Ukrainian Collaboration with Germany in World War II (1941 – 1945)

Ukrainians that fought for Germany during the Second World War. In this video I explore the collaboration in German-occupied Ukraine during World War 2. Why did Ukrainians collaborate with Germany? In this video I will talk about the origins of Ukrainian ultranationalism and factions as the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and its split: the OUN-M led by Andrei Melnik and the OUN-B led by Stepan Bandera. Their military wing became the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA). The Ukrainian Legion consisted of two battalions: the Nachtigall Battalion and the Roland Battalion. In 1943 the Ukrainian SS Division was established: the 14th SS-Volunteer Division "Galicia". The Ukrainian Liberation Army (UVV) was the collective name for all Ukrainian units serving with the German Army during World War II. As the Germans recognized Ukrainain independence the Ukrainian National Army (UNA) was established, led by Pavlo Shandruk. If you want to learn about Ukraine during WW2, this video is for you.
History Hustle presents: Ukrainian Collaboration with Germany in World War II (1941 – 1945).

SOURCES
– Joining Hitler's Crusade. European Nations and the Invasion of the Soviet Union, 1941 (David Stahel) The Soviet Union (Oleg Beyda and Igor Petrov).
– Ukrainian Armies. 1914-1955 [Men-at-Arms 412] (Peter Abbott & Eugene Pinak).
– Russia's War (Richard Overy).

IMAGES

MUSIC
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

SOUNDS

[HistoryHustle]

Want to learn about other PRO-GERMAN VOLUNTEERS?

[eurostarmgaal]

During World War II, my grandmother ended up in Ukraine. She said they were more afraid of the Ukrainian nationalists than the Germans.

[dleechristy]

Growing up in a Ukrainian neighborhood in a major US City 10-15 years post war, my father once remarked that about half of the older men were war criminals. He moved there because of language/cultural familiarity as a teen immigrant himself but they sickened him and eventually got out of that cesspool as he got educated, leaned decent English, got a decent job and the means to leave the city. Later found out our CIA funneled money to some of their organizations and leaders in service of the cold war.
This collaborating with the enemy of my enemy is always a gross and sickening affair, and at times even bites one in the ass as we have found in recent history.

[MFA]

The current Ukrainian parliament and Zelenski just celebrated Stepan Banderas birthday, so how much has changed actually?

[truthseekers]

My Jewish family was hacked to death with shovels in Kiev. Then they took over their apartment.
My Mother shudders whenever she hears Ukrainian.

Please make a video on Khmelnitzki who is still a national hero in Ukraine.

[TN]

This units along with other Ukrainian peasants did so bestial massacres on Polish citizens that its even hard to describe, even Germans were disgusted from methods that they used. Its really sad not many people know about it nowdays.

[waterlily]

I am a Holocaust survivor and witness The nazis gave the orders but the Ukrainians did the killings including the killings of my mother father and little sister and all my extended family. I hid in the forest for 2 years like an animal from the Ukrainians. The soviets liberated me from hell. Pls History should not be distorted. War is devastating and my heart goes out to the real victims which are the innocent children.

[browngreen]

In his Ukraine war speech, Putin mentioned Neo-Nazis and Banderites. Now I know what he was talking about.

[dong]

My great grandfather is from Wolyn. He and his brother where the only people to survive from his village as the ukrainiuns burned everyone in a barn. My greatgrandfather ended up in the polish peoples army.

[Cha-y]

My family Doctor was Ukrainian and had a thick accent. He spoke German, Ukrainian, Russian. and English. He mentioned once that he came to the United States for the first time in his life in 1959.
This Doctor had an 8 x 10 photograph of himself wearing a United States Army Captains uniform with Army medical corp insignias.
One day I asked how could this be possible?
He told me that in 1940 he became a medical doctor in the Ukraine. Most of his family including himself had sided with the Germans in WW2.
When the war turned and the Russians came into the Ukraine the Russians executed any men remotely believed to be collaborating with the Nazis.
The Doctor fled West to Germany until he found an advancing US Army unit to surrender to. The Doctor begged the Americans not to return him to the Ukraine and certain death by the Russians.
After serveral exams to prove he was really a doctor and interrogations the Americans made him a deal.
You join the US Army for 14 years and serve as a Doctor.
Being a US Army Officer no Russians will touch you.
Upon completion of your US Army 14 year service you will be sworn in as a US Citizen and can immigrate to the United States.


