if the fallen snow would give warnings that some one was coming, if by chance the clink of metal would signal the coming of armed men. They were listening for the sounds of guns, who yesterday they heard firing a distance away. But all was quiet. War, which somewhere in the East was being bloodily fought, which painted the white snow with the blood of dying men, and their dying breath was strangely quiet. Two days the last unit of "AK*" departed for the forests leaving them defenceless. The unarmed people of the towns demoralised by two occupying powers were in the mercy of local bands of murderers, who killed and burned the local towns.

In the large house of the Mirski family, which was in the vicinity of Tatarska Brama, fore a number of families, friends from local villages and neighbours, who were afraid to spend the nights alone, and those who escaped from the local villages to get away from the Ukrainian killings. On the matteraces on the floor slept a dozen children. They didn't know of the dangerous situation. The adults were all in the kitchen, they were afraid to get undressed and go to bed. Banderowcy mainly attacked at night. Some of them were asleep on the floor leaning against the walls of the kitchen, the remainder were sitting around the kitchen table. It was very cramped in the kitchen. They all started to say their prayers, when Mr Mirski said ' snow is squeaking, they are coming'. Marysia his daughter looked out of the window and couldn't see anything,' your dreaming dad go back to sleep'.

No sooner than she said that, then the front doors were thrown of their hinges and fell to the floor

'Smert Lacham*' 'Smert, Smert', shouted a number of men as they all rushed into the house

Those in the kitchen didn't even have time to get to their feet. Only Mirski had time to grab hold of the pitch fork that he brought to the house, to late, he was pounced upon by a number of them, before he even had the time to use it he was hit by a number of axes. The second person to die was his wife. On her grey head fell an axe wielded by Myron who used to help her with chopping wood for the winter. She fell face down on the table, she didn't even have time to scream.

Soon the only thing that could be heard was the deep breathing of the attackers and swearing by the doors that were locked and couldn't be forced to the remainder of the house. In time even they gave in. In a few corners of the house could be heard the dull thud of an axe as it finished of the remaining adults. All of a sudden all was quiet, it looked as no one was left alive, then a frightened scream from Marysia was heard

"Don't kill the children, God will never forgive you for this"

The attackers were rooted to the spot, they were shocked by what they saw. By the doors to the dining room holding a pitch fork in her hands which she took from the dead hands of her father, stood covered in blood a girl. Her eyes showed hate, as to the extent that some of the attackers felt goose bumps on their backs. First to compose himself was Mykola, commander of "Kuszowego Widdilu".

Take the lachy bi***, he barked his order, but as some of the men rushed towards her. Marysia managed to escape to the dining room and close the doors behind her. She closed the door and placed a chair to support the doors.

The children woken up were crying, Marysia broke the windows.

"Run - she started to scream at them - Run"

The men on the other side of the door heard the breaking glass and some of them rushed outside, those in the kitchen started hurriedly to hit the door with their axes. Marysia didn't have an inkling to surrender. She struck the first one that came in through the window. He didn't expect that and fell back out onto the snow screaming with pain.

Marysia didn't wait, she broke the remaining windows, and pushed through them the two oldest children. Others couldn't get out, she then jumped outside and leaning through the window tried to get the smallest ones out. In the mean time the doors to the kitchen were destroyed by the axe men. Few men run into the kitchen. They started to cut with axes and thrust with their pitchforks. The screams of the dying children took the heart from Marysia. She panicked and started to run,as far as possible from that terrible place. Chasing her were the last screams of Zosia, grand daughter of Gorski family. The Ukrainians saw her as she sat with her knees drawn under her chin in the darkest corner of the room. That didn't save her, she died from stab wounds of the asailants pitchforks.

One of the men took a candle and started to look around the room, they couldn't find the body of Marysia so they went searching outside. In the fruit garden behind the pear tree they fund Janek, grandson of the Mirski family. He was shivering from cold and from fright. His pleading eyes looked with pity towards them and begged for mercy. He didn't understand what was happening, why did Marysia told him to run from the warm house into the freezing garden. He looked with eyes wide open at the men that were gathering around him in a circle, and saw how they were raising their pitch forks. He was surprised that they wanted to hurt him. He had never seen any of them before and whenever he came home through the fields he never did any harm to the Ukrainian wheat fields. Why did they want to hurt him? The men didn't have the time to ask. Stepan with one quick hit of an axe split the boy's skull in two, two of his accomplices thrust him with their pitchforks, just for good measure. They were going after Marysia. They wanted to "play" with her, she was pretty, and then they'd cut her throat, slowly so that she could feel the knife until she died. Moments later they came upon Zosia Makowska. She didn't even have the time to scream, when Taras thrust his pitchfork into her.

