Hans Albrecht Herzner),
Oberleutnant Theodor Oberländer Theodor Oberlander) - direct guidance.
Ukrainian leadership: Roman Shukhevych

Special unit "Nachtigal"(German Nachtigall(nightingale)), group "North" of the Druzhina of Ukrainian Nationalists, "Ukrainian Legion named after. S. Bandera ", the Nachtigal battalion is an armed detachment, consisting mainly of members and supporters of the OUN (b), formed and trained by the Abwehr to act together with the 1st battalion of the Brandenburg 800 sabotage unit (German. Lehrregiment "Brandenburg" z.b.V. 800 ) in Operation Barbarossa on the territory of the Ukrainian SSR.

According to the official version of the OUN (b), along with the Roland unit, it was supposed to become the basis of the future army of Ukraine under the control of the OUN (b) - allied to the Wehrmacht. The creation of the unit was authorized on February 25, 1941 by V. Canaris. Sabotage units were transferred to the territory of the Ukrainian SSR before the start of the war, the main part of the battalion crossed the border of the USSR on June 22, 1941 and acted together with German troops on the route Przemysl - Lviv - Ternopil - Proskuriv - Zhmerynka - Vinnitsa. In October, the unit was transferred to Frankfurt an der Oder, where it was combined with the Roland personnel and sent for training as a security unit. From the end of 1941, it will be reorganized into the 201st security police battalion.

World War II and preparations for an attack on the USSR

Since the spring of 1939, the Abwehr has been actively training and educating OUN militants in order to use them in the Polish campaign. The rapid advance of the German troops in September 1939 reduced their actions to separate episodic actions. On September 12, 1939 (shortly before the fall of Warsaw), questions regarding Poland and the ethnic Ukrainian population of Poland were discussed at a special meeting on Hitler's train. According to Hitler's plans, on the border with the USSR it was necessary to create "laying states" between "Asia" and the "West" - loyal to the Third Reich Ukraine (on the territory of Galicia and Volhynia) and Lithuania. Based on the political instructions of Ribbentrop, Keitel formulated the task for Canaris: "You, Canaris, must organize an uprising with the help of Ukrainian organizations working with you and having the same goals, namely Poles and Jews." Ribbentrop, specifying the forms of the uprising, specifically pointed out the need to exterminate the Poles and Jews. Under the "Ukrainian organizations" meant the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists. The result of these instructions is the so-called “Memorandum of Canaris of September 12, 1939”, presented in the materials of the Nuremberg Tribunal as document 3047-ps). . A number of sources point to the significant role of Riko Yaroy in the long-awaited event to separate conservatives from the old guard of the UVO-OUN and radical and active young cadres who saw every legal action as a sign of "betrayal of the nation." According to Lev Rebet's version, Bandera's supporters found their support from some German military circles, while the Melnik group had connections with the political elite of Nazi Germany. In November 1939, about 400 Ukrainian nationalists began training in the Abwehr camps in Zakopane, Komarna, Kirchendorf and Gakestein. Already in December, Bandera sent a courier to Soviet territory with task to begin preparations for an armed uprising. The courier was intercepted by the NKVD, which managed to capture a number of OUN leaders. Due to significant losses in the underground network, the Central Leadership of the OUN (Andriy Melnyk) orders in early January 1940 to refrain from active operations and go into deep underground. Despite these instructions, the Krakow branch of the OUN, led by Bandera, continues to prepare an armed uprising, sending armed "shock" groups from the General Government to the territory controlled by the USSR. Since February 1940, S. Bandera has been creating his own leadership of the OUN - having left the subordination of Melnik and formally depriving him of his powers - he, in turn, accuses him of treason. Formally, the division of the OUN into recognizing Melnyk and controlled by Bandera is completed by the beginning of the fall of 1940. At the same time, in the territory of the General Government and Germany, starting from the end of spring 1940, there was an active military and sabotage and reconnaissance training of OUN-R personnel. Among the examiners were R. Shukhevych and J. Stetsko, for the most "promising" there were staff and special courses in Krakow. With the support of the Abwehr, tactical exercises with live firing were carried out. On the territory of the Ukrainian SSR, members of the OUN-R collected information about the location of military units and warehouses of the Red Army, as well as detailed information about the command staff of the Red Army. The information received in August 1940 by the NKVD from an intercepted OUN-R liaison from Krakow again disrupted the uprising planned for autumn. In the winter of 1940-41, the training of members of the OUN-R on the territory of the General Government continued to an even greater extent. Special training in sabotage work in the Abwehr camps of Zakopane, Krynytsi, Comanche was held by several hundred Bandera.

History of creation

The creation of "Nachtigal" was the result of the implementation of the policy of the OUN (b), aimed at training their own military personnel. Agreements on the formation of the Ukrainian legion in the German army were reached in negotiations with military intelligence - the Abwehr in February 1941. Mobilization in the legion was carried out by the leaders of the OUN, who formed it from members of their organization who lived at that time in German-occupied Poland. The mobilized OUN members were divided into two parts, which appear in Ukrainian documents as squads of Ukrainian nationalists (groups "North" and "South"), in the documents of the Abwehr they received the code names "Special Department" Nachtigall "and" Organization Roland ".

Education

Recruitment to the "Nachtigal" passed through Krakow, where the "legionnaires" underwent basic training. Recruitment took place in accordance with the directives and instructions of the OUN. Specialized training was already taking place in various camps both on the territory of the governor-general (Kamancha, Barvinok, Krynytsya, Dukla, Zakopane) and in Germany (Brandenburg) - where those who were supposed to undergo sabotage training were initially sent. In the camps on the territory of the General Government, the “legionnaires” were disguised as representatives of the Labor Service (“Arbaitsdinst”). 100 people were sent to Brandenburg for training in sabotage. Saboteurs were trained in minecraft, sabotage in transport and communications. Their training was completed earlier than the main group. After training in the camps, the main part of the Nachtigal was transferred to Brandenburg, where he began to undergo combat coordination and training in joint operations with the 1st battalion of the Brandenburg 800 regiment, under whose leadership he was to act on territory of the USSR. Major Friedrich Wilhelm Heinz Friedrich Wilhelm Heinz) exercised general leadership as the commander of the 1st battalion of the Brandenburg 800 regiment, Lieutenant Hans-Albrecht Herzner (German. Hans Albrecht Herzner) was the direct German commander, the highest Ukrainian commander was Roman Shukhevych (in the sources of the OUN, his position is indicated as "political educator"), coordination between the Ukrainian unit and the German leadership lay with Lieutenant Theodore Oberlander. By the beginning of the summer of 1941, the Nachtigal was trained and staffed by command personnel, which was almost entirely represented by the Germans. The uniform was standard for parts of the Wehrmacht.

Operation Barbarossa

The sabotage detachments of the "Ukrainian Legion" who graduated by the end of May were transferred to the territory of the USSR by mid-June 1941. They were tasked with mining military installations, sabotage in transport, damage to means and communication lines. The main part of the battalion, which was subordinate to the 1st battalion of the Brandenburg-800 regiment, was transferred to the offensive line in the Przemysl region by June 21, 1941, it was to carry out sabotage and combat operations in the forward echelon of the 1st Mountain Division XXXXIV Army Corps 6 -th Army of the Army Group "South". On June 22, 1941, at 3 o'clock in the morning, the 1st battalion and Nachtigal crossed the border onto the river. San and began actions to overcome the border UR, in which the Nachtigal itself was not involved. After breaking through the Soviet defense line, the unit advanced in the direction of Lvov. June 28 "Combat unit Heinz" (German. Kampfgruppe Heinz) turns out to be 10 kilometers from the defense line of Lviv, where the Ukrainian part of the unit receives false information about executions in Lviv prisons. Lvov was abandoned by the Soviet troops on June 26, 1941. The commander of the 1st battalion Heinz indicates the date of entry of the combat group into Lvov itself as "night of June 29"- while in various publications of the post-war OUN, the entry date is June 30 - although even J. Stetsko himself points out that he and S. Bandera were already in Lviv on June 29 and the radio station was already busy. .

