This is House of History for the Armchair Historian. In my 3-part series for the Armchair
Historian website I will cover Ukraine and the Balkans during the Second World War. Now,
this is an incredibly difficult topic to tackle - the emphasis in this series will be on the
German intelligence presence and missions in this area.
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The Nightingale commandos were a Ukranian unit of volunteers that fought for the Germans
during the Second World War. Now, most of Ukraine had been under Soviet yoke ever since
the aftermath of the First World War and subsequent Ukraine-Soviet war. By 1926, more or less,
the entire country was under Soviet rule. During the 1930s Stalin embarked on a collectivization
campaign. It was mismanaged to the degree that most of Western territories under Soviet
control suffered one of the worst famines of history. Suppressed by Soviet historians,
the Holodomor, as it was called, was one of the deadliest episodes in Ukrainian history
with an estimated death toll of between 3 and 6 million civilians.
The aversion towards the Soviets created through this debacle was one of the assets the Germans
used at the outset of the Second World War. In Western Ukraine, Galicia, the population
was torn between bloody Soviet oppression from the east or milder Polish suppression
in the west. So, initially, the German troops advancing rapidly into Ukraine during Operation
Barbarossa were welcomed as a protector.
Intelligence Assets
Many Ukrainians were willing to become intelligence assets for the Abwehr, the German intelligence
branch. Back in 1918, the Germans had put Ataman Skoropadsky in charge of the Pro-german
Ukranian administration. When the Germans retreated upon their loss of the First World
War, Skoropadsky was removed from power and he fled to Berlin, where he was financially
supported until 1937. Another intelligence asset the Abwehr hoped
would prove fruitful was the radical commander Yevhen Konovalets and his Organization of
Ukranian Nationalists. But… in 1938 Konovalets was killed in Rotterdam, by a bomb planted
by the NKVD, the Soviet intelligence apparatus. He was succeeded by Andrei Melnyk, but the
right-wing of the party rallied around Stepan Bandera. The OUN was split between moderates
and radicals from now on. While these factions had their differences,
both were on the payroll of the Abwehr. The Ukranian Insurgent Army, created by Bandera,
was set up in 1938. The camps they trained in were established by the Abwehr, outside
Berlin at an isolated holiday camp. After their training, they were then sent to an
Abwehr camp and taught sabotage for missions in Poland and Ukraine. Now, not just the Germans
funded these militants, but even the Japanese sent funds as there was a large Ukrainian
population in Manchuria. After all, their common foe was the Soviet Union.
There were hiccups and tests of the strength between Ukrainian partisans and Germans. Especially
when Hitler gave territory with a Ukrainian population to the Hungarians, or when he ceased
to fund the militant training schools after the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact between the Soviet
Union and Germany. Fortunately, the Abwehr could simply get the Japanese to take over
their tasks, and Ukranian partisans continued their training on German territory. As Operation
Barbarossa was launched, these partisans often went behind enemy lines to sabotage bridges,
communication lines, and liquidate Soviet partisans.
The Nightingale Commandos
In autumn 1940 the Germans were planning Operation Sea Lion in Western Europe - the invasion
of the United Kingdom. Whilst this was transpiring, the German high command also started plans
to invade the Soviet Union in what would become known as Operation Barbarossa.
In late 1940 a Ukrainian training camp was set up in Polish Silesia. The German high
command figured it was here they would train their elite units that would assist them with
invading the Soviet Union. Recruits that had been trained in Stepan Bandera’s Ukrainian
Insurgent Army now quartered there and new units were formed. Under the command of Roman
Shukhevych, the militants were subject to extreme training in preparation of the “liberation
of their homeland”. Other recruits came from Ukrainian troops that had deserted or
surrendered to the Germans after they invaded Poland.