The sky started to get lighter, and soon the first rays of the morning sun came through. On a gothic Cerkiew the crosses were seen to shine in the morning sunshine. Ukrainians knew that the time of killing was over, it was time to go home to their wives and children. They were mad as they couldn't catch the girl. Stepan swore, he was mad, whole night he "fought" for the independent Ukraine and chasing that girl proved fruitless. In the meantime those who stayed in the houses took all the possessions of the slain. To late, he must go home with empty hands.

When the men of the neighbouring village came to the house there were puddles of blood that had frozen on the ground and the bodies of the children were laid out in a circle around the table like a wreath.

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This will explain all the items that have been marked with an asterix and other abriviations used within this site.

Lachy - Ukrainian term for Poles

Smert - Death (to)

AK - Armia Krajowa (Home Army)

UPA - Ukrainskaja Powstancza Armija/Ukrainian Insurgent Army

OUN - Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists

Banderowcy - Ukrainian Nationalists, name is derived from their leader Stepan Bandera

Destroyed by UPA/OUN/Banderowcy - The whole village was destroyed and 99.9 of the Polish polulace slain (men, women and children), in most cases the homes were burned and the livestock stolen along with the contents of the houses before burning them.

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Commemorative Plaque in the memory of murdered inhabitants of Wolyn and Polesie

[michael mills]

Somosierra wrote:

I'm also forced to bring to attention the behaviour of the district's Jews. The Wolynian Jews, who in general had been better off than the Polish gentiles, showed their "gratitude" to the Poles. They (the Jews) enthusiastically welcomed and supported the occupying Soviet powers. They collaborated with the Russian Communists, and generally they themselves sowed the seeds of anti-semitysm in Wolyn.

A fair statement, Somosierra. There was a lot of Jewish collaboration with the Soviet occupiers, and it was noticed by Polish observers. Jan Kozielewski (alias Karski), in his first reort of 1940 to the Polish Government-in-Exile in Angers, predicted that the Poles would take a "bloody revenge" on the Jewish collaborators, and he was right; at places like Jedwabne, local Polish villagers lynched their Jewish neighbours as soon as the Soviet authorities fled in the face of the German invasion of 1941.

But Somosierra, I note that you take a negative attitude toward both Germans and Jews. That was a typical stance of the Polish-chauvinist National Democratic Party (Endecja) of Roman Dmowski. Do you perhaps have Endecja connections?

And I would also like to know whether Davey Boy, Benoit Douville and Witness endorse your statement.

As for the Ukrainian uprising in Volynia, that was entirely a matter of the Ukrainian nationalists, and the German occupiers had nothing to do with it. Because the German occupation forces were very thin on the ground, they could not fight the Ukrainian nationalists and Communist paretisans at the same time. However, the German authorities gave assistance to the ethnic Polish population wherever they could, and survivor accounts that I have read show that terrorised Poles fled to the nearest German garrisons where they were protected.

In the Reichkommissariat Ukraine, of which Volynia formed part, the German occupation authorities did not favour the Ukrainian population over the Polish to any marked extent, and certainly did not target the ethnic Polish population for particular persecution. That is a myth propagated by Polish chauvinists.

It is however certainly true that in the 1939-1941 period, the Soviet occupiers favoured Ukrainians at the expense of ethnic Poles. Nevertheless, the Soviets savagely repressed Ukrainian nationalists, and massacred them before they retreated in 1941.

In Belorussia, according to the book "Kalkulierte Morde" by the German leftist historian Christian Gerlach, the ethnic Polish population tended to welcome the incoming Germans in 1941 as liberators from Soviet oppression, and was favoured by the German occupiers.

[Dan]

Here's something related about the ethnic make up of the Polish east.

http://fpp.co.uk/Letters/History_03/Shipilov030303.html

[Somosierra]

michael mills,

I do know who you are…

You are an artful, little fox…

You perfectly mix facts with lies – excellent school of “Great-Teachers-of-Propaganda”…

And you will not provoke me to discuss so-called the Jedwabne case… - Marcus is watching…



Photograph 3. Leontyna Wadas, wife of Stanislaw with children, on a chair Ryszard Andrzej, godson of Marshal of Poland Edward Smigly-Rydz.

