Talk:Huta Pieniacka massacre

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A fact from Huta Pieniacka massacre appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know? column on 26 April 2008.

This article is about the massacre. Huta Pieniacka is about the place.Xx236 11:01, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Ukrainian divisions

The more I read the more tangled everything becomes. It seems that there was a large number of "Ukrainian" divisions in the German army, many with similar names. Some were combined together for short periods of time, then separated. Some had name changes. The same is true looking at the UPA. No wonder there is such confusion,as there is no lists or histories for all these hundreds of groups which could help sort out everything. Bandurist (talk) 15:02, 26 April 2008 (UTC)

World War Two in Eastern Europe is very complicated indeed. But I have doubts if the section Other information should belong here. Fate of the Ukrainian SS Division, with its losses in the Soviet attack as well as height of soldiers simply does not belong to the article. Tymek (talk) 16:40, 26 April 2008 (UTC)

I see where you are coming from, however could we agree for it to remain for a short period. I just want to see what it will bring in.

From what I am beginning to piece together a detachment from the SS Galizien division was there for a number of weeks helping out policing the area and then returned for training and it seemed that it was not involved in the massacre.

However in the same region there was a Police unit "Schutzmanschaftbattalion" also labelled Galizien (Number 4 Galizische - Frewillige Regiment) made made up of raw recruits of Ukrainian ethnicity who were not accepted into the SS Galizien division (mainly because of height but possibly other reasons as well) although they probably really wanted to be in it. This is the group which seems to have been involved in the massacre, and which was ultimately wiped out by the Soviets.

I feel that the two groups have somehow been mixed up, however this is still just OR at the present moment. I'm still looking for hard evidence. It would however explain the statements from both sides - that the soldiers were in the Galizien group, were Ukrainian from the Polsih side and that the SS Galizien group was not directly involved from the Ukrainian side. It requires a lot of cross referencing etc. Bandurist (talk) 17:02, 26 April 2008 (UTC)

Bandurist, this chapter Other information is very interesting and encyclopedic, but it simply does not fit with the topic. Anyway, this is your effort, you took your time, this is your work and I will not remove it. I am just awaiting opinions of other contributors. Tymek (talk) 17:14, 26 April 2008 (UTC)

I have removed the section and placed it below for the time being. I am compiling info here on all the military units in order to sort out everything. Please be free to make contributions. Bandurist (talk) 17:45, 26 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Other information

According to Chuyev H. Himmler ordered on July 5, 1943 the formation of 5 regiments - Number 4-8 Galizische - Frewillige Regiment. According to some documents these regiments were Police battalions. These regiments were trained in German police methods. The command was made up of German Volksdeutsch from Slovakia although medical and clerical positions were Ukrainian. The regiment was placed in the absurd position of keeping the peace between the police divisions and the SS. Youths who were not suitable to serve in the SS battalions, being between 160-164 cm of height were recruited. According to Chuyev most of the combatants were "raw material" and did not have any military training. 90% of the volunteers had just turned 18 years of age^[1]. .

The 4th regiment (which on January 4, 1944 became known as the 204th Ukrainian Police battalion) was commanded by Major Bintz and was stationed in the region of Zolochiv, Brody, Radekhiv and Zbarazh. The regiment had huge losses during the Soviet attack durintg the Lviv-Sandomir operation. The regiment was in the centre of the attack by the Soviet tanks in the region of Zbarazh. During the battle over 100 soldiers died.

The weekly publication of the Polish Home Army – the Biuletyn Ziemi Czerwienskiej (Land of Czerwien Bulletin) for 26 March 1944 (№ 12) stated that during the Battle at Pidkamene and Brody, Soviet forces took a couple of hundred soldiers of the SS Galizien division prisoner. All were immediately shot in the Zbarazh castle on the basis that two weeks earlier that had apparently taken part in the killing of the Polish inhabitants of Huta Pienacka, and as a result could not be catagorized as POW’s [216, p. 8].