It wasn’t an autonomous body of Ukrainian militants within Nazi Germany as you can probably
imagine - it was overseen by the Germans. The German military commander in charge of
the entire operation and training was Lieutenant Albrecht Herzner. The political officer of
the unit was Professor Theodor Oberländer, a man that actively propagated ethnic cleansing
of Slavic populations. The Abwehr named the unit after a famous Cossack
choir: from now on they were known as the Nightingale commandos.
Barbarossa
When in June 1941 the German attack into the Soviet Union, Operation Barbarossa commenced,
the Nightingales too flung into action. They, together with the Brandenburgers, the German
elite special forces, now rapidly advanced into Soviet territory. Often behind enemy
lines. During the night of the 29th of June, in a
coordinated action with Brandenburg units, the Nightingales received information about
a massacre inside the Lviv prison in Ukraine. The NKVD, Soviet secret service, was executing
Ukrainian prisoners en-masse before their retreat. The commandos advanced into Lviv,
overtaking large parts of the city. That night, they overtook the Lviv radio station on the
Vysoky Zamok hill - it was their first important objective they captured.
Now, just like the Lithuanians, the Ukrainians figured that in exchange for their support
for Nazi Germany, they would be granted their own independent, sovereign state. Nothing
was less true, however. As the radio station was captured Yaroslav Stetsko broadcast the
Declaration of Ukrainian Independence. The German high command was quick to denounce
any such state existed - no, Western Ukraine, now that it had been captured, was to be incorporated
into Hans Frank’s General Government of Poland.
The Ukrainians that had enthusiastically welcomed the Germans as liberators from Soviet oppression
quickly became disillusioned with their new occupiers. Within the Nightingale units disaffection
quickly spread and vocal opposition against the Germans became prevalent.
As for Professor Oberländer, a sympathizer with the Ukrainian national cause, he was
furious. He requested a personal meeting with Hitler right after the news became public
and scolded him for betraying Nazi Germany’s most useful ally in the war against the Soviet
Union. Hitler’s response is said to have been filled with obscenities and vulgar racism.
Not too surprising there. Oberländer was at a loss for words and returned to the Brandenburger
headquarters, where he reported to the commander. An excerpt from their conversation reads “That
is, sir, Hitler’s conception, and that, sir, is a conception which will lose us the
war”. Whilst initially the German response towards
the declaration of an independent Ukrainian state was straight out refusal, but not violent,
it didn’t take long for the Germans to change their approach. Within several days Yaroslav
Stetsko and Stepan Bandera, were transported to Berlin where they were incarcerated in
Spandau Prison. Half a year later they were transferred to Sachsenhausen concentration
camp. Here they would remain until 1944 and the war more or less certainly lost for the
Germans. They were released in a last-ditch attempt to rouse the Ukrainians up against
the Soviets, but to no avail.
Aftermath
In the end, Oberländer wasn’t too wrong about it being a tactical error to refuse
the Ukrainians their national state. Hitler made a crucial mistake by identifying the
Ukrainians with Stalin’s communist rule. It is an odd point of view considering the
extreme horrors and suffering the Ukrainian people lived under due to the Soviets. As
the war progressed, regardless of Hitler’s racism against the Ukrainian people, many
Ukrainians still chose the German, rather than the Soviet side. The crimes against humanity
and famine perpetrated by the Soviets simply put too big a dent in the collective Ukrainian
psyche. After the arrest of Stetsko and Bandera, surprisingly
enough, around 200.000 Ukrainians still served in the ranks of the German Army and SS. They
would continue to do so throughout the entire war, fighting against the much-hated Red Army.
As for the Nightingale unit, it was disbanded one month after the failed declaration of
an independent Ukraine. The Germans closed it down and parts of the battalion were transformed
into both police and regular battalions fighting for the Germans.
Of the many incredibly complex stories of nations during the Second World War, Ukraine
is definitely in the top bracket.
This was House of History for the Armchair Historian. If you want to check out the other
2 videos about Bulgaria, Romania and Yugoslavia during the Second World War, consider checking
out the Armchair historian website! There are many more exclusive history videos on
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