Polish-Ukrainian collaboration in Auschwitz

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Władysław Fajkiel was the head of the (eventually 1200-bed) hospital in Auschwitz I.

We were also concerned about the behavior of the sick Banderites in our ward. In general, several dozen of them were in the camp, and some stayed as patients in our block. Among the Ukrainian prisoners was the full composition of the Ukrainian nationalist "government," headed by the "prime minister" Bandera and a large group of activists.
…
They were surrounded by universal hatred and contempt of almost the entire camp because everyone knew that they had thousands of murdered innocent people on their conscience. For these reasons, even in the hospital ward, fellow prisoners could not hide their animosity towards them. Nevertheless, we doctors tried to treat them as correctly as possible.

The camp authorities pretended that the entire Bandera group enjoyed a certain privilege, and they, making up for it, eagerly emphasized that they were prisoners of honor (Ehrenhäftlinge).
Indeed, they were not shot or gassed, they were free from some harassment, but that was where their privileges ended. In the camp, they lived in a separate block, and in the hospital, they had a separate room in the infectious disease ward.
...
Personally, I treated them tactfully, not wanting to worsen an already lousy atmosphere, which could be dangerous for the entire hospital. It didn't come easy to me. After all, I knew that my best friends from Lwów fell victim to their chauvinism.
...
Our relations with the Banderites deteriorated further, and tensions rose to a climax when one-day drunken Unterscharführer Klehr entered their room (probably by mistake) and wanted to pick some of them "for the phenolic pin." They assumed it was our job.
From that moment, reports and complaints about us to the Gestapo poured in. Then I realized that things were bad. It was necessary to act and somehow change the atmosphere.

For this purpose, I went to the camp block where the Banderites lived. I walked into the room, introduced myself, and said I'd like to speak to someone who represented their group. Then several individuals, whom the others called ministers, approached me. When I told them that I wanted to discuss the matters of their patients under my care, they replied that they would not discuss these topics with a Pole. They are honorary prisoners, they are under the commandant's care, and that is quite enough for them.

I pointed out to them that a life of mutual hatred would have a detrimental effect on us as well as on them, and the care of the commandant's office was not always enough to survive the camp.
I mentioned in passing that their "minister," Józef Bandera (brother of the "prime minister"), was also under the care of the commandant's office, but this did not ensure his safety because, as we know, one day, someone knocked him off the scaffolding at a construction site into a pit with lime, in which this honorary prisoner and even the "deputy prime minister" boiled over.
I added that for the duration of their stay in the camp, we are ready - for peace of mind - not to take any unfriendly steps against their group, but on condition that they also give up unjustified complaints and denunciations.

My speech was risky. I became even more concerned when I saw that it had by no means the intended effect.

At that moment, a happy accident came to my aid. A tall black prisoner jumped down from a third-story bed, approached me, and began to greet me cordially. At first, I couldn't recognize him. After a while, I remembered that it was Michał Szewczuk, my old university friend from Lviv. Szewczuk interrupted the unpleasant and tense discussion and announced that he would visit me in the evening.

Indeed, that same day he came with several colleagues who apologized to me for the unpleasant reception, declared that they had confidence in me, and promised that in the future, they would behave loyally and ask for continued care of their patients. I took their statement seriously, glad that the danger could be averted in this way.

I assigned a tactful Pole (Dr. Tadeusz Szymański) to them, and I stabilized Michał Szewczuk and Leon Mostowycz (Bandera's adjutant) as nurses in the hospital.

Since then, relations have changed quite fundamentally. It even got to the point that, in many cases, they warned me about some unfavorable intentions of the Gestapo towards the hospital - until the end of the stay in the camp (I must admit that after the evacuation of the Auschwitz camp, Szewczuk and Mostowycz helped a group of Poles in the Ebensee camp).
Since we had been convinced that the Banderites kept the treaty's terms, we also tried to deal with them loyally.
Medycyna za drutami by Władysław Fajkiel

[Ponury]

And this is not a mistake? Stefan Bandera was detained in the Sachsenhausen camp. He never came to Auschwitz. Maybe it's about his brothers? However, none of them was called Jozef Bandera?!

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Dr. Fajkiel wasn't a historian; he mostly recorded his own observations.
Even the "boiled-over" story probably isn't entirely correct. That it was one of the countless Auschwitz rumors or he misremembered it was probable.