In Lvov, the soldiers of both units guarded the key points of the city - a power station, a railway station, a radio station, water towers and other objects. At the same time, an advanced marching group of the OUN (b) headed by Y. Stetsko appeared in Lvov, which on June 30 proclaimed the creation of a “Ukrainian State allied with Great Germany, headed by leader S. Bandera”. With the assistance of the fighters of the battalion, who guarded the Lviv radio, the text of the "Act of the Proclamation of the Ukrainian State" was read twice on the air.

The events that took place between the Nachtigall's entry into Lviv and its relocation to Ternopil on July 7-9 are presented differently in various sources. According to OUN sources and using data from similar sources, since July 1, the Nachtigall fighters received a week's leave and were engaged in personal affairs while the XXXXIV Army Corps itself continued to advance with battles to the East. According to other sources, the Nachtigall fighters actively participated in the pogroms and murders of Poles and Jews in Lvov, because of which they were withdrawn from the city on July 7.

July 7 "Nachtigal" began redeployment from Lviv to Ternopil - the first company departed, and 8 and 9 left the city and the remaining two. On July 9, the bulk of the battalion entered Ternopil. On July 13, the battalion crossed the old Soviet-Polish border and reached Proskurov on July 14. Further through Zhmerinka, by July 16, they reached Vinnitsa.

One of the Ukrainian members of the "Nachtigal" in his autobiography, written for the Security Council of the OUN (b), indicates the events that accompanied the passage of the detachment through the territory of the Ukrainian SSR:

During our march, we saw traces of the Jewish-Bolshevik terror, this strengthened our hatred of the Jews so much that in two villages we shot all the Jews we met. As well as all Russians and Russian-speaking people who meet on the way.

Similar events took place in several villages of the Vinnitsa region.

According to OUN sources, from June 17 they again received a two-week vacation, during which they were busy creating a local administration in the town of Yuzvin. According to the same sources, on August 13, the battalion returns to Zhmerynka and further to Krakow and Germany. At the same time , according to information published in 2007, at the beginning of September, at the location of the Sonderkommado, field post 11333 in the city of Zhitomir, Shukhevych was negotiating to send Nachtigall to the rear Soviet troops. At the end of September, these negotiations continue in Kyiv, but the Germans do not agree with such a proposal. In the fall, the battalion is sent back to Lvov, and then to Germany for a 7-month course. 5000 copies - ISBN 978-5-699-31043-2

en:Nachtigall Battalionfr:Nachtigallpl:Batalion "Nachtigall"uk:Nachtigall

Yes, in modern literature it is not denied that the Jews were killed by representatives of the police, created by the Ukrainian National Committee, which proclaimed the independence of Ukraine on June 30, and simply by amateur pogromists. Poles were among the latter, which is not surprising given the anti-Semitism in pre-war Poland.

However, although there were more than three times more Poles than Ukrainians in what was then Lviv, there is much less information about their participation in the pogroms. Some of the victims (in total, 4-6 thousand Jews died in late June - early July), of course, fell at the hands of the Germans, but the main role of the occupiers then was reduced to incitement and non-intervention. But the death of Polish professors is considered the work of the Einsatzgruppen led by SS Brigadeführer Eberhard Schöngart.

As for the Nachtigal battalion, in Ukraine they prove that all the accusations against him, in particular the testimonies, were fabricated by the KGB and the security service of the GDR in order to tarnish the political leader of this unit, later the prominent West German politician Theodor Oberländer. In 1960, this figure in the GDR was sentenced in absentia to life imprisonment for the murders of Jews and Poles in Lvov. But the conclusion is made: once in the same year, the Bonn court acquitted him, which means that Nachtigal was not involved in these acts either.

However, everything is far from being so simple. In fact, there was no justification, because there was no judgment; the prosecutor's office stopped the case: regarding the Jewish pogroms - due to lack of evidence, and regarding the execution of Polish professors - in connection with the establishment of the non-involvement of the accused.

At the same time, it is impossible not to pay attention to the fact that such a debunker of Ukrainian nationalism as Vitaliy Maslovsky, in his final work “Ukrainian nationalists fought against whom and against whom in the fates of Another world war” (M., 1999) does not use that evidence base , on the basis of which Oberländer was convicted in the GDR. He frankly writes about the “lack of weighty and comprehensive documents and analytical studies” on this issue, and the involvement of “Nachtigal” in crimes leads only from the book of the Polish author Alexander Korman “From the Bloody Days of Lvov 1941.” (London, 1991), based on eyewitness accounts.

“Nakhtigalivtsy” hung out from the houses of communists and Poles, who were immediately hung on the balconies ...”; “Ukrainian warriors of the battalion “Nakhtigal” were called “poultries” by the Meshkantsy of Lvov…”; “Ptashniks were in German uniforms and with German military signs. They spoke in Ukrainian language ... "- Maslovsky quotes this edition.

And the Polish historian Jacek Wilchur, who lived in Lvov in 1941, claims that he was then told: "Ptashniks" were killed in four ways - with bullets, a bayonet, a butt, or simply beaten to death with their hands and feet ". As already indicated in the quote from Korman, it was the Nakhtigalevites who were called "birders" - because of the image of the nightingale on their cars and motorcycles: in this they differed from the Ukrainians who served in other German units as translators.

Would it be fair to reject Vilchur's evidence on the grounds that he himself did not see these crimes, or because of doubts about his objectivity? Memory, of course, can fail anyone. But it is known that the pogroms in Lvov really took place, and if the Polish historian were a Ukrainophobe, he would rather attribute those atrocities to nationalists independent of the Germans (for example, the police subordinate to the national committee), and not to the division of the German army - because in the first case, the blame was assigned would be for some Ukrainians, while in the second it is divided between the German command and its subordinates.

"Prelude to the Holocaust". What the German archives say

Nevertheless, the materials of Korman and Vilchur that are available to us do not allow us to firmly determine how serious their evidence base is. This also applies to other press reports about Polish historians convinced that Nachtigall was involved in those crimes in Lvov. In addition, some of their compatriot colleagues hold the opposite opinion... And to independently draw a conclusion about the guilt or innocence of the Ukrainian Abwehr battalion, having at hand not the historical works themselves, but only responses to them or individual quotes, such a task seems unrealistic.

Now, however, any Internet user has access to a source that makes it easier for those who do not speak foreign languages ​​to come to a definite conclusion on this issue. This is Hannes Heer's article "Prelude to the Holocaust: Lemberg in June-July 1941", written ten years ago and recently reprinted in Russian by a number of sites. True, there are two shortcomings in the publications of this most interesting text. Firstly, an extensive reference apparatus, references to sources (footnotes are practically not translated, German abbreviations are not deciphered, which makes them obscure even for many trained readers), and secondly, nothing is said about the author himself .

Meanwhile, Hannes Heer is the most famous German historian, who in the late 90s of the last century organized the most resonant exhibition “Wehrmacht Crimes”, which breaks the stereotype common in Germany that the SS, Gestapo, SD were involved in Nazi atrocities - but not the army.

At the beginning of the "Prelude ..." Heer explains that the battalion of the 800th training and sabotage regiment of the Abwehr "Brandenburg" (800 soldiers), to which the Nachtigal battalion (400 soldiers) was attached, was given a special task in Lviv - the preparation of actions "self-purification", which meant in Nazi jargon the destruction of Jews and other elements undesirable for the occupiers by the local population:

« Assuming that the military leaders involved in the East knew in advance about the "self-cleansing" actions planned by the Einsatzgruppen and may have already heard about the first such staging that took place on June 25/26 in Lithuanian Kaunas, Stulpnagel(Commander of the 17th Wehrmacht Army. - A.P.) pursued the goal of obtaining support from the Einsatzgruppen for their own actions in this direction.

