Lviv Civilian Massacre (1941)

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It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Nachtigall Battalion. (Discuss)

It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Lviv pogroms. (Discuss)

It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Roman Shukhevych. (Discuss)

In June-July 1941 it is estimated that between 4,000-7,000 East-European civilians, some of whom were Jews, were murdered in Lviv (Lvov) in Western Ukraine.

Much confusion has arisen because of the mixing two separate, but related tragedies:

• 1) The massacre of an estimated 4,000-8,000 civilian prisoners in the Lviv prisons by the Soviet Security forces (NKVD) immediately prior to the Soviet retreat;

• 2) The ethnic pogroms (primarily anti-semitic) that were instigated and encouraged by the Nazi administration (under the guise of an act of retribution) that took place immediately after occupation of Lviv by the German forces.

Controversy exists regarding the dates in which these atrocities took place, the numbers affected and the sources of information. The confusion is amplified by the political goals and needs of parties involved.

Controversy and confusion has arisen numerous times from a variety sources as to the involvement of prominent political and historic figures and groups such as Theodor Oberländer, Roman Shukhevych and the Nachtigall Battalion in the Lviv civilian massacre.

Contents 1 Preamble 2 Initial investigation and the Nuremberg Trials (1945-6) 2.1 Allegations of 1959 2.2 Review of investigation by De Zayas (1979) 3 Contemporary Russian sources 4 Polish Allegations (1998) 5 Jewish allegations 6 Recent events regarding allegations 6.1 President Yushchenko's visit to Israel 6.2 Ukrainian Security Services Archives 6.3 Visit to Yad Vashem 7 References

[edit] Preamble

Prior to WWII there were 110 thousand Jews approximately 32% of the population, in the Western Ukrainian city of Lviv. The Polish population of the city was 131 thousand (51%) and the Ukrainian s 13 thousand (14%)^[1].

Lviv was an urban enclave with a Polish administration surrounded by a rural Ukrainian population. The ethnic Ukrainian population before the war however, were not allowed administrative positions, to prestigious positions of authority and few were allowed a complete tertiary education.

Altogether before WWII, over 3 million Jews lived in Galicia, an estimated 20% of world Jewry. (In 1887 it was an estimated 30%). It is in Ukraine that the Hasidic movement was founded, Yiddish literature flowered, and a wealth of Jewish historic thought, writers, artists and scientists had their birth. It is also the place of countless monuments to Jewish religious culture. Despite the tragedies of the 20th century, the Jewish diaspora there continues to be the 5th largest in the world.

In 1939 the Soviet Union annexed Western Ukraine. Under Soviet administration the number of Ukrainian schools in western Ukraine grew from 371 to 5536 and Jewish schools from 23 to 103. Of the 7000 Polish schools, only 984 (1940) remained^[2].

The ethnic makeup of the city of Lviv differed considerably from the ethnic and national make up of Galicia. Before the War there were: 4 257 thousand (73.2%) Ukrainians, 984 thousand (16.2%) Poles, and 570 thousand (9.9%) Jews^[3].

The Jewish population of Lviv were involved primarily in trade: tailors, hat makers, jewelers, opticians. 80% of the tailors, and 70% of the barbers were Jewish In 1921 74.1% of merchants were Jewish. 1150 of the 1700 practicing doctors, 41% of theatre workers, 43% of dentists, 45% of nurses. 2200 lawyers (in comparison 450 lawyers were Ukrainian)^[4].

Regarding language use in 1900, 76% of Galician Jews spoke Polish, 17% German, and only 5% spoke Ukrainian^[5].

[edit] Initial investigation and the Nuremberg Trials (1945-6)

The examination of the organized mass extermination of civilian in the first days of the German Occupation of Ukraine started immediately after WWII. The Soviets formed a special commission to examine the crimes specifically and to name the culprits. The Commission published its finding in Kyiv in 1945^[6].

The Soviets were specific in naming the all the culprits and organizers. They included the Governor General of Poland Hans Frank, the Major General of the Police Liasch, the governor of Galicia Wechter, the head of the police Katzman, SS Hauptsturmführer Gebauer, SS Hauptsturmführer Wahrtzok, SS Obersturmfuhrer Wilhaus, SS Leutnant Schonbach, SS Oberleutnant Siller, SS Scharführer Reis, SS Sturmbannführer Weske, SS Obersturmführer Rokita, Urman, Schutz, SS Oberleutnant Vekne, SS Scharführer Gainisch, SS Hauptsturmführer Gzhimik, SD Scharführer Preis, the head of the Death Brigade Eifel, Captain Blut, Major Sidoren, Major Roch, Oberfeldwebel Miller, Per, the komissars for Jewish matters Engel, Zeis, Ukvart, Leonard, SS Scharführers Erich, Chan, Blum, Weret, and Bitterman. The results of the findings regarding the Lviv massacres were confirmed during the Nuremberg Trials held 15-30 August 1946.