Yes Ive heard this factual story before.
Putin claims of Nazis in Ukraine is real.

[jamesmurphy]

Many of the guards in the death camps in the ww2 were Ukrainian and they were the most brutal. Why was this l wonder !!!

[peterg]

They, some Ukrainians, shocked even their German occupiers as to the brutality that they meted out to their Jewish brothers and sisters. This must not be forgotten. But it will be if not forgotten, be ignored.

[carldauupp]

I visited Lemberg in 2019. At a flea market I showed interest in some stuff a very old lady was selling. When communication proved difficult, a young man stepped in to translate. He spoke Ukrainian, Russian, English and my native German. When the old lady realized I was German, she became quite excited and took my hand and showered me with compliments and good wishes. Not knowing much about the troubled history of Ukraine then, it only later occurred to me that this person must have been a Nazi collaborator back in the days. All the more disturbing I find the current situation when German tanks roll once more against Russia. What a sick world!

[GurnBograt]

This is by far one of the best history lessons of Ukraine I have ever seen.

[Bigsky]

The Ukrainian SS formations were held in extremely low esteem by the main Waffen SS units. This all came to a boiling point in mid 44' when Hitler was told that there was a fully armed Ukrainian SS formation basically just lounging around behind the front doing nothing. He flew into a rage and ordered the HSSPF (HöhereSSu.Polizeiführer) Ukraine to be disarmed and pressed into service on the Vistula (Wişwa)front to dig anti-tank ditches. This of course caused a widespread mutiny and mass desertion event. Fun times in 1944... the Ukrainian auxiliaries from 1941 onward were accurately portrayed in "Schindlers List". They wore the repurposed/surplus Allgemeine SS black uniforms, with green wool collars and they were the "muscle" in the Concentration Camps and were particularly vicious.

[claudiogontijo]

Bandera was released from Zellenbau on 28 September 1944, and he was formally kept in Berlin under house arrest, but in reality he was free. On 23 February 1945 the Germans decided to establish the Ukrainian National Committee in Weimar, and officially recognized it on 12 March 1945. Bandera became one of its leaders.

[rewoqero]

my grandfather is a native of the East Ukrainian SSR, when the war began in 41, he was 18 years old, and he went to the front. I still can't imagine how an 18-year-old guy who didn't hold a gun in his hands could survive being an artillery and mortar scout. he did not take Berlin and returned home only in 1947, 6 years later. first, he expelled the European Nazis, and then fought in western Ukraine in Lviv and zacarpathia, chasing through the forests for what they later became known as бандеровцы. it is impossible to imagine more terrible bastards than the Ukrainian Nazis. they were not only cruel bloodsuckers, but also cowards who could "fight" only with the defenseless and innocent. they only cared about their own skin, drank like devils and mocked people. I advise you to ask about their methods of killing, believe me, Ganibal will not seem so cruel to you. one of the Ukrainian entertainments was the murder of children in the eyes of mothers or the rape of daughters and wives in the eyes of loved ones.

[radmilaavlijas]

SS 14 elite division from Galicia was operating in Yugoslavia, killing civilians. Unfortunately we were thought that they were Germans . In communist Yugoslavia we blamed Germans and Scandinavian countries for Nazisam, Scandinavians as passive collaborators, the first time I learned about this dark history of Ukrainians was here in Canada. We did learn about SS 14 division but they were portrayed as Germans, system made us believed that Ukraine was fighting Nazies. I am shocked actually that Slavs would do this to Slavs. We did have Ustase in Croatia but at least in Croatia there was resistance to Nazies among Croatians too.

[doyleperkins]

Ever since my freshman year as a history student in college, I've been mystified over the proclivity of certain Ukrainian groups to seek out to join those groups amenable to Nazi/neo-Nazi currents. I was horrified by the seeming complicity in the Babi Yar massacre, and centuries before in the Bohdan Kkmelnytski massacres of whole Jewish populations in Ukraine. This well researched, constructed, and presented video has helped to shed much needed light on those troubling questions. Thank you.

[jacobpeters]

Most underrated channel on YouTube. Incredible amount knowledge on the subject matter of an Incredibly complex and deep subject in human history