At the disposal of the army was a unit that could be used not only for risky sorties behind enemy lines, but also for other tasks - battalion 800 of the Brandenburg training and sabotage regiment. Since there were no military reasons to use the elite unit - the Red Army surrendered Lemberg without a fight - only a political order remains as an explanation. This had its own logic - three Ukrainian companies of the Nachtigal battalion were extremely anti-communist and anti-Semitic and recruited from the well-versed residents of Lemberg and the surrounding area.

Judging by the preparatory measures, Lemberg was assigned a special role: both the order to take the city and the appointment of the commandant came from the 17th Army. Moreover, after the occupation of Lemberg, she continued to tightly control the cordon of the city. In addition to the battalions involved, no formations were allowed to enter Lemberg, the admission of individuals was possible only with special passes (how strict the control was, is shown by the fact that the special commissioner of the Abwehr Prof. Koch was initially not allowed into the city), even the passage of front-line units - such as the Waffen-SS division "Viking" - was detained for one day.

Movement inside the city was also restricted: patrols had to be accompanied by an officer, and mountain shooters were ordered to remain at their posts in the citadel and the High Castle. These precautions give the impression that they wanted to give Battalion 800 the opportunity to operate without interference. In this regard, it is interesting that battalion 800 did not obey the ordered order of following the mountain shooters and became the first unit of the Wehrmacht to enter the city.

This ignorance of the order, mentioned in the battalion report, had no consequences, according to the documents, since the army obviously covered it. In the justification for the violation of discipline given by the commander of the battalion Heinz - he wanted to save "still living German soldiers and Ukrainians" from the burning prison of the GPU, as well as to prevent the "Jewish population and the mob" from plundering warehouses with a quick maneuver - tasks appear that in fact In fact, they were put in front of a battalion of 800: to take control of the prisons and, possibly, to coordinate anti-Jewish actions.

The matter was not limited to taking control. From the testimonies of witnesses, it becomes clear that after the arrival of Battalion 800 and the Ukrainian companies subordinate to it, some of the corpses in prisons were mutilated. The same, apparently, happened in other cities of Galicia. The performers are called OUN-B activists. Enkavedeshniki - witnesses say - were primarily concerned with evacuation measures and their own hasty retreat, they had "too little time" for sadistic bullying.

These terrible manipulations with the bodies explain the inconsistencies in the reports from the prisons (most of the testimonies of those who visited the prisons on June 28-29 do not contain, unlike later testimonies, indications that the corpses were mutilated; also the first report of Battalion 800 does not contain such indications ). It should be added that the Jewish victims of the NKVD were taken out of the Lemberg prisons before the population was allowed inside for identification.».

Almost every phrase of the author is supported by links. Only in this fragment of the article there are 14 of them (here we do not give these footnotes for the sake of space, but they are present in Russian reprints of the full text; however, it is not easy to work with them, as noted). Moreover, the author refers not only to editions of eyewitness memoirs and monographs of historians, but also to archival documents. In particular, information about the first report of the 800th battalion was taken from the archives. And the assertion that the Nakhtigalevites were recruited mainly from Lviv is based on the book by Philipp-Christian Wax "The Case of Theodor Oberländer" (Frankfurt, 2000), the author of which, carried away by the character and biography of the hero of his work, closely communicated with him in the last years of his life and had access to personal archives.

As you know, the blame for the executions in Lvov prisons was laid not only on the NKVD, but on Lvov Jews in general, and in order to more likely provoke a pogrom, the Jews were instructed to dismantle the corpses of the executed in the presence of the relatives of the latter.

Here is what Heer writes about the role of Shukhevych's battalion in these events:

« Ukrainians from the Nachtigal battalion were also involved in the scenario. They forced the Jews brought to prison to crawl on their knees to the corpses and wash them, they tore the dresses of women and girls in order to photograph them half-naked, they tore out the beards of old men. Grenades were suddenly thrown at working Jews or panicked with well-aimed shots. The climax was the repeated ritual of punishment with gauntlets repeated over and over again.

As one of the Jewish survivors reports: “After we managed to sort through the mountains of corpses, we were forced to run around the courtyard for a long time, while we had to keep our hands above our heads. [...] During the run, and maybe right after it, I heard the German command "To the gauntlets" or "Line up for the gauntlets." As far as I remember, this command was given by someone from a group of German soldiers who were standing somewhat away from the common grave and were watching us all the time. The group consisted of 5 or 6 people. These were the officers. [...] According to this German order, the Ukrainian soldiers lined up in two tapestries and put up their bayonets. All the Jews who were in the courtyard of the prison had to pass through these tapestries, while the Ukrainian soldiers beat and stabbed them. I was not among the first to go through the tapestries. Pure chance. The first Jews who had to pass were almost all stabbed with bayonets.” In total, 4,000 Lemberg Jews died during this staged massacre.».

« Contrary to the assertions of German officers that the Nachtigall personnel did not leave their places of deployment, the presence of battalion soldiers in all three prisons was confirmed. First of all, for the NKVD prison, there are accurate testimonies of witnesses, on the basis of which the Bonn prosecutor's office established that at least part of the second company(and there were three companies in the battalion. - A.P.) “turned to acts of violence against the driven Jews and is responsible for the deaths of numerous Jews.” The testimony of an employee of the SD, who was present at the execution of Jews by the military personnel of the Nachtigal battalion in the courtyard of the gymnasium, gives legitimate grounds to doubt that the circle of criminals was limited only to the second company, and the place where the crimes were committed was the NKVD prison.

The Nachtigall fighters were more than resolute: the hagiographic literature about the actions of the 800 battalion in Lemberg says without a hitch that the Ukrainians were obsessed with only one thing - revenge. The report of the secret field police says that the translators assigned to it through the mediation of "Nachtigal" are so "fanatical" towards the Jews that "the limits of their use [...] within the framework of military discipline" became apparent on the very first day. Even for the political instructor Oberländer, who was not very friendly towards the Jews, the condition of his soldiers these days became a cause for concern.».

The above two snippets are supported by 15 references. One third of them are testimonies, which were contained in the decision of the Bonn prosecutor's office, which studied the Oberländer case. Key witnesses are a former Lviv resident, and later an Israeli journalist, Eliahu Jones, who would later write a book about the fate of Lvov Jews, and a West German businessman of Jewish origin, Moritz Grünbart, who was in prison at the time of the occupation of Lvov (he escaped from the Lodz ghetto and was arrested by the NKVD for illegal border crossing).

It is extremely difficult to imagine that these people were influenced by the KGB. And the archival documents published by Vyatrovich, which he interprets as indicating the preparation of a provocation, speak exclusively of working with Soviet witnesses for the trial on the territory of the GDR. The "orange" historian does not have any hints that evidence against the "Nachtigal" may also be in the West German Oberländer case.

Convinced Nazi and his Ukrainian lawyers

However, the testimonies of Grünbart and Jones are not such a secret: their memories of what happened in Lvov in the first days of its occupation were published in Spiegel in February-March 1960, when the Oberländer scandal had just begun, and are now available to everyone on the official website of this journal.

One of these publications also cites Oberländer's words at a press conference: “ I can say that during the six days during which Nachtigal was in Lvov, not a single shot was fired and that I am not aware of a single case of any violence ... During those six days I must constantly monitor the posts set up "Nachtigalem" for the protection of various objects. I was then in Lemberg for a long time and I can tell you that during these six days the Nachtigal did not fire a single shot in Lvov.».

However, he lied. Heer did not imagine that the Nachtigall political leader was then concerned about the excessive zeal of his wards: this statement is supported by a reference to Oberländer's letter to his wife, given in the aforementioned book by Waks.

By the way, the statement quoted above at a press conference clearly contradicts what Ukrainian historians are now writing - apologists for Nachtigall. So, according to Oberländer, the battalion guarded some objects all the time, and according to Viatrovich and his ilk, this unit was sent on a week's vacation a day after entering Lviv, after which it left the city.