The Nuremberg indictment charged that "in the Lvov region and in the city of Lvov the Germans exterminated about 700,000 Soviet people, including 70 persons in the field of the arts, science and technology." On 15 February 1946 Soviet prosecutor L. N. Smirnov referred to a report of the "Extraordinary State Commission on Crimes Committed by the Germans in the Territory of the Lvov Region." According to that report, even before the German seizure of Lviv on the 30th July, the Gestapo detachments were preparing lists of the most prominent representatives of the intelligentsia who were to be annihilated. He charged that mass arrests and executions began immediately after the seizure of Lviv^[7].

The head Soviet prosecutor Lieutenant-General Roman Rudenko stated: "The murder of Soviet citizens were not done by separate bandit groups of German officers and soldiers, but according to organized plans by the Germany army, police and the SS^[8].

German SD documents introduced by the prosecution at the principal trial and later at the American trial of SS General Otto Ohlendorf (Nuremberg Trial No. 9) show that the civilian population of the city as well as the SD participated in the abuses; for instance, and SD report dated 31 July 1941 asserts that "the population rounded up some 1,000 Jews and drove them to the prison that had been occupied by the Wehrmacht." The same report continues: "The Lvov prisons were full with the corpses of murdered Ukrainians.... between 3,000 and 4,000. Reliable information also indicates that some 20,000 Ukrainians, of whom at least 80 percent belong to the intelligentsia, were deported to inner Russia. Similar conditions were observed in the neighboring towns, e.g., Dobromil, Sambor, and vicinity.... As reprisal for these atrocities 7,000 Jews were picked up and shot.^[9]."

[edit] Allegations of 1959

In 1959 sensational allegations were made by the East German Professor Albert Orden that the killing in Lviv was done by Ukrainians and specifically by the Nachtigall Battalion. The accusations were aimed primarily at professor Theodor Oberländer, who in 1941 was the German officer attache to the Battalion and who in 1959 was a minister in the West German government.

A committee was formed in East Berlin to look into the allegations about the participation of the Nachtigall Battalion and Oberlander in the atrocities in Lviv. Of the 19 witnesses who testified only 3 had ever been to Lviv where the atrocities were to have taken place, and all three had been there only in transit. Nevertheless the East German court found Oberlander guilty and sentenced him in absentia to life imprisonment^[10].

Another court investigation was launched in West Germany. No new documents were forthcoming except falsified written "eye-witness" statements by former members of the Nachtigall Battalion from the Soviet Union. These accounts were translated and forwarded April 6, 1960 to Ludwigsburg. The accusations stated that the Nachtigall Battalion killed Jews and Poles in Lviv, Zolochev, Satanov, Yuzvyn, Mykhalpol, and on the night of 3-4 July they shot hundreds of Polish intellectuals^[11].

The West German courts examined the documents in detail. The examiners came to the conclusion that "most of the members of the Nachtigall Battalion, although they knew about the terrible killings done by the NKVD, (the NKVD had murdered over 5000 prisoners in jails before the German occupation) and among the killed were members of the families of a number of the soldiers (Shukhevych's younger brother was one of those killed), held to exemplary discipline"^[12].

232 witnesses testified that the allegations against the Nachtigall Battalion were false and the West German Court absolved them of blame and punishment^[13].

The allegations against Oberlander and the Nachtigall Battalion were inspired by the KGB in an attempt to compromise the Adenauer government in West Germany. Teodor Oberlander had in 1953 become Minister of Victims of War, deported and repatriated Germans in the Adenauer government.

At the same time Soviet sources, in order to cover up their participation in the murder of thousands of Ukrainian and Polish civilians in Lviv, also let out a rumor that Oberlander had ordered the murder of Stepan Bandera^[14] which was disproved when Bandera's Soviet assassin, Bohdan Stashynsky, defected to the West and confessed.

[edit] Review of investigation by De Zayas (1979)

In 1975 a legal historian Alfred-Maurice de Zayas a Fulbright fellow on leave from his studies in International Law at Harvard first came upon 26 volumes of previously undiscovered 2 WUSt documents. After concluding his legal studies in the United States, de Zayas had earned a Ph.D. in history and the University of Göttingen, where he later became an associate, specialising in detailing the American, British and Soviet crimes against Nazi Germany during and after WWII and authoring a number of books on the subject. ^[15].

