Ukrainian Insurgent Army - UPA and Jews

UPA and Jews

There is a lack of consensus among historians about the involvement of the UPA in the massacre of Western Ukraine's Jews. Numerous accounts ascribe to the UPA a role in the fate of the Ukrainian Jews under the German occupation. Other historians, however, do not support the claims that the UPA was involved in anti-Jewish massacres.

Antisemitism did not play a central role in Ukrainian nationalist ideology, notwithstanding the antisemitic rhetoric that was obligatory in all countries occupied by Nazi Germany. German documents of the period give the impression that extreme Ukrainian nationalists were indifferent to the plight of the Jews; they would either kill them or help them, whichever was more appropriate for their political goals. According to specialist John Paul Himka, OUN militias were responsible for a wave of pogroms in Lviv and western Ukraine in 1941 that claimed thousands of Jewish lives. The OUN had earlier repudiated pogroms but changed its stand when the Germans, with whom the OUN sought an alliance, demanded participation in them. Recently declassified documents have shown that the OUN (Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists) was most likely not strongly involved in anti-Jewish activities in 1941.

The OUN pursued a policy of infiltrating the German police in order to obtain weapons and training for its fighters. In this role they helped the Germans to implement the Final Solution. Although most Jews were actually killed by Germans, the OUN police working for them played a crucial supporting role in the liquidation of 200,000 Jews in Volyn in the second half of 1942 (although in isolated cases Ukrainian policemen also helped Jews to escape ) Most of these police deserted in the following spring and joined UPA.

Jews played an important role in the Soviet partisan movement in Volhynia and participated in its actions. The Soviet partisans were known for their brutality, retaliating against entire villages suspected of working with the Germans, killing individuals deemed to be collaborators, and provoking the Germans to attack villages. UPA would later attempt to match that brutality.

By early 1943 the OUN had entered into open armed conflict with Nazi Germany. According to Ukrainian historian and former UPA soldier Lew Shankowsky, immediately upon assuming the position of commander of UPA in August 1943 Roman Shukhevych issued an order banning participation in anti-Jewish activities. No written record of this order, however, has been found. In 1944, the OUN formally "rejected racial and ethnic exclusivity" Nevertheless, Jews hiding from the Germans with Poles in Polish villages were often killed by UPA along with their Polish saviors, although in at least one case they were spared as the Poles were murdered.

Despite the earlier anti-Jewish statements by the OUN, and UPA's involvement in the killing of some Jews, there were cases of Jewish participation within the ranks of UPA, some of whom held high positions. Jewish participation included fighters, but was particularly visible among its medical personnel. These included Dr. Margosh, who headed UPA-West's medical service, Dr. Marksymovich, who was the Chief Physician of the UPA's officer school, and Dr. Abraham Kum, the director of an underground hospital in the Carpathians. The latter individual was the recipient of the UPA's Golden Cross of Merit. A claim exists that a Jewish woman, Stella Krenzbach, the daughter of a rabbi and a Zionist, joined the UPA as a nurse and intelligence agent. She is alleged to have written "I attribute the fact that I am alive today and devoting all the strength of my thirty-eight years to a free Israel only to God and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army. I became a member of the heroic UPA on 7 November 1943. In our group I counted twelve Jews, eight of whom were doctors." although her particular account has been dismissed as a hoax by several sources.

One Ukrainian historian has claimed that almost every UPA unit included Jewish support personnel. Many Jews, particularly those whose skills were useful to UPA, were sheltered by them. It has been claimed that UPA sometimes executed its Jewish personnel, although such claims are either uncorroborated or mistaken.

Soviet propaganda complained about Zionist membership in UPA and during the period of persecution of Jews in the early 1950s described the alleged connection between Jewish and Ukrainian nationalists .

One can conclude that the relationship between the UPA and Western Ukraine's Jews was complex and not one-sided.