But the contradiction here is apparent and symptomatic. At the moment when the scandal broke out, the defenders of Nachtigall and Oberländer could still try to claim that there was no shooting at all in Lvov. But when it is clear to everyone that such a version does not work, it remains to talk about a “weekly vacation”: then the crimes committed by soldiers in the form of this battalion can be explained by their personal indiscipline, removing responsibility from the command.

Even the Bonn prosecutor's office in 1960 could not whitewash the entire staff of Nachtigall. In its ruling, which is quoted by Viatrovych, it is not ruled out that “ members of the Ukrainian Nachtigal battalion, whose names have not been established, could, at their own discretion, take part in murders and pogroms, without the knowledge and contrary to the clear prohibitions of the battalion commanders».

But Vyatrovich and Co. do not cite any archival documents to confirm the prohibitions, and Oberlander's letter to his wife clearly indicates whether crimes were committed with or without knowledge. It is clear that one cannot trust the objectivity of the Bonn prosecutor's office, which historians of this kind press on. Not so long ago, “2000” already wrote what denazification in Germany was ( Should we expect victims of national reconciliation? // № 15 (554), 15-21.04.11):

« ... Since 1945, in the western occupation zone, a process called denazification was really launched, and individual war criminals were convicted. But the logic cold war"led the West to curtail this process and demilitarize Germany. Many criminals were released early from prison and began to play a prominent role in the country. And some have never been behind bars.

For example, the creator of such a key element of the Nazi system as the Nuremberg racial laws, Hans Josef Globke, from 1953 to 1963 headed the government apparatus under Chancellor Konrad Adenauer. True, he was helped to some extent by the fact that he was, so to speak, a non-partisan Nazi. His active work in the Center Party (until 1933) became the basis for Bormann personally refusing to admit him to the NSDAP in 1940. That is why Globke avoided denazification. However, both the leadership of Germany and the leadership of the United States were well aware of its role under Nazism.».

I will add that the Americans, having received information about the whereabouts of the organizer of the Holocaust, Adolf Eichmann, did not share it with Israel precisely for fear that his capture would endanger Globke.

Attempts to justify Oberlander and at that time did not inspire the confidence of democratically minded Germans. So, "Spiegel" back in 1960 stated that the international commission of inquiry "Lviv-1941" then created in Holland had discredited itself and its materials were absolutely unconvincing. And Ukrainian historians, the defenders of Nachtigall, also like to refer to this commission.

Defending the reputation of the Ukrainian Abwehr battalion, they, of course, defend Oberlander as well. And the level of this protection just well shows the degree of their historical competence.

For example, Vyatrovich explains why the USSR wanted to compromise Oberländer: “ ... The desire to punish war criminals was covered political game, inspired by the KGB against the West German government led by Chancellor Konrad Adenauer. In 1953, he appointed Theodor Oberländer to the post of Minister for War Victims, Deported and Repatriated Germans. Under his care were millions of German refugees and migrants from the former lands of the Reich, who after the war went to Poland, Czechoslovakia and the USSR. Among these people, anti-communist sentiments prevailed. Over time, Oberlander, relying on them, decided to create a powerful political party with a bright anti-left bias, which attracted the attention of the Stasi, and therefore the KGB. In part, the task of compromising the government of Adenauer and Oberländer directly, the valiant Chekists nevertheless managed to realize. Despite being acquitted in court, Oberländer had to resign as a minister involved in a high-profile political scandal"(ZN, No. 6, 16.02.08).

In fact, the politician left the post of minister in May 1960, when the prosecutor's office had not yet taken up his case. And most importantly, there are no serious materials about his plans to create a new party in the FRG. On the contrary, everything was exactly the opposite: Oberländer in 1953 got into the Adenauer government precisely as a representative of the junior partner of the CDU - the All-German Bloc / Union of Expelled and Deprived of Rights party, which was voted for by people from the lands lost by Germany in 1945 But already in 1955, together with the leader of this political force, Waldemar Kraft, and its other prominent functionaries, he joined the CDU, drawing the main electorate of this party (which then quickly fell into decay) to the Christian Democrats. They were quite comfortable among the Christian Democrats, because at that time the degree of the anti-left bias of the latter simply went off scale. And the USSR benefited from the discrediting of Oberländer precisely as a figure in Adenauer's cabinet, while the emergence of a new party would rather be beneficial to Moscow, increasing the potential for internal conflicts in the German government.

And Holocaust researcher in Galicia Zhanna Kovba, who diligently emphasizes the non-involvement of Ukrainian nationalist formations in atrocities, finds only the following words to characterize Oberlander: “ not only with his sharply anti-communist, anti-radian views, ale thim, that he was an officer of the Wehrmacht, chiming in with the Nachtigal battalion.

Of course, the figure in question was an anti-communist and anti-Soviet. However, for example, Churchill's anti-communism and anti-Sovietism did not prevent him from becoming an ally of the USSR. And Oberländer was on the opposite side, because he was a staunch Nazi - as an 18-year-old he participated in Hitler's "beer putsch" (1923), because of which he spent four days in jail. The subject of his main interests before World War II was not communism and the USSR, but Poles and Jews. On the one hand, he was engaged in inciting national contradictions in Poland, on the other hand, in the fight against the Poles from among the subjects of the Reich. Already in the mid-1930s, he spoke out in favor of a ban on social relations between Germans and Poles, and in 1939-1940. carried out ethnic cleansing in the Polish lands annexed to Germany.

However, Oberlander did not like the Poles not just as such, but as Slavs - back in 1936, in the article “Demographic Pressure in the German-Polish Borderlands”, he wrote that “the rapid growth of the Slavic population is a serious threat to all of Europe.” At the same time, he spoke in favor of the liquidation of the assimilated Jews, in whom he saw the main carriers of Bolshevism. The Jewish property confiscated in Poland, Oberländer proposed to partially transfer to the Poles in order to improve their attitude towards the Germans. But at the top in Berlin they did not heed this proposal. It is these purely tactical disagreements that are sometimes inflated to fundamental contradictions in Western literature, primarily in the aforementioned book by Waks, where Oberländer appears almost as a Stauffenberg-type fighter against Nazism*.

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* Klaus Schenck von Stauffenberg (1907-1944) - Colonel of the Wehrmacht; one of the main participants in the "conspiracy of the generals", which culminated in an unsuccessful attempt on Hitler's life on July 20, 1944. Stauffenberg was shot along with a group of associates. - Red.

However, in modern German, British and American studies, a lot is also reported about the Nazi activities of Oberländer, about his racist views. Excerpts from these works are also abundantly presented in articles about him in the English and German versions of Wikipedia.

And the fact that Ukrainian historians - the defenders of "Nachtigal" stubbornly do not see these qualities in the political leader of the battalion, is just a convincing argument in favor of distrust of their arguments about the non-involvement of this Abwehr unit in crimes.

Published documents show that the “warriors” of “Nachtigal” are obviously involved in the pogroms in Lvov in 1941, both as provocateurs and as perpetrators. But the extent of their specific guilt remains to be ascertained, as well as Oberländer's guilt: if the latter's defenders seek to present the crimes of his subordinates as unauthorized acts, this does not mean that it was so. It's just that this version is the most convenient for whitewashing the battalion's political instructor.

SS men are the organizers. And who are the performers?

As for the murder of Polish professors, it was undoubtedly a German action. However, defenders of the nationalists are deceiving when they claim that the leading Polish researcher of this problem, Zygmunt Albert, proved that the Ukrainians were completely innocent of this. In fact, in his work, which is also in Russian, the following is said: “ Many Poles still mistakenly believe that Ukrainians committed the murder of professors. If this were so, then the Hamburg prosecutor would not have admitted after the war that this was the case of his compatriots - the Germans ... This prosecutor admitted that only the group of executioners consisted of Ukrainians, translators dressed in uniforms of the SS formation».