In his book "The Wehrmacht War Crimes Bureau, 1939-1945", Dr. Alfred-Maurice de Zayas states that during the last 3 days of the Soviet occupation prior to the occupation by German forces on June 29, 1941, Ukrainians did not kill 5 to 6 thousand Jews in the city of Lviv. De Zayas writes: "In the early hours of 30 June 1941 the Polish-Ukrainian city of Lvov was occupied by the 1st Mountain Division of the German 49th Army Corps. There was little resistance, since Soviet troops had already abandoned the area. The intelligence section of the 49th Army Corps observed in its first report, dated that same day: "According to the account of Major Heinz, commander of a battalion of Regiment 800, thousands of brutally murdered persons were found in the Lvov prisons. The 1st and 4th Mountain Divisions are hereby ordered to assign journalists and photographers to cover these atrocities. The chief military judge of the Corps and the liaison officer of the Foreign Office with the High Command of the 17th Army have been sent to Lvov to carry out in-depth investigations^[16]."

According to de Zayas, one important non-German organization that participated in the investigations was the Ukrainian Red Cross. According to de Zayas, on 7 July 1941 the Ukrainian Red Cross addressed an appeal to the German city commander: "Over 4,000 corpses have been found in Lvov's prisons ... it is hardly possible to describe the condition in which the bodies were found.... Full of anguish and consternation because of the fate of all Ukrainians who remain in prisons and concentration camps throughout the Soviet Union, the Ukrainian Red Cross requests that the entire civilized world be informed by radio of theses atrocities. In particular we urge the Swiss, Swedish, and Dutch Red Cross societies to take measures to protect the lives of those who are endangered so that they may still be saved^[17]."

Zayas states that a more accurate picture emerges from a consideration of a diversity of writings, is that the period prior to German occupation was dedicated to the mass killing by what he claims as the "Jewish-dominated NKVD" of Ukrainians and Poles, and that any Ukrainian-Polish murders of thousands of Jewish civilians and Polish professors that took place during the German occupation, were in retaliation for the NKVD massacres, and were of comparatively small scale^[18]. These massacres were carried out exclusively by Ukrainian and Polish civilians. He writes: "In affidavits given for the Nuremberg defense, senior German officers who had been in Lvov briefly after its capture confirmed the SD and SS reports of the bodies found in the prisons and the reaction of local civilians, but also testified that the German military authorities had issued orders to prevent violence against the Jewish population... General Egbert Picker: "In the courtyard of the state prison I saw many rows of corpses, laid next to each other, many of them with the most grotesque mutilations.... I also saw in a small courtyard ... some 15 corpses, apparently Jews who had been killed as reprisal by the local population shortly after the Russians evacuated the town.... Jews were being taken to the prison by local civilians wearing armbands, and in one case they were being beaten with a bat.... General Kübler ... told me ... that he had ordered such acts of violence by the civilian population against Jewish persons to be immediately stopped."

According to de Zayas, in the fall of 1959, the Soviet Ukrainian press accused German Nazis, including the Adenauer cabinet minister Theodor Oberländer, of participating in these murders in Lviv. Oberländer was an advising officer of the Nachtigall Battalion. There was no mention of the participation of any Ukrainians, civilian or military, in these pogroms.

On 5 September 1959, the Radianska Ukraina newspaper wrote: "Eighteen years ago the fascists committed a horrendous crime in Lviv in the night of 29 - 30 June 1941. The Hitlerites arrested on the basis of prepared lists hundreds of Communists, Communist youth, and non-party members and murdered them in brutal fashion in the courtyard of the Samarstinov Prison." These accusations were picked up by the Western press and eventually led to Oberländer's resignation. An investigation by the district attorney's office in Bonn completely cleared Oberländer of these allegations^[19].

According to de Zayas, an international commission was set up at The Hague in the Netherlands to carry out independent investigations. The members were four former anti-Hitler activists, Norwegian lawyer Hans Cappelen, former Danish foreign minister and president of the Danish parliament Ole Bjørn Kraft, Dutch socialist Karel van Staal, Belgian law professor Flor Peeters, and Swiss jurist and member of parliament Kurt Scoch. Following its interrogation of a number of Ukrainian witnesses between November 1959 and March 1960, the commission concluded: "After four months of inquiries and the evaluation of 232 statements by witnesses from all circles involved, it can be established that the accusations against the Battalion Nachtigall and against the then Lieutenant and currently Federal Minister Oberländer have no foundation in fact". ^[20]"

