Ukrainian Auxiliary Police

Ukrainian Auxiliary Police
Maier, Dr. · CC BY-SA 3.0 de · source
Name	Ukrainian Auxiliary Police
Active	1941–1944
Allegiance	Nazi Germany
Type	Auxiliary police
Role	Security, anti-partisan operations, policing, deportations
Size	Tens of thousands
Battles	Operation Barbarossa, Holocaust in Ukraine, Babi Yar
Commanders	Wolfram von Richthofen (German oversight), Heinrich Himmler (SS authority)

Ukrainian Auxiliary Police The Ukrainian Auxiliary Police were local law enforcement formations established in territories occupied by Nazi Germany during World War II. Recruited from Ukrainian populations in areas of the Soviet Union, Poland, and Carpathian Ruthenia, these units operated under the supervision of the Ordnungspolizei, the Schutzstaffel, and German civil administrations such as the Reichskommissariat Ukraine. Their personnel participated in security operations, counterinsurgency, and actions against civilian populations during the Holocaust.

Formation and Organization

Following Operation Barbarossa in 1941, German authorities sought auxiliary forces to supplement Wehrmacht and Schutzpolizei units. Recruitment drew on individuals from regions including Kyiv, Lviv, Odessa, Kharkiv, and Vinnytsia. The formations were created under directives from Heinrich Himmler and coordinated by the Gendarmerie and the SS and Police Leaders assigned to occupied districts. Organization varied: in some districts units were attached to Ordnungspolizei battalions, in others to municipal police structures overseen by the Reichskommissariat Ukraine or local Einsatzgruppen branches. Leadership often combined local police chiefs with German officers and non-commissioned officers from the Schutzpolizei and the Sicherheitspolizei.

Roles and Responsibilities

The units performed domestic security, gendarmerie duties, and support tasks for German forces. Responsibilities encompassed patrolling urban centers such as Lviv and Kyiv, manning checkpoints on railways like the Lviv–Tarnopol corridors, guarding prisons and transit camps such as those connected with Westerplatte-era infrastructures, and conducting anti-partisan sweeps in regions around Volhynia and Bessarabia. They assisted Gestapo and Einsatzgruppen in identifying and deporting targeted populations to ghettos and extermination sites including Babi Yar and Belzec. Auxiliary units also provided manpower for forced labor transports to locations used by the Organisation Todt and for security during deportations organized by the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories.

Activities during World War II

From 1941 to 1944, members of these units were implicated in actions tied to the Holocaust in Ukraine and reprisals against civilians. In urban massacres such as Babi Yar (September 1941), auxiliary personnel assisted Einsatzgruppe C and local German police in cordoning and forcing victims to execution sites. In rural counterinsurgency operations, they participated in operations against partisan groups including engagements connected to Soviet partisans and clashes near Polesia and Carpathian foothills. In regions formerly part of Poland, auxiliaries took part in disarming and deporting Jewish populations from ghettos like Lwów Ghetto and in the liquidation of the Belzec extermination camp transit routes. Some detachments were involved in anti-partisan operations that intersected with events such as the Volhynia massacres, working alongside or in parallel with formations tied to the Ukrainian Insurgent Army and German security services.

Collaboration and Relations with Nazi Authorities

Relations with German authorities were hierarchical and controlled by SS leadership figures including Heinrich Himmler and regional SS and Police Leaders such as members drawn from Einsatzgruppen staffs. The auxiliaries operated under the nominal authority of the Ordnungspolizei and were integrated into security directives issued by the Reichskommissariat Ukraine and the General Government in occupied Poland. Collaboration ranged from administrative cooperation—issuing passes, policing occupational regulations—to active participation in genocidal policies alongside the Gestapo and Einsatzgruppen. German oversight involved training, equipment allocation, and punitive measures to enforce compliance; at the same time, local political dynamics, including ties to nationalist activists and groups around figures like Stepan Bandera and Andriy Melnyk, influenced recruitment and behavior.

Postwar Trials and Accountability

After World War II, Allied and Soviet authorities investigated crimes committed by auxiliaries. Trials took place in various venues including Nuremberg-linked proceedings, Soviet military tribunals in Kyiv and Lviv, and national courts in Poland and the United Kingdom where individual convicts were prosecuted for war crimes and participation in mass murder. Some members faced extradition and conviction, while numerous cases remained unresolved due to displaced persons flows, Cold War politics, and difficulties in documentation. Investigations by institutions such as the Israel-linked war crimes prosecutorial bodies, and later inquiries by national archives in Germany and Ukraine, sought to identify perpetrators tied to specific massacres like Babi Yar and deportation operations to Belzec.

Legacy and Historical Debate

The legacy of these formations remains contested in historiography and public memory across Ukraine, Poland, Russia, and Germany. Debates involve interpretations by scholars associated with institutions such as the Yad Vashem research unit, university departments at Harvard University and the University of Toronto, and historians publishing in journals like Holocaust and Genocide Studies. Controversies touch on motives of collaborators, the scale of participation, and the interplay between nationalism and coercion involving figures linked to movements around Stepan Bandera. Archival discoveries in repositories such as Bundesarchiv, State Archive of Ukraine, and Polish State Archives have fueled reassessments. Commemoration and legal reckoning vary: memorials at sites like Babi Yar coexist with contested nationalist narratives in post-Soviet politics, while continuing research aims to clarify responsibility and restore victims' histories.

Category:Collaboration during World War II Category:Occupation forces in World War II