But Hannes Heer just wrote about the role of "Nachtigal" in providing the Gestapo with translators. Albert also shares the version widely spread in Poland that the professors were discovered on a tip from the nationalists:

« Many Poles wondered how the Germans got the list of professors sentenced to death. It doesn't matter much, since the names and addresses could be found at least in the pre-war telephone directory. One can, however, believe Walter Kutschman, who said Assoc. Lanckoronskaya that the list was given to the Gestapo by the Ukrainians. Fortunately, there were only 25 professors on the list. After all, only one university had 158 associate professors and professors ...

Based on the fact that the Gestapo on that July night was looking for those who died after the start of the war(i.e. after September 1, 1939 - A.P.): oculist prof. Adam Bednarsky and dermatologist prof. Roman Leshchinsky, it can be assumed that the list originated in Krakow. Due to the fact that Lviv was separated by the border, in Krakow they could not know who died after that. The most plausible version seems to be that the Krakow Gestapo, before the start of the German-Soviet war, demanded that Ukrainians, students or graduates of higher schools in Lvov, indicate the names and addresses of professors known to them. That's why the list was, fortunately, so relatively short.».

If this version, which is shared by most other Polish researchers, is correct, then there may well be “Nachtigalevites” among the killers' gunners.

But before the professors could be shot, they had to be arrested. An employee of the Polish Institute of National Remembrance, Stanislav Bogachevich, says that these warriors also arrested them, and believes that Oberlander's personal role in this needs to be clarified. Jacek Wilczur also writes about their participation in the arrests. It is also reported that in the spring of 2005, the Union of Descendants of Murdered Professors, in a letter to the then President Viktor Yushchenko, spoke of the soldiers of the battalion as participants in this crime. But what exactly the authors sought from the Ukrainian president and what answer they received is unknown.

Meanwhile, as Igor Melnik rightly emphasized in his speech, “ It’s my fault to know who you drove in ... I’m not dead, but we, we live, so that this doesn’t happen again».

But, alas, no attempts are made to find out the true role of "Nachtigal" in the events of that time. On the contrary, one gets the impression that this truth is not needed, while the mythology created under Yushchenko remained in service with some structures of the new government. After all, for example, a reprint of Vyatrovich’s apologetic article “How the legend of Nachtigall was created” cited here is presented on the website of the Ukrainian Embassy in the United States (both in Ukrainian and in English) in the “Pages of History” section (see below). Stopped time// "2000", No. 26 (564), 1-7.07.11).

" "

Hitler's spy machine. Military and political intelligence of the Third Reich. 1933–1945 Jorgensen Christer

Battalion "Nachtigal"

Battalion "Nachtigal"

In the autumn of 1940, with a lull on the Western Front due to uncertainty over Operation Zeleve (Sea Lion), the OKB/OKH began to develop a plan for an invasion of the USSR. In the winter of 1940/41, a new training camp was set up at Neuhammer, near Legnica. Partisan agents were recruited from the OUN and UPA detachments of Stepan Bandera, and they were led by the outstanding Ukrainian commander Skonprynka. Another source of replenishment was the Ukrainian composition of the Polish units, who went over to the side of the Germans during their invasion of Poland. The training course was particularly rigorous, and Skonprynka tirelessly emphasized that he was preparing soldiers for the liberation of the occupied homeland. The German command of the unit was represented by Lieutenant Albrecht Herzner and Professor T. Oberländer. The Abwehr named the division, in which many sang well, "Nachtigal", that is, "Nightingale". The name is beautiful, but not the case.

In June 1941, Nachtigal was assigned to special forces. On June 29-30, having heard about the planned reprisal against compatriots in the Lvov prison of the NKVD, the Nachtigall entered the battle until the Germans approached and held out for several hours. Like the Lithuanians, the Ukrainians naively believed that the Germans would grant independence to their country immediately after the expulsion of the Soviets.

They first announced the creation of an independent Ukraine when they seized a radio station in Lvov. The Germans immediately refuted this statement and reported that Western Ukraine was included in the General Government (what was left of Poland. - Ed.) Hans Frank. Morale in all Ukrainian units (created by the Germans), especially in Nachtigall, dropped noticeably, and the Germans decided to disband them.

An angry Oberländer, an expert on Ukraine and an ardent supporter of its independence, obtained an audience with Hitler and expressed displeasure at such a dismissive attitude towards Germany's valuable ally in the war against Stalin. The Fuhrer was not impressed by his arguments. Demonstrating ignorance and astounding stupidity, he said, “You don't understand what you're saying. Russia is our Africa, and Russians are our Negroes.” Struck by this answer, the professor returned to report to the commander of the Brandenburg regiment and blurted out in a fit of temper: "This is Hitler's concept, and with such a concept we will lose the war." Oberländer was not mistaken in his prediction.

Peter Vershigora, leader of the Soviet Ukrainian partisans and mortal enemy of both Germans and Ukrainian nationalists. Commanded thousands of partisans in Ukraine

At first, the only thing that saved the Germans in the East was that Stalin so set the Ukrainians against him by his actions - ruinous economic policy, mass repressions and deportations - that they were ready to serve the Germans even after the events of 1941. In the end, choosing between two evils, the Ukrainians, like the peoples of the Baltic states (some of those and others. - Ed.), preferred the one that did not know. Surprisingly, even a year later, 200-250 thousand Ukrainians served in the ranks of the German army and the SS (defending their common homeland, the USSR, 1,377,400 Ukrainians died in the ranks of the Soviet armed forces (including those tortured in captivity and other demographic losses). - Ed.) . As for the Balts, even after three years of humiliation and insults, they rushed in 1944 to help the SS units that defended their countries from the advancing Red Army (including from the 8th Estonian Rifle Corps and other formations. - Ed.).

Ukrainians warmly greet their German liberators from the "Stalin yoke" in August 1941. Their enthusiasm soon faded due to Hitler's colonial policy

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500th / 600th Airborne Battalion of the SS Troops

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257th Battalion of the Lithuanian Police The structure of all Lithuanian police combat units - detachments, platoons, battalions, regiments - was almost the same. Let's try to consider the history of formation, structure, armament and provision of Lithuanian police battalions

In the documents of the Abwehr, the formations that were being created were designated the Special Unit "Nachtigal" and the Special Unit "Roland", in the documents and historiography of the OUN (b) they are known as ("Group North" and "Group South", respectively) or "Ukrainian Legion named after Stepan Bandera" . Officially, the creation of battalions was authorized on February 25, 1941 by order of Admiral Canaris.

There is an opinion in Ukraine that Ukrainian nationalists fought for an independent Ukraine against the Soviet Union and against Nazi Germany. This is exactly the case when the territory of facts is replaced by the territory of not even interpretations, but direct lies. About this - this material of the former Minister of Education and Science, Youth and Sports of Ukraine, Doctor of Historical Sciences Dmitry Tabachnik.

***
By the time the ROA was created, the Nazi special services and the command of the Wehrmacht already had considerable experience in the formation and use of collaborationist military and police units in the war against the USSR on the basis of Ukrainian nationalist cadres. When organizing the Vlasov formations, the experience gained was widely used by them in the military, sabotage and reconnaissance, repressive and punitive and propaganda spheres. Based on this, the study of the history of the formations of Ukrainian nationalists created by the Germans in 1941 will make it possible to better understand the motives that guided the command of the Wehrmacht and the SS in relation to the Vlasov collaborators.

The largest units created by the Abwehr even before the start of the war with the USSR are battalions "Nachtigal" and "Roland"- special sabotage and reconnaissance units, consisting of members of the Bandera OUN.

In February 1941, the intelligence and communications officer of the OUN (b) Richard Yary began negotiations with representatives of the Abwehr on the training of several hundred Bandera militants. The outcome of negotiations involving Stepan Bandera, head of the Abwehr Admiral Wilhelm Canaris and Commander of the Ground Forces of the Wehrmacht Field Marshal Walther von Brauchitsch was an agreement on the training of 800 privates and commanders for operations in the rear of the Red Army after the outbreak of hostilities. In the documents of the Abwehr, the formations being created were designated the Special Unit "Nachtigal" and the Special Unit "Roland", in the documents and historiography of the OUN (b) they are known as Squads of Ukrainian Nationalists(“North group” and “South group”, respectively) or “ Ukrainian Legion named after Stepan Bandera". Officially, the creation of battalions was authorized on February 25 by order of Admiral Canaris.