All murdered by band of UPA February 4, 1944 r. in the church in Lanowice.


Here went “soldiers” of UPA…



Photograph 10. Bodies of slaughter Poles in Lipniki after attack of a band of UPA.

[Somosierra]

http://www.walczewski.pl/english/wolyn/index.htm
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Today Volhynia




Beresteczko, interior of St. Trinity Church.



Czartorysk - Dominican baroque Church



Beresteczko - statue at cemetery.






______________
APOCALYPSIS IOANNIS 21, 8:
--
Timidis autem et incredulis et exsecratis et homicidis et fornicatoribus et veneficis et idololatris et omnibus mendacibus, pars illorum erit in stagno ardenti igne et sulphure, quod est mors secunda.

[michael mills]

Somosierra wrote:

You perfectly mix facts with lies – excellent school of “Great-Teachers-of-Propaganda

An extreme accusation, Somosierra. I challenge you to demonstrate that any of the statements I made in my post were falsehoods.

[Roberto]

In Belorussia, according to the book "Kalkulierte Morde" by the German leftist historian Christian Gerlach, the ethnic Polish population tended to welcome the incoming Germans in 1941 as liberators from Soviet oppression, and was favoured by the German occupiers.

What follows is my translation from pages 1060 and following of Gerlach’s Kalkulierte Morde.

10.2 The Persecution of the Polish Intelligentsia

Within the scope of its so-called Volkstumspolitik (ethnic policy) the NS state was hostile to the Polish population, especially the Polish leading class. In the western parts of Belorussia, which until September 1939 had belonged to the Polish state, there was a strong Polish minority. The Poles concentrated in the cities, where they mostly made up the majority and held many administrative posts. The question how the occupying power was to behave towards them, especially if they were to be treated worse than the Belorussians or fought against, was basically not decided during the whole period of German occupation, despite repeated actions of persecution and murder. The dispute was about the question what was considered more important: the political goal of repressing and harming the allegedly especially anti-German Poles or the consideration of using them to the advantage of the country’s stability and its economic exploitation, especially as leaders in community administration and factories. Also here the fronts did not run clearly in accordance with the institutions – SS on one side, civilian administration and Wehrmacht on the other – but across the institutions, often depending on the momentary tactical situation. All this happened before the background of a constant power struggle, partially even a small war between Belorussian and Polish national groups for supremacy in administration and police on a local level, which had recently been revealed by Bernhard Chiari.
Heydrich had on 1 July 1941 ordered the Einsatzgruppen that extermination actions were “to be extended primarily to the Bolsheviks and the Jews”, while “in regard to the Polish intelligentsia […] word will follow later”. It was said that the Poles were anti-Semitic and anti-Communist and that this must be taken advantage of. In a similar direction went an order by General v. Schenkendorff (he even called for “most sparing treatment”), which also Bach-Zelewski transmitted to the SS – and police units without protesting. Against this there was the attitude of other commanders, who in part seemed dissatisfied with the actions of their troops and wanted to incite them to anti-Polish actions. The Einsatzgruppen reported on alleged danger from Polish nationalists, called for actions against them and carried out such actions on some occasions still in 1941. But an overall instruction for persecution measures from Berlin the police forces don’t seem to have had. The civilian administration, responsible for the whole of western Belorussia since 1 September 1941, was of two minds. General Commissar Kube, who – an important political aspect – wanted to keep his Belorussian clientele satisfied, in the absence of other possibilities, with political paroles and posts in the auxiliary administration at the expense of the Poles, favored a tougher approach than the Reich Commissariat in Riga, which ordered merely a “sharper political supervision” but otherwise the same treatment as was given to the Belorussians.
In 1942 the anti-Polish proceeding became noticeably tougher. At the requirement of a coalition of the General Commissariat White Ruthenia, Wehrmacht, SS, police and most regional commissars, the Poles were systematically removed from leadership positions in administration and economy, which was often not possible, however, due to the difficulty of finding replacements. The region of Lida constituted an exception to the removal policy. Poles were preferentially sent to Germany for forced labor. Furthermore members of the Baranovichi delegation of the Commander of Security Police and SD in the summer arrested numerous members of the Polish leadership and murdered about 1,000. The number in the whole General Commissariat White Ruthenia cannot have been higher. A part of the leadership in the Regional Commissariat White Ruthenia considered this “Polish action” as “devastating” and sharply criticized the Commander of Security Police and SD Minsk, Strauch. Strauch, on the other hand, felt himself vindicated by a later decree of the Eastern Ministry ordering further sharp measures against Poles. They were defined as an enemy people, even though “the Polish problem […]” could “for obvious reasons not be given a definitive solution during the war”. In 1943 and 1944 the arrests and shootings by security police and SD continued locally, but the balance tender towards valuing the stronger loyalty of the Polish population segment towards the Germans and its allegedly better work performance higher than political reservations. While Kube had to be reminded by agriculture functionary Küper as late as the summer of 1943 that the work of 400,000 Polish laborers in the Regional Commissariat White Ruthenia could not be done without, his successor v. Gottberg soon thereafter recognized this himself. While the respective forces in the civilian administration could not always impose themselves, this eventually happened to a great extent, as the example of the constitution of armed villages in the areas of Lida and Slonim [where, as described on pages 1052 and following of the same book, Caucasian collaborators were settled at the expense of the Belorussian rather than the Polish peasantry, translator’s note] and the supporting of Polish partisans [related to the fact that they fought mostly against Soviet partisans rather than the Germans, as mentioned on page 1054 of the book, translator’s note] has shown.
The procedure of fighting the Polish intelligentsia corresponded to the general economic and social German occupation concept in Belorussia of not allowing the constitution of a new leading class, as is especially shown by the German agrarian reform (chapter 4.5). The primary target of persecution was the Polish urban intelligentsia; the number thereof murdered in Belorussia is likely to have been between 2,000 and 3,000. The Polish farm owners mostly remained in their positions as administrators in the service of the Landbewirtschaftungsgesellschaft Ostland [Agriculture Company Eastern Territories), see chapter 4.4d. Thus the German policy regarding Poles in Belorussia was not in all respects – and insofar as it was, to a diminishing degree – in contradiction with the economic interests of the NS state.

