Posted on 04/28/2014 8:30:11 AM PDT by kronos77
Ukrainian nationalists in western Ukrainian city of Lviv have held a rally in commemoration of a Nazi SS division created in 1943, despite a ban asking them to stop.
One attendee said "This march is to commemorate the Galician division, which had nothing to do with the divisions of the Waffen SS. Their oath of allegiance was for Ukraine. They are our heroes and that is why we honour them every year."
A woman shouts to the crowd during the Lviv rally. Credit: APTN Past marches have led to clashes between marchers and Soviet army veterans and left-wing groups.
Also called the Galician division, the group was formed to exclusively fight "Bolsheviks", but it still creates tension between political groups and affiliations today.
Really tough call for the Ukrainian people back then.
Fight for Hitler or fight for Stalin.
Not exactly an easy choice.
Looks modest compared to the 2013 celebration.
http://news.yahoo.com/ukraine-divided-over-wwii-legacy-100702056.html
I have a book on that Division buried somewhere in my collection.
Looking at the available photographs of 14th SS “Galicia” Division, their uniform seems to be a curious mix. Their officers’ caps bore the eagle gripping the swastika, and the “Death’s Head” emblem. The arm sleeves also bore the eagle/swasitka empblem. However, the collars did not display the SS runes common to the other Waffen SS units. Many of the divisional emblems were Ukrainian nationalist in appearance.
I’d say this division was primarily composed of western Ukrainian nationalists who despised the Soviet Union, and no doubt also had a strong anti-semitic character. A number of the same sort of people served the Germans in the death camps.
The division had a good combat record despite the Soviets belief they were a weak spot in the German line. Most of the division was destroyed along with the rest of German 13th Army Corps in the Brody pocket in July 1944.
from Russian TV ?
Celebrating Lenin or Stalin any better?
Ooops. I don’t think you want to play this game:
1. Its from ITV
2. Never, ever a man with sound mid will compare Hitler and nazis with anything. They were the worst of the wort. Murderers. Ukrainian nazis raped and killed 100,000 Poles in WWII with several hundred thousands Jews and Russians.
We understand in retrospect what a terrible choice they had.
The unit was the 14th SS Waffen Grenadier Division "Galizien". It was definitely a Waffen SS unit.
“The division had a good combat record despite the Soviets belief they were a weak spot in the German line.”
Their superiors found them lackluster”
“These Ukrainians are soft inside and fickle, and lack much in comparison to fighting German soldiers.”
~ Heinrich Himmler
“Either the unit is reliable or it isn’t reliable. At the moment I can’t even create new formations in Germany because I have no weapons. Therefore it is idiocy to give weapons to a Ukrainian division which is not completely reliable.”
~ Adolf Hitler
http://www.axishistory.com/axis-nations/1295-14-waffen-grenadier-division-der-ss-ukrainische-nr-1
From the MREs sold off into the black market and the turning over of bases, vehicles, weapons and material in the East, Hitler’s successors in title might have been advised to study up on their catspaws.
Yes and three biggest mistakes Hitler made when he invaded the USSR were:
1) Not providing his troops with winter clothing.
2) Not taking Moscow when it was doable.
3) Not treating well the local populations who were severely brutalized under the Soviet regime.
Had Hitler studied Napoleon as carefully as he studied Frederick the Great, he probably would have avoided invading the USSR altogether.
I think the single biggest mistake he made was declaring war on America. He should have issued a weaselly statement about supporting Japan in its struggle against Western Imperialism and left it at that.
I’m sure you know the SS had stringent recruitment standards leading up to the war: Height, `racial purity, no fillings in teeth, etc. By late `44 those standards were a lot lower. Hitler was confounded to learn that there was an Indian SS battalion, using resources but not doing much but R&R.
Which isn’t to say the Galicians didn’t fight well, they did but they weren’t even close to the 1st SS, the Liebstandardte or Peiper’s `Blowtorch Battalion’.
A lot of foreign SS were fighting as late as the battle for Berlin, not wanting to surrender.
Did the Galicians get the blood-type tattoos under their left arms, do you know? Often that’s how the Allies ID’d SS, and some were immediately shot by the Soviets.
The article I read indicated they resisted bitterly and desperately in the Brody Pocket. Some of the German attitude may be directed toward low standards of discipline, which was common in their volunteer units. And also to the general German tendency to look down on other races (although they had great respect for the Finns and the Spaniards of the “Blue Division.”)
But I would expect that when encircled, the Galicians would fight hard. There was no place to retreat/run away to, and capture was not an option.
I think that you're absolutely correct, re: Godwin's law.
But, I also think that history is extremely instructional. For instance, I recently finished Churchill's "The Gathering Storm" - his memoir covering the early 30s to 1941. It reads like something straight from today's headlines, with Obama playing the part of Chamberlain, and Putin playing the part of Hitler.
Truly, there's nothing new under the sun. Pols (and a whole lot of others who never bother to crack a history book) would do well to rememeber that, IMO.
Pols = Politicians. For clarification...
Yup, another idiotic move that had no rhyme or reason.
It was dumb enough to take on the gigantic USSR.
But taking on the world’s largest industrial nation, well beyond the reach of his panzer divisions and air force was simply insane.
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