The recruitment of personnel was carried out in Krakow, where the cadets underwent basic training and was carried out by the Abwehr according to the instructions of the authorized OUN (b). Specialized training took place in camps in occupied Poland and Germany, where initially those who were supposed to undergo enhanced sabotage and reconnaissance training were sent. There, the cadets were trained in minecraft, sabotage on transport and communication lines, and the technique of carrying out terrorist attacks. After training in the camps, the main part of the Nachtigal was transferred to Brandenburg, where training began in joint operations with the 1st battalion of the Brandenburg-800 special sabotage and reconnaissance regiment of the Abwehr. Commander of the 1st Battalion of the Brandenburg-800 Regiment, Major Friedrich Heinz exercised general leadership, chief lieutenant Hans Albrecht Herzner was a German commander of the Nachtigall, a Ukrainian commander from the OUN (b) Roman Shukhevych, coordination between the German command and the OUN (b) lay with the chief lieutenant Theodore Oberländer. It should be noted that Shukhevych, not being a German citizen and contrary to the Nuremberg racial laws, thanks to Canaris immediately received the rank of Hauptmann, which was a unique decision in the history of the Wehrmacht and showed the importance attached by the German command to the use of Ukrainian nationalists.

By the beginning of the summer of 1941, the Nachtigal was trained in the technique of conducting sabotage and reconnaissance work, staffed by German command personnel and received standard Wehrmacht uniforms. In turn, the Ukrainian commanders of the "Roland" were first Richard Yary, and then Yevgen Pobigushchiy, who also received the rank of Hauptmann.

The sabotage groups that graduated by the end of May " Nachtigall” were transferred to Soviet territory by mid-June. They were tasked with mining military installations, sabotage on transport and communication lines, and carrying out terrorist acts against the command staff of the Red Army. The main part of the battalion, which was under operational control of the command of the 1st battalion of the Brandenburg-800 regiment, was transferred to the offensive line in the Przemysl region by June 21. He was to carry out sabotage operations in the forward echelon of Army Group South. On June 22, at 3 o'clock in the morning, the 1st battalion and Nachtigal crossed the border on the San River and began to advance towards Lvov. However, with the exception of previously abandoned sabotage groups, the battalion performed mainly purely punitive functions - it destroyed all those suspected of disloyalty to the OUN (b), the families of the Red Army soldiers who did not have time to evacuate, specialists of the national economy sent from the East of Ukraine, Jewish and, to a large extent, Polish population.

June 29, immediately after the entry of "Nachtigal" into Lviv, they organized the destruction of the Polish intelligentsia, including 38 professors from Lviv University.The lists for destruction were drawn up in advance and differed in detail, up to the presence of the home addresses of future victims and their relatives. Also, on the personal instructions of Shukhevych, massacres of Jews and all those suspected of having a negative attitude towards Ukrainian nationalism began. According to various estimates, the total number of victims varies from 3 to 4 thousand. In the end, the killings reached such an unplanned scale by the Germans that the German command considered it necessary to relocate the Nachtigal to Ternopil in 10 days, from where it began moving along the Proskurov-Zhmerinka-Vinnitsa route . As before, Nachtigal practically did not perform sabotage and reconnaissance functions and was actually used as an Einsatzgruppen. Along the route, the Nakhtigalevites carried out punitive actions, including the total destruction of the Jewish population.

« Roland"operated on the southern segment of the front, on the Romanian border. Due to the less successful advance of the German-Romanian troops, he entered the territory of the Ukrainian SSR only in July 1941 and did not engage in sabotage and reconnaissance work at all. During the advance to Odessa, the battalion, like the Nachtigal, performed exclusively punitive functions.while also carrying out the mass extermination of the Jewish population. In October, "Roland" was in the city of Balta, Odessa region, where he shot the remaining Jews and a significant part of the civilian population of other nationalities.

At the end of October, both battalions were transferred to Frankfurt an der Oder, where they began training their personnel to carry out security police functions and counterguerrilla warfare. In November 1941, Nachtigal and Roland were reorganized into the 201st Schutzmannschaft Battalion, the first of the seven Ukrainian Schutsmannschaft Battalions that were later formed.The motives for the actions of the German command, which led to the disbandment of the special forces and their transfer from the subordination of the Abwehr to the Reichsführer SS Himmler, are quite obvious. "Nachtigal" and "Roland" did not live up to the expectations of the Wehrmacht command in sabotage and reconnaissance work, but showed the ability to perform the functions of Einsatzgruppen.

On November 25, with the personnel of the battalion, the conclusion of individual contracts for service for a period of 1 year began - from December 1, 1941 to December 1, 1942. After completing training, about 700 soldiers and 22 officers of four companies of the 201st Schutzmannschaftbattalion were transferred to Belarus, where the battalion came under the command of the SS-Obergruppenführer, the general of the SS troops and the police Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski - Chief of Police of the "Central Russia" sector. The battalion was led by a Hauptmann Evgen Pobiguschiy, and his deputy and commander of one of the companies became Roman Shukhevych. In the spring and winter of 1942, the battalion took part in actions against partisans and punitive operations on the territory of Belarus. On September 29, the battalion suffered the greatest losses - 27 soldiers and officers.

During the 9 months of their stay in Belarus, the 201st Schutzmannschaftbattalion lost 49 people killed and 40 wounded, destroying, according to its own data, more than 2000 partisans. However, according to the available archival documents of the partisan movement, the partisans during this period in the zone of operations of the battalion suffered significantly lower losses and there is no doubt that the overwhelming majority of the so-called “destroyed partisans” are civilians. Among other war crimes, the battalion completely annihilated the Jewish population in its zone of operations. For success in the fight against partisans, the officers of the battalion Brilinsky, Maly and Gertsyk were awarded medals, and the entire personnel of the battalion was awarded the badge "For the fight against partisans". At parting with the personnel, General Bach-Zelewski emphasized that the battalion coped with the partisans better than any of the units subordinate to him.

After the expiration of the contract, the battalion was transferred to Lvov from December 5, 1942 to January 14, 1943. In future, all who served in it took command positions in the division SS "Galicia" and UPA . So, perishing became in 1944 the commander of the 1st battalion of the 29th grenadier regiment of the SS division "Galicia" and received the title of SS Sturmbannfuehrer, and Shukhevych headed the UPA created with the assistance of the Abwehr.

Also among the Ukrainian collaborationist formations it should be noted the so-called "kurens" - units of the Ukrainian auxiliary police, which later became the basis for the formations of the Schutzmannschaftbattalions. The first, in early August 1941, was the Bukovina kuren. Kuren was formed by agreement of the head of the OUN (m) Andrey Melnyk with the command of the Wehrmacht, which provided funding and weapons. Melnikov was appointed commander of the Bukovina kuren Peter Voinovsky, who later led the Schutzmannschaftbattalion and received the rank of SS Sturmbannfuehrer. Kuren joined the so-called "marching groups" of the OUN (m), which were sent with the sanction of the German command to the occupied territories of Ukraine to organize collaborative administration and police bodies. "Marching groups" acted under the leadership of prominent nationalists Omeliana Senika and Mykola Stsiborsky, and after their murder on August 30 in Zhytomyr by Bandera - Olesya Kandyby-Olzhicha and Zybachinsky.
Bukovina kuren was also considered as a reserve of leading personnel for the collaborationist administration, which was subsequently implemented. A significant part of the command staff of the kuren occupied leadership positions in it - for example, company commander Orest Masikevich became burgomaster of Nikolaev.

In August, the kuren carried out the destruction of the Jewish population and Soviet prisoners of war in the territory of Bukovina. In September, the Bukovinians arrived in Kyiv, where they carried out executions in Babi Yar, including the mass extermination of Jews on September 29-30, during which more than 33 thousand civilians were killed. Together with the Bukovinians, the Kievsky Kuren, a unit of the Ukrainian auxiliary police created in September under the command of a Melnikovite, also participated in the executions at Babi Yar Peter Zakhvalynsky.