[Somosierra]

I will answer soon…

Regards,
Somosierra.

[Somosierra]

All of them were involved…





An emblem of slayers.







IN MEMORY OF POLES MURDERED IN OVER 2000 TOWNS AND VILIGES OF VOLHYNIA AND SOUTH-EASTERN POLAND IN YEARS 1939-1947 BY UKRAINIAN NATIONALISTS OUN-UPA WITH A PRAY MAY NATIONALISM SHALL NOT GUIDE TO CRIME

CO-PATRIOTS ANNO DOMINI 1999

(The Warsaw Basilica, May, 21 1999)
_________________
APOCALYPSIS IOANNIS 21, 8:
--
Timidis autem et incredulis et exsecratis et homicidis et fornicatoribus et veneficis et idololatris et omnibus mendacibus, pars illorum erit in stagno ardenti igne et sulphure, quod est mors secunda.

[Benoit Douville]

Somosierra,

Your last pictures is Bishop Josephat Kotsylovsky and also the insigna of the 14 SS Grenadier Division. This last unit is a quite interesting unit to study although they may have commit murders against Poles but I will have to research because I am not sure.

Regards

[Kokampf]

Your last pictures is Bishop Josephat Kotsylovsky and also the insigna of the 14 SS Grenadier Division. This last unit is a quite interesting unit to study although they may have commit murders against Poles but I will have to research because I am not sure.

From

http://www.ukar.org/60minart.shtml

No specific allegations have ever been made to stick against the unit. They were the object of a flurry of accusations by Communist authorities relating to events and locations where, in many cases, the unit was not only not present or even from before the Division was formed! The USSR, of course, had a very obvious interest in blackening the reputation of all anti-Soviet volunteers from Soviet subject populations...

Even though both Canada and the U.S. have Nazi-hunting units within their respective Justice Departments, not a single member of the Division has ever been convicted of any war crime and none has ever been charged. The absence of evidence of any wrongdoing not only of the Division as a whole, but also of any member of the Division, during his membership in the Division or before or after, is widely recognized. Judge Jules Deschênes, heading Canada's Commission of Inquiry on War Criminals, concluded that:

The members of the Galicia Division were individually screened for security purposes before admission to Canada. Charges of war crimes against members of the Galicia Division have never been substantiated, neither in 1950 when they were first preferred, nor in 1984 when they were renewed, nor before this Commission. ... In the absence of evidence of participation in or knowledge of specific war crimes, mere membership in the Galicia Division is insufficient to justify prosecution. (Jules Deschênes, Commission of Inquiry on War Criminals, 1986, p. 12)

