According to George H. Stein’s study of the Waffen (Armed) ss, at the, end of World War ll, of its thirty-eight divisions, nineteen were com-i posed mainly of foreign recruits, numbering approximately 500,000 men. Eastern Europeans—Albanians, Belorussians, Bosnians, Bulgarians, Croats, Estonians, Hungarians, Latvians, Romanians, Russians, Ukrainians, and ethnic Germans from Eastern Europe—made up the largest contingent.
This memoir gives an account of the military engagements of the Ukrainian Division. It was a Western Ukrainian division whose members were from Galicia, an area between Cracow and about too kilometers east of Lviv that had once been the westernmost part of Ukraine. From 1772 it had been an Austrian province, and from 1918 to 1939 it was under Poland. In July 1941 eastern Galicia was incorporated into the German-administered Generalgouvernement. The first contingent of recruits to the Division came mostly from eastern Galicia and Kholmshchyna. Later recruits came from all parts of Ukraine and included Soviet army personnel from the German prisoner-of-war camps.
The Division was at first named ss-Freiwilligen-Division “Galizien” (ss Volunteer Division “Galicia” or “Galician”). From June 1944 it was known as the 14. Freiwilligen-Grenadier-Division der ss (galizische Nr. i) (14th Volunteer Grenadier Division of the ss, ist Galician), and also as the 14. Waffen-Grenadier-Division der ss (galizische Nr. i); then early in 1945 as ukrainische Nr. i (Ukrainian No. i); and finally, toward the end of the war, as the i. Ukrainische Division der Ukrainischen National-Armee (ist Ukrainian Division of the Ukrainian National Army). For the sake of simplicity, it is referred to throughout this book as the “Ukrainian Division” or simply “the Division.”
The staff of the Ukrainian Division consisted of the following departments: lA, tactical assignments, military engagements, personal matters among officers; iB, ammunitions supply, weaponry, transport; iC, counterintelligence, interrogation of prisoners, political control, censoring of correspondence; 2A and 2B, officer records, Nco records, and enlisted men’s records; 3, court martial for criminal and political matters; 4A, uniforms, food supplies; 4B, sanitation and medical; 4C, veterinary; 4D, dental; 5, automotive and mechanical; 6, chaplains, religious affairs, press, theater, radio. Under the direct authority of the Division commander were the officer staff office, the field gendarmerie, and the field hospital.
The author wrote this monograph in 1947, while in a British internment camp, on the basis of notes made in his war diary, maps, and personal memory. The original title of the manuscript was Sie wollten die Freiheit: Die Geschichte der Ukrainischen Division 1943-1945 (They Wanted Freedom: The History of the Ukrainian Division), published in German in 1973 under the same title. Fragments of the manuscript, such as the description of the Battle of Brody, were also published in the Ukrainian-language anthology Brody (Munich, 1951), and in Visti (News of the Brotherhood of Former Soldiers of the 1st Ukrainian Division of the Ukrainian National Army).
The manuscript was first published in Ukrainian in 1970 under the title Ukrainska dyviziia “Halychyna”: Istoriia formuvannia i boiovykh dii u 1943-1945 rokakh (The Ukrainian Division “Halychyna”: A History of Its Formation and Military Actions, 1943-1945), edited by Dr Volodymyr Ku-biiovych. The present English-language volume is based on this version. Most of the notes and appendices from the Ukrainian version have been retained and a more current bibliography added. The translation follows the modified Library of Congress system of transliteration and standard international and Ukrainian usage for place names.
The assistance of several individuals who contributed to the the publication of this memoir is gratefully acknowledged: Dr Myroslav Maleckyj, Lu-bomyr Szuch, and Oksana Smerechuk. Finally, Dr John Armstrong, the foremost authority on this period, was most gracious in reviewing the translation and in agreeing to provide an introduction to this volume.
World History