Veterans of the group affirm that the Nachtigall Battalion was attached to the Wehrmacht and not to any SS formation and that during the 4 days in which the pogroms are claimed to have taken place (June 30 to July 3) they were relaxing and waiting for next military operation under Wehrmacht command.^[21]

[edit] Contemporary Russian sources

Russian historian Sergei Chuyev in his book on the Ukrainian Legion based on recently released Russian archival sources stated: "That on June 30 in Lviv the German administration started mass repressions. The commander of the Einzatzgruppen C Dr. Rasch had incriminated the death of those incarcerated in the Lviv jails to the "Jews from the NKVD" which became the spark for the terror against the Jews and Poles of Lviv. In the bloody murder of the Jews the Einsatzgruppen under the command of brigadeerfuhrer SS Karl Eberhard Schenhardt took prominence. The sections of this group under the command of H. Kruger and W. Kutschman on July 4 murdered 23 Polish professors and their families. On July 11, 2 more were killed, and later the former prime-minister of Poland, Professor Bartel. In the Autumn of 1941 a ghetto was formed in Lviv" ^[22]. He made no mention of the Nachtigall Battalion in any of the atrocities. ^[23].

[edit] Polish Allegations (1998)

In his book "Poland's Holocaust", Polish historian Tadeusz Piotrowski lists eyewitness accounts of the Lviv massacres, including Czeslaw Lucszak's claim that Nachtigall murdered Polish populace. A. Rzepicki believes that Nachtigall was used by German Nazis for the roundup of the Jews. According to a study by Wlodzimierz Bonusiak, the Jewish and Polish pogroms were carried out by 4 different formations: Ukrainian police, Nachtigall, Feldgestapo, and Einsatzkommando. On May 2 1966, the Hamburg Procurator von Below wrote: "Findings inside and outside the country produced the following conclusions. [...] The Ukrainian Liberation Army took part in these outrages which also involved arbitrary killings". Professor A. Norden, a German politician, and Werner Brockdorff concur. ^[24]

[edit] Jewish allegations

The Encyclopedia of the Holocaust states: "In June-July 1941 it is estimated that over 4,000 Jews were murdered in pogroms in Lvov and other cities in Western Ukraine. The Nachtigall Battalion, under the command of Shukhevych, is alleged to have taken part along with the Germans in these pogroms.^[25]

The Simon Wiesenthal Center also alleges that the Nachtigall Battalion took part along with the Germans in pogroms where over 4,000 Jews were murdered in Lviv in July, 1941.^[25]

On December 6, 2007, the Chairman of the Yad Vashem Memorial in Jerusalem Yosef Lapid stated in an interview with the radio network Deutsche Welle that the Yad Vashem Memorial has a dossier from both German and Soviet sources showing that the Group Nachtigall took part in the pogroms in Lviv in the Summer of 1941. "Until now, the Ukrainian side has so far not asked us for these documents", said Lapid and invited both Ukrainian historians and President Yushchenko to study them together. He added that part of these documents has already been used in the writing of the Encyclopedia of the Holocaust in 1990.^[26]

[edit] Recent events regarding allegations

[edit] President Yushchenko's visit to Israel

During President Viktor Yushchenko's visit of the Yad Vashem Memorial in Jerusalem in November 2007, the Chairman of the Memorial, Yosef Lapid approached him voicing his disapproval of awarding Roman Shukhevych with Ukraine's highest title "Hero of Ukraine" stating that Shukhevych had taken part in the Lviv pogroms as the commander of the Nachtigall Battalion. President Yushchenko replied: "No archives today can confirm any action of a punitive nature, in which soldiers of the UPA and other similar organizations took part", and stated that he was sure that Lapid would not be able to find evidence to support his statement.^[27]. At a foreign policy forum in Jerusalem, President Viktor Yushchenko defended the award of Hero of Ukraine post-humorously given to Roman Shukhevych for his role in fighting for Ukraine's independence. Addressing the charges from Holocaust researchers and Jewish groups that Nachtigall took part anti-Jewish atrocities in Lviv in June-July 1941, Yushchenko replied: "I have materials, documents, saying that in the course of grander context of Ukrainian rebellion, Shukhevych signed a petition that prohibited massive persecutions (of civilians)."^{[28] [29]}. He continued "I am confident that you will not find not one piece of evidence to support your words. No archive can today attest to any punitive action in which the fighters of the UPA and other similar organizations participated. I understand how stereotypical the stength of Soviet-like propaganda is, however we have the right to state, that there is another truth^[30]." During Viktor Yushchenko's visit to Israel, Viktor Yushchenko and Israeli President Shimon Peres agreed to form a joint Israeli-Ukrainian working group to study their common history, including Shukhevych's role in it. ^[31].