Judge Deschênes cites a 1947 report of a British Screening Commission which was filed just prior to the Galicia Division being moved from Italy to Britain (note that these are the words of the 1947 British Screening Commission, not of Judge Deschênes):

They probably were not, and certainly do not now seem to be at heart pro-German, and the fact that they did give aid and comfort to the Germans can fairly be considered to have been incidental and not fundamental. (in Jules Deschênes, Commission of Inquiry on War Criminals, 1986, p. 253)

A 1950 British Foreign Office report to the Canadian Department of External Affairs concerning the Galicia Division was also cited by Judge Deschênes (note that these are the words of the 1950 British Foreign Office, not of Judge Deschênes):

While in Italy these men were screened by Soviet and British missions and neither then nor subsequently has any evidence been brought to light which would suggest that any of them fought against the Western Allies or engaged in crimes against humanity. Their behaviour since they came to this country has been good and they have never indicated in any way that they are infected with any trace of Nazi ideology. ... From the reports of the special mission set up by the War Office to screen these men, it seems clear that they volunteered to fight against the Red Army from nationalistic motives which were given greater impetus by the behaviour of the Soviet authorities during their earlier occupation of the Western Ukraine after the Nazi-Soviet Pact. Although Communist propaganda has constantly attempted to depict these, like so many other refugees, as "quislings" and "war criminals" it is interesting to note that no specific charges of war crimes have been made by the Soviet or any other Government against any members of this group. (in Jules Deschênes, Commission of Inquiry on War Criminals, 1986, p. 252)

Judge Deschênes concludes:

It is an acknowledged fact that the members of the Division were volunteers who had enlisted in the spring and summer of 1943, essentially to combat the "Bolsheviks"; indeed, they were never used against Western allies. (Jules Deschênes, Commission of Inquiry on War Criminals, 1986, p. 255)

[Roberto]

Your last pictures is Bishop Josephat Kotsylovsky and also the insigna of the 14 SS Grenadier Division. This last unit is a quite interesting unit to study although they may have commit murders against Poles but I will have to research because I am not sure.

From

http://www.ukar.org/60minart.shtml

Not to say that they are necessarily wrong about the 14 SS Grenadier Division, but do you consider the "Ukrainian Archive" an impartial and reliable source ?

Have a close look at their main page, and at what's behind some of the links there.

http://www.ukar.org/

Cheers,

Roberto

[Kokampf]

Not to say that they are necessarily wrong about the 14 SS Grenadier Division, but do you consider the "Ukrainian Archive" an impartial and reliable source ?

Not in general (he clearly has an enormous chip on his shoulder), but the information in that article on the subject of 'Galizia' accords with what I've read from non-Polish and non-Ukrainian sources and is rich in relevant quotations.

For balance, here are the current Polish allegations against the unit:

http://www.warsawvoice.pl/old/v643/News05.html

The 'meat' of the case, beyond charges against other formations whose personnel later ended up in 'Galizia', is:

Members of the division are also suspected of having murdered some 800 residents of the village of Huta Pieniacka and 44 civilians in the village of Chłaniów.

Looking at the division's operational history, some of its troops certainly served on anti-partisan duty from Feb 15th to March 27th of 1944 as Kampfgruppe Beyersdorff in Volyn and Polissa (source - wssob.com).

Obviously more research needs to be done on this one, but at present this Division appears largely 'clean' by default, like Wiking for instance.

[Dan]

who is actually chauvinist!?!

Without Poland and the straggle of the entire Polish nation the WWII would be completely lost and than Adolf Hitler becomes master of the World and you do know that michael mills!

[David Thompson]

Somosierra -- I love your informative and first-rate posts, and respect your nationalistic pride. I hope you will continue to educate our readers for the foreseeable future. But please don't post ghastly pictures like that (bundle of murdered children tied by a rope to a telegraph pole like some horrid bouquet of flowers; posted before, but once was enough). Most educated people know that Poland has suffered through centuries of oppression. A photograph like that is not necessary to make the point. This world is bad enough without pictures of murdered babies displayed like that. Because the children are not only dead, but appear to be the worse for wear, in accordance with posted forum guidelines (see policy on atrocity photographs at http://www.thirdreichforum.com/phpBB2/v ... 35d3543f25) I've deleted the picture and reproduced the text of your post in full below. Please excuse me. I hope you understand my reasoning.