In November, the Bukovinian and Kyiv kurens were disbanded, and on their basis the Kyiv auxiliary police under the command of Zakhvalynsky, as well as the 115th and 118th Schutzmannschaftbattalions, were created. These security police battalions were sent by the German command to carry out punitive operations in Belarus, where they distinguished themselves with particular cruelty even in comparison with the German Einsatzgruppen. So, it was the 118th Schutzmanshaftbattalion of Ukrainian nationalists that destroyed the village Khatyn along with all residents.

In conclusion, the following should be noted - nationalist collaborationism is not only not condemned by the leadership of Ukraine, but is also presented as a model of patriotism. It is symbolic that Shukhevych was awarded the title of Hero of Ukraine by presidential decree. This decision, as well as the praise of other nationalist collaborators, including "Nachtigall", "Bukovinsky kuren", SS division "Galicia", UPA - cannot be an internal affair of Ukraine. This is not a local domestic political phenomenon. For the first time since 1945, at the highest state level, an attempt is being made to revise the results of the Second World War and, not only to rehabilitate, but also glorify the criminal organization of the SS, crimes against humanity and the criminal ideology of national totalitarianism in general. Their criminality is established legally - by the decisions of the Nuremberg International Tribunal, which are an integral part of the current system of international law. This is the first time Europe has faced such a challenge and there is no doubt that the answer should not be based on emotions, but on the provisions of international law.

The fact that semi-official media and historians constantly refer to the alleged rehabilitation of Vlasov in Russia makes the actions of the Ukrainian authorities particularly cynical. At the same time, it is silent that only marginal organizations and politicians are trying to rehabilitate Vlasovism, which immediately receives a proper assessment of state authorities and in this respect the creation of a commission under the President of Russia to counter attempts to falsify history is indicative. At the same time, in Ukraine we are talking about a consistent state policy of “collaborationist reconquista”, and conferring the title of Hero of Ukraine on criminals against humanity, the construction of memorials to the SS men and executioners of the OUN-UPA are tools for creating a totalitarian system with Russophobic, anti-Semitic and anti-Orthodox elements.
Based on materials from the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies, Segodnya.ru 2010
***
Created by the Germans, acting under the leadership of the Germans, in the interests of the Germans, side by side with the Germans, the detachments can be called fighters for the independence of Ukraine only in present-day Ukraine, where the heirs - direct and spiritual - of Shukhevych, Bandera and other fascist scum are in power.
______________________
In the previous one:
- German historians: "In the archives of Germany there is no documentary evidence of the military operations of the OUN-UPA units against the units of the Nazi army."
Further:
= =

Hans Albrecht Herzner
Lieutenant Theodor Oberländer (German Theodor Oberländer) - direct management.
Ukrainian leadership: Roman Shukhevych

Special unit (battalion) "Nachtigal"(German Nachtigall - Nightingale), also known as group "North" The squad of Ukrainian nationalists is one of two armed units formed mainly from members and supporters of the OUN (b) and trained by the military intelligence and counterintelligence agencies of Nazi Germany, the Abwehr, for operations on the territory of the Ukrainian SSR as part of the Brandenburg 800 sabotage unit (German. Lehrregiment "Brandenburg" z.b.V. 800) during Operation Barbarossa.

According to the plans of the OUN (b), Squads of Ukrainian nationalists were to become the basis of the future army of Ukraine, allied to the armed forces of the Third Reich (Wehrmacht). The creation of the unit was authorized on February 25, 1941 by the leader of the Abwehr, Wilhelm Canaris. Sabotage groups Nachtigall were transferred to the territory of the Ukrainian SSR before the start of World War II, while the main part of the battalion crossed the border of the USSR on June 22, 1941 and acted together with German troops along the route Przemysl - Lviv - Ternopil - Proskurov - Zhmerinka - Vinnitsa. In October 1941, "Nachtigal" and "Roland" were relocated to Frankfurt an der Oder, sent for retraining for use as parts of the security police, after which at the end of the same year they were reorganized into the 201st security police battalion.

background

History of creation

The creation of "Nachtigal" was the result of the implementation of the policy of the OUN (b), aimed at training their own military personnel. Agreements on the formation of the Ukrainian legion in the German army were reached during negotiations with the Abwehr in February 1941. Mobilization in the legion was carried out by the leaders of the OUN, who formed it from members of their organization who lived at that time in German-occupied Poland. The mobilized OUN members were divided into two parts, which appear in Ukrainian documents as squads of Ukrainian nationalists (groups "North" and "South"), in the documents of the Abwehr they received the code names " Special department Nachtigal" and " Organization Roland».

"Nachtigal" was trained in the Abwehr camps on the territory of the General Governorate.

The largest group of one hundred volunteers was trained in the city of Krinitsa. From the members of this group, the Soloveyko choir was created, the name of which became the reason for the German name of the future battalion - Nachtigal.

Personnel training

Recruitment to "Nachtigal" passed through Krakow, where "legionnaires" received basic training. Recruitment took place in accordance with the directives and instructions of the OUN. Specialized training was already taking place in various camps both on the territory of the governor-general (Kamancha, Barvinok, Krynytsya, Dukla, Zakopane) and in Germany (Brandenburg) - where those who were supposed to undergo sabotage training were initially sent. In the camps on the territory of the General Government, the "legionnaires" were disguised as representatives of the Labor Service ("Arbeitsdinst").

According to the information given in the work of the Institute of History of the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, there were about 50 “cadets” in the Barvinok camp, about 100 in Krinitsy, more than 100 people were sent to Brandenburg to train in sabotage. Saboteurs were trained in minecraft, sabotage in transport and communications. Their training was completed earlier than the main group.

After training in the camps, the main part of the Nachtigal was transferred to Brandenburg, where he began to undergo combat coordination and training in joint operations with the 1st battalion of the Brandenburg 800 regiment, under whose leadership he was to operate on the territory of the USSR. Major Friedrich Wilhelm Heinz (German: Friedrich Wilhelm Heinz) exercised general leadership as commander of the 1st Battalion of the Brandenburg 800 regiment, Lieutenant Hans-Albrecht Herzner (German: Hans Albrecht Herzner) was the direct German commander, Roman was the highest Ukrainian commander Shukhevych (OUN sources list his position as "political educator"), coordination between the Ukrainian unit and the German leadership lay with Oberleutnant Theodor Oberlander. By the beginning of the summer of 1941, the Nachtigal was trained and staffed by command personnel, which was almost entirely represented by the Germans. The uniform was standard for parts of the Wehrmacht.

Operation Barbarossa

The sabotage detachments of the "Ukrainian Legion" who graduated by the end of May were transferred to the territory of the USSR by mid-June 1941. They were tasked with mining military installations, sabotage in transport, damage to means and communication lines. The main part of the battalion, which was subordinate to the 1st battalion of the Brandenburg-800 regiment, was transferred to the offensive line in the Przemysl region by June 21, 1941, it was to carry out sabotage and combat operations in the forward echelon of the 1st mountain division of the XXIV Army Corps 6 th Army of the Army Group "South".

On June 22, 1941, at 3 o'clock in the morning, the 1st battalion and Nachtigal crossed the border onto the river. San and began actions to overcome the border UR, in which the Nachtigal itself was not involved. After breaking through the Soviet defense line, the unit advanced in the direction of Lvov.

Around midnight on June 29, the Ukrainian part of the unit receives information about executions in Lvov prisons (before leaving Lvov, NKVD officers shot 2464 prisoners in prisons). As a result, it was decided to arbitrarily enter Lviv, while occupying the railway station, power station, radio station and other important objects of the city.

Participation in the Lviv events in June-July 1941

The date of entry of the combat group into Lvov is indicated by the commander of the 1st battalion, Heinz, as "night of June 29"- while in various publications of the post-war OUN, the entry date is June 30 - although even J. Stetsko himself points out that he and S. Bandera were already in Lviv on June 29 and the radio station was already busy.