On December 12 2007, Yushchenko met with the director of the National Institute "Yad Vashem" Avner Shalev and announced formal contacts to develop a number of initiatives for the study of relationships between the Ukrainian and Jewish peoples particularly during the tragic years of WWII^[32].

Commenting on the Israeli materials that he has not seen yet, Ukrainian historian Volodymyr Serhiychuk expressed his doubts in the seriousness of the documents mentioned by Lapid. “If they had such documents in Israel:, particularly document passed on to them from the Soviet Union, they would have been published long ago because the USSR was interested in compromising Shukhevych. If the materials were found in German archives they would also be known. All archives regarding this problem, which are in Israel, were copied form European sources, particularly from the USSR, and as a result we also have these documents". ^[33]. ^[34]

Ukrainian historian Vladyslav Hrynevych states that he cannot say anything definite concerning the documents that he has not seen yet, but hypothesised that there is a version regarding the shooting of the Lviv professors, of whom a number were Jewish; however Hrynevych has so far seen no evidence that this was committed by the Nachtigall Battalion. "We do not know if this was spontaneous single activity, or a planned act, and whether it was done according to the command of Roman Shukhevych. The latter is very doubtful. If such facts were true they would have been immediately documented by the Germans, who were interested in the pogroms and even provoked them". ^[35].

Immediately after Viktor Yushchenko's visit to Israel, the Head of the Kyiv Chapter of the Memorial Society of Ukraine issued an open letter to the Ukrainian President to give the Security Services of Ukraine and the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory the documents at Yad Vashem regarding Roman Shukhevych "to be reviewed and examined for falsification by Ukrainian criminalists so that insinuations and manipulations of community memory can be halted regarding this question". ^[36].

On March 2 2008 Yad Vashem museum informed the Ukrainian delegation that it held no dossier on Shukhevich, and was not in possession of any documents that could incriminate him in the Lviv Massacres. Moreover Yad Vashem stated that Tomislav Lapid, former justice minister and one of Yad Vashem's trustees who originally made the allegation, was not am employee of the museum, and wasn't authorized to make such claims on museum's behalf.^[37].

[edit] Ukrainian Security Services Archives

In February 2008, the Ukrainian Security Services (SBU) archive representative Oleksander Ishchuk showed declassified documents, which provide an objective basis to state that OUN (the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists) is not connected with any violent actions against the civil population of Lviv on or after July 4, 1941.

In February 2006 the Ukrainian Memorial Society published on its website transcriptions and photo reproductions of original secret documents from the KGB files which pertained to the activities of the Nachtigall Battalion and various accusations made against it.View here

According to O.Ishchuk, the declassified documents of SBU indicate that on July 4-7 of 1941, representatives of Gestapo, who arrived in Lviv, turned to the Ukrainian population enciting them to carry out an anti-Jewish pogrom. “The OUN leadership, having got to know about that, informed its members that it was a German provocation in order to compromise Ukrainians with massacres”, the document reads. View here

Television coverage from Ukrainian channel 5 of the release of the latest documents dealing with the Lviv civilian massacre can be viewed here.

[edit] Visit to Yad Vashem

February 28, 2008 a government delegation from Ukraine lead by the head of the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory I. Yukhnovsky and the adviser to the head of the Ukrainian Security Services V. Viatrovych visited Yad vashem to closer aquaint themselves with the Shukhevych archive. They were told by Chaim Gertner that no such a separate archive existed and that the documents were scattered throughout the complex and that Joseph Lapid who had previously approached president Victor Yushchenko was not an employee of the archive.

Two documents were finally made available. One of 7 pages and another 18.

The first was a copy of the interrogation minutes of Luka Pavlyshyn (who actually never served in the Nachtigall Battalion) by the KGB. This document is well known and was the basis for a propaganda brochure published in 1960 to incriminate Oberlander.

The second was the German translation of a deposition by one Hryhory Melnyk who had been trained by the KGB on November 13 1959 and was given instructions to lie in court during the proceedings against Oberlander.

A press conference was held on March 4, 2008 at which these documents were presented along with the criticisism of the Lapid announcement and the manner in which it was carried out by Joseph Lapina to discredit Roman Shukhevych, and all that was uncovered were distorted facts and false testimony which go against judicial principles and logic. (See<[[КІНЕЦЬ «ЛЕҐЕНДИ» ПРО «NACHTIGALL» (The end of the Legend about Nacvhtigall]]/>

[edit] References