The events that took place between the Nachtigall's entry into Lviv and its relocation to Ternopil on July 7-9 are described differently in various sources. According to some sources (which coincides with the position of the OUN), from July 1, the Nachtigall fighters received a week's leave and were engaged in personal affairs, while the XXIV Army Corps continued to move eastward with battles.

Post-war assessment of events

A number of works, primarily by Polish historians, indicate the participation of the Nachtigall personnel in the destruction of the Polish intelligentsia. Others - official Ukrainian historians refute the fact of the participation of the battalion in these events.

The results of the activities of this commission were checked and confirmed by the International Tribunal in Nuremberg at meetings on February 15 and August 30, 1946. In particular, the chief prosecutor from the Soviet side, Prosecutor General R. Rudenko, speaking at the trial, said:

“Even before the capture of Lvov, the Gestapo detachments had lists compiled by order of the German government of the most prominent representatives of the intelligentsia destined for destruction. Immediately after the capture of Lvov, mass arrests and executions began.

The same speech noted:

"The murders of Soviet citizens were not committed by random bandit groups of German officers and soldiers, but in accordance with approved plans by German military units, police and SS" .

Another Soviet prosecutor, L. Smirnov, drew attention to the fact that the Germans killed people according to lists prepared in advance.

KGB document on the compromise of Oberländer and the Nachtigal Battalion

The court in absentia, held in the GDR, convicted Oberländer as guilty of the execution of the Polish intelligentsia of Lvov, as well as the murders of several thousand Lvov Jews (see Holocaust in Lvov). A parallel trial, held in Germany, Oberländer was acquitted and rehabilitated.

According to the conclusions of the government commission to study the activities of the OUN and UPA, established in 1997 by order of the President of Ukraine Leonid Kuchma, the killings were the work of the SD and a nationalist-minded unorganized mob.

The historian, a native of Western Ukraine Vitaliy Maslovsky, cites in his book the words of the scientist and public figure from the GDR A. Norden, which he said at a press conference in Berlin on October 22, 1959, that the entire Nachtigal, the Brandenburg 800 regiment , field gendarmes and units of the Regional Executive of the OUN (b) destroyed from July 1 to July 6, 1941, about three thousand Soviet activists, as well as Lviv residents of Polish and Jewish nationalities.

Historian B. Sokolov, referring to the results of a hearing in the US Congress in 1954, claims that the Nachtigal was withdrawn from the city in order to avoid excesses due to disagreements over the future of Ukraine that arose between the leadership of the OUN (b) and the German command, and, accordingly, "Nachtigal" had nothing to do with the extermination of Jews and the Polish intelligentsia of Lvov that began later.

Further battle path

July 7 "Nachtigal" began redeployment from Lviv to Ternopil - the first company departed, and 8 and 9 left the city and the remaining two. On July 9, the main part of the battalion entered Ternopil. On July 13, the battalion crossed the old Soviet-Polish border and reached Proskurov on July 14. Further through Zhmerinka, by July 16, they reached Vinnitsa.

One of the Ukrainian members of the "Nachtigal" in his autobiography, written for the Security Council of the OUN (b), indicates the events that accompanied the passage of the detachment through the territory of the Ukrainian SSR:

During our march, we saw traces of the Jewish-Bolshevik terror, this strengthened our hatred of the Jews so much that in two villages we shot all the Jews we met.

Similar events took place in several villages of the Vinnitsa region.

During a two-week vacation in the town of Yuzvin, the battalion servicemen, together with OUN marching groups, carried out active nationalist propaganda and organized a local administration. There they also learned about the arrests of OUN(b) leaders. In this situation, Shukhevych sent a letter to the High Command of the Wehrmacht, in which he indicated that "as a result of the arrest of our government and leader, the legion can no longer be under the command of the German army"

On August 13, 1941, Nachtigal received an order to relocate to Zhmerinka, where the soldiers were disarmed at the railway station (weapons were returned at the end of September), while leaving personal weapons to the officers. After that, under the protection of the German gendarmerie, they were transported to Krakow, and then to Neuhammer (modern Sventoszow in Poland), where the battalion arrived on August 27. At the same time, according to information from the protocol of interrogation (dated December 23, 1948) of translator Yakov Kravchuk, at the beginning of September 1941, field post 11333 in the city of Zhitomir, Shukhevych, was negotiating with her chief Captain Fairbeck about sending "Nachtigal" to the rear of the Soviet troops. At the end of September, these negotiations continue in Kyiv, but the Germans do not agree with such a proposal.

In October 1941, the Nachtigal and Roland battalions were transferred to Frankfurt an der Oder. On October 21, 1941, the Ukrainian personnel of the Nachtigal were merged with the personnel of the Roland battalion and sent for retraining for use as part of the security police. The soldiers of this joint unit were asked to conclude a contract for a period of one year (from December 1, 1941 to December 1, 1942) to serve in the security police. Only 15 people refused to sign the contract, after which they were sent to labor camps. The signatories of the contract constituted the 201st security police battalion (Schutzmannschaft) and carried out anti-partisan operations on the territory of Belarus.

On December 1, 1942, the one-year contract of the battalion servicemen expired, however, none of them agreed to sign a new contract. After that, the unit was disbanded, and its former soldiers and officers began to be transferred in parts to Lvov.

see also

Comments

Notes

1. , Sec. 1. - S. 56−57. .
2. Lenkavsky S. Squads of Ukrainian nationalists in 1941-42 - Munich, 1953. (Ukrainian)
3. Bentzin, Hans. "Division Brandenburg - Die Rangers von Admiral Canaris" − edition ost - Das Neue Berlin Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, 2.Aufl. 2005 (2004). (German)
4. Viatrovych V. How the legend of Nachtigall was created // Website ZN.UA of the newspaper “Zerkalo Nedeli. Ukraine” (gazeta.zn.ua), February 15, 2008.
5. Dmitrichenko S. The truth about Nachtigall (translated from Ukrainian by V. Bikineev) = The truth about Nachtigall (Ukrainian) // Ukrainian national portal "ARATTA" (www.aratta-ukraine.com). - 02/06/2008.
6. Bilas I. Repressive-punitive system in Ukraine. 1917−1953 - Kiev: Libid-Viysko Ukraine, 1994. - Vol. 2. - S. 242. - ISBN 5-325-00599-5. (ukr.)
7. Draw from the history of political terror and terrorism in Ukraine XIX-XX centuries. Institute of History of Ukraine of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, 2002 section XI p. 589
8. Romaniv O., Fedushchak I. Trans-Ukrainian tragedy 1941. - Lviv-New York: 2002. - S. 368, 380, 394. - ISBN 966-7155-59-5. (ukr.)
9. , S. 59. .
10. , Ch. 2., S. 420. .
11. , p. 210.
12. The Security Service of Ukraine had public historical rumors “The call against the Nakhtigal is historical truth and political technology” // © SBU website (www.sbu.gov.ua) 02/06/2008. (ukr.)
13. Document No. USSR-6/1
14. IMT, German edition - Vol. 7. - S. 540−541
15. the legend of Nachtigall
16. Quoted for the record Dovidka about the call of Roman Shukhevych and the warriors of "Nakhtigalya" at the mass battles near Lvov in 1941 from the messages on p. 32-33 appointment
17. Nuremberg trials of the main German war criminals. Collection of materials in seven volumes. Edited by G. & nbsp; A.   Rudenko.   - M.: Gosjurizdat, 1957. & nbsp; - T. 4. & nbsp; - from 66, 67.
18. name = "Lembergmassacre" > The Lviv Massacre
19. Artyom Krechetnikov. Four myths about Stepan Bandera BBC Russian Service, 02/28/2013
20. Gogun A. Between Hitler and Stalin. Ukrainian rebels. - St. Petersburg. Publisher: "Neva", 2004. - ISBN 5-7654-3809-1